Hangeul and Korea's Information Society

Tomorrow, it turns out, is the 563rd anniversary of the promulgation of Hangeul by King Sejong. An opinion piece in the Korea Times provides some interesting background, but I'd like to emphasize a bit more, in relation to the central focus of this blog.

• Because the Korean alphabet is so scientific and phonetic, it was an important factor in accelerating the uptake of computers, mobile phones and all sorts of digital electronic devices here.
• It is possible to type much faster on a hangeul computer keyboard than on a qwerty English keyboard--much faster! Just watch any reasonably skilled Korean typing and you'll see what I mean.
• Because Hangeul is alphabetic, it was conducive to the rapid development and growth of the graphics industry, which began back in the 1980's. Some of us remember when there were no Korean fonts, only calligraphy.
• Literacy is an essential requirement for the information society and Hangeul helped promote it in Korea. For years now, South Korea has had near-universal literacy.

On the occasion of Hangeul's 563rd anniversary, it is well to remember the above points. People from North America or Europe frequently lump the Korean alphabet in with Chinese and Japanese and assume that it is a pictographic writing system. To the contrary, it is alphabetic, scientific and an important factor in explaining the rapid digital development in Korea over the past three decades or so!

Happy New Year and an Update!

This is just a note to let readers of this blog know that I'm alive and well. In addition to my full-time work at the Fulbright Commission, I've been working on a book project.  Those of you who have written books or contemplate doing so know that it is an entirely different dynamic and medium than blog posting, magazine or print journalism.  I think the medium of the book, just like television, will be around for many years to come.  A far larger proportion of the books may be read over the internet or using electronic readers, but even the printed version will be preferred by some people for a long time to come.
Furthermore, the book I'm working on deals with Korea's efforts to build an information society, starting back in the 1980s.  Addressing this topic in a book, rather than other possible formats, has the advantage of forcing one to look at developments as an evolving historical process.
I'll be back to semi-regular posting soon.   Happy New Year!

Social Effects of New Communications: Digital Alzheimers?

The English edition of the Chosun Ilbo today carried news of a new malady, termed "digital Alzheimers."  A doctor with a large university hospital said, “There are no statistics, but the number of young workers who visit hospitals for forgetfulness counseling is definitely on the rise.”  Experts say more and more workers in their 20s and 30s suffer from forgetfulness due to the flood of information that assaults them in the office and their growing dependency on digital devices. Some seek treatment in hospitals when the symptoms get worse. Doctors even have a name for it: Digital Alzheimer’s Disease, a condition they say now afflict modern urbanites just like migraine or insomnia. Somehow, from my personal experience I can identify with the "flood of information" part of the argument, and also the increasing dependency on digital devices.   More on this one in later posts.

Measuring the Information Society: Korea's Broadband Network Ranks Number 1

A headline in the People's Daily Online caught my attention today. It read "South Korea's Broadband Network Most Developed." As with media coverage elsewhere in the world, this headline derived from a report issued by the International Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, an IT think-tank established in the United States in 2006. The mission of this think tank is to ". . . formulate and promote public policies to advance technological innovation and productivity internationally, in Washington, and in the states. Recognizing the vital role of technology in ensuring American prosperity, ITIF focuses on innovation, productivity, and digital economy issues."

In its report "Explaining International Broadband Leadership," ITIF released rankings that are based on three measures: broadband penetration, speed and price. This ranking places Korea solidly in first place, with Japan coming in second, and the United States ranking 12th. More interesting than the rankings per se is the analysis in the longer report of why countries rank as they do. For example, the report notes that because " . . . over 50 percent of South Koreans live in large, multitenant apartment buildings makes it significantly cheaper on a per-subscriber basis to roll out fast broadband there compared to the United States, where many people live in single-family suburban homes." With reference to Korea and the other leading broadband nations, the report notes that leadership, incentives, competition and demand-side policies are all important.

More on Net Neutrality and Conceptions of Cyberspace

Speaking as a long-term resident of South Korea, the current national debate in the United States about "net neutrality" seems strangely out of touch with the times. Here in Korea, full access to the internet, as with other digital communications services, is taken for granted as the right of every citizen. If someone were to suggest that this right should be taken away or curtailed, it would be loudly opposed by the majority of "netizens." This was not always the case. History teaches us that South Korea suffered major social problems and lagged behind most other countries of the world in basic telephone services until at least 1980. However, in the 1980s they implemented policies, invested heavily and worked hard to change the situation. The result: Korea has become a beacon for the rest of the world, showing the importance of broadly-based access to broadband internet. To make the point as sharply as possible, South Korea ended its debate about "net neutrality" over a quarter century ago. The networks they built then were electronically switched, with fiber optic backbones, and were not considered completed until they had reached a majority of the farming and fishing villages that characterize rural Korea. For information on what "net neutrality" means in the current U.S. debate, one can turn to Google. They have published a Guide to Net Neutrality for Google Users. There are many other sources of information about this issue, some of which will be mentioned and linked in future posts. However, at this point in time it would appear that the United States is experiencing a profound failure of telecommunications policy. By deferring to the private sector, led by the likes of Comcast, the United States is falling behind many other countries in the development of this century's "information society." In the emerging information age, those nations that invest in the free access to and free flow of information will benefit.

Communicating Korea's Telecommunications Accomplishments

In the naming and renaming of government ministries recently, the Ministry of Information and Communication was eliminated and its functions dispersed in three directions. Some of its functions were place in a new ministry, initially given the English name of "Ministry of the Knowledge-based Economy," and quickly changed to "Ministry of Knowledge Economy." Other functions go to the new Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, while still others will go to the new Broadcasting and Communications Commission. So, as matters stand, the terms information and communication, along with their variants, no longer find their place in a Ministry name. The problem here is the public, instantly global message this sends. Put otherwise, it is the challenge of properly "branding" and communicating South Korea's considerable achievements in the field of communications, telecommunications and information society development. Internationally, two aspects of this problem are apparent:

• As Suh Seung-Mo, the chairman of Korea IT SME & Venture Business Association,put it in a January 9, 2008 article in ZDNetKorea, "while competing foreign countries have been establishing IT related government organizations, Korea is likely to go back against this international trend. If so, it will discredit the Korean image of IT superpower that we have built."
• The major international organizations in this field, notably the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have adopted the terminology of "information" and "communication" as well. A glance at the ITU website will see the priority given to the World Summit on the Information Society and to information and communications technology and terminology generally. The OECD website is also loaded with information that uses this terminology. Both organizations, along with other international bodies, are concerned with the digital divide, the internet economy, the growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the shaping of a global information society.

The risk Korea takes in eliminating a ministry that contained both "information" and "communication" in favor of the Knowledge Economy Ministry, is that it it may detract from the nation's efforts to help shape the ongoing international dialogue and detract from the branding of Korea's information society efforts, broadly speaking. Readers internationally will immediately wonder what the new Ministries do and what is the significance of their names. Finally, as readers of this blog will know, I have been making a case that developments in information and communications technology (ICT), represented by Moore's law, underpin the emerging "information age" or "information society." Just as communication is the fundamental human process, ICT is the fundamental source of development in such diverse fields as biology, nanotechnology, medical sciences, energy infrastructure and artificial intelligence, to name a few. The issue of fundamental or basic, versus applied research is important and will be addressed in future posts.

Conceptions of Cyberspace and Korea's Vision

As the world moves more fully into the information age, Korea promises to be an important contributor to the shaping of that new environment. One of my goals for this blog and my wordpress blog on Korean telecommunications is to outline Korean ideas about cyberspace and to suggest where they fit in the global scheme of things. In order to consider the internet as a whole and the global picture, the work of Stanford Professor Lawrence Lessig over the past decade is essential background. A good starting point for any serious student of these matters would be to download and read each of his books. (from http://www.lessig.org/ ) In making these books available for personal use with a simple pdf file download, Professor Lessig is leading the Creative Commons effort by example, and what a fine example it is!