Korea and next generation of Internet

[Anonymous]

It's not entirely true that the internet in Korea functions as a free zone where any and all exchanges are welcome. In fact, some very draconian measures have been taken by the government to restrict access to sensetive information. In particular, when the Korean aid worker/missionary Kim Seon-il was beheded in Iraq, the Korean government blocked access to sites that hosted *or were related to sites that hosted* the video of his death. This included wholesale blocks of perfectly unrelated websites . . .and especially ones that that the expat and foreign community rely on. ALL sites hosted by blogger.com, for example, were completely blocked out. The government dragged its feet for several weeks before restoring access. So much for sensetivity.
Another difficulty the Korean internet community will have to overcome is using the juminbeonho or citizen id number as a requirement to log into sites. Effectively this restricts use of Korean websites to people of Korean citizenship only. Anybody trying to purchase goods, reserve a train ticket, sign up for a messenger or email service, or even just read message boards has to imput this number. Not a Korean national? Tough luck ~ even using your passport number or foreign registration number won't work.

However, overall Korea really has done an amazing job of maximizing the potential of the internet. High speed access is widely available, and very inexpensive. Broadband penetration is the highest in the world. All schools have computers and internet. Every town, no matter how small or remote, has at least one PC room. Younger Koreans are exceptionally computer literate, and virtually everyone has access. But there's much yet to be done, and Noh himself hasn't exactly practiced what he preaches.

[Anonymous]

The capabilities of technology are quite amazing. I recently tried to email the parent of one of my honors students and recieved in return an interesting question. The woman wanted to know who I am and also to tell me that she has three children but none by the name I mentioned. Apparently, I have a parent whose email address (her first and last name) is close enough to someone else's that I somehow sent an email to China. This other woman was incredibly nice to even answer the email and it was interesting to hear from someone in China. The world feels smaller.

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

I read up on Korea and its plan to improve the Internet in the country. The article also says that Korea is planning on narrowing the technological gap between the rich and the poor and allow for a better accessiblity of the internet. According to the article, "President Roh Moo-hyun said his government will connect ubiquitous technology to government administration and other social sectors so that Korea can serve as a benchmark to the world." This shows that the governement is very sensitive to the technological enviroment and is willingly to improve all aspects of this market.

Currently, the internet is omnipresent in most developed countries. This push to improve the internet even futher puts me in awe of the amazing capability of technology. Maybe one day in the near future, it is possible to develop an online language where everyone in the world can communicate with each other. I am also truly impressed by the freedom of internet in Korea. From my own knowledge, I know that Korea has a very advanced internet connection and also I think that the nation does not restrict the sharing of media such as movies and music. This type of freedom must have its pros and cons. Considering the government does not constantly track down violators of copyright rules, they can focus more on the development of a new generation of internet. Yet, the artists who are losing their share of the profit must also be upset. Maybe the new internet will have the capability of restricting illegal downloads if it is so advanced and powerful.

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