An Analysis of Korean National Information Strategy of IT839

Abstract

Recently, the Korean government launched the IT839 project with the objective of converting Korea into a ubiquitous information society. This study investigates the role of the Korean government in the development of the national information infrastructure and the realization of IT839 vision. This paper reviews the historic and individual data related to the infrastructure project, draws on the social construction of technology theory as a framework for interpreting such data, traces the transformations and translation of this data in the public, political, and social discourse, and discusses the next generation of information infrastructure. Findings imply that despite optimistic prospects and proactive drive, uncertainty still remains with respect to where IT839 will evolve and how it will impact the new information milieu.

E-Government and Bureaucratic Corruption in Nigeria: Successes and Challenges

“…(Graham, Hopper, Tsamenyi, Uddin, and Wickramasinghe, 2009) for example, suggested electronic delivery of services like electronic tax returns helps to reduce face-to-face interactions with public officials which helps to reduce corruption and human errors. This conclusion also tallies with that of (Shin and Kim, 2008) in their study which concluded that the use of ICT in the public sector and some other traditional anti-corruption measures con significantly reduce corruption through the minimization of unnecessary human interventions in public sector work processed. In a recent study by (Park and Kim, 2019), their findings also supported the positive relationship between e-government and reducing corruption based on the effectiveness of the rule of law.…”

Explaining International Broadband Leadership

“…82 Because of the close relationship between the South Korean government and the telecommunications industry, it is part of the business culture to listen to the government. 83 Moreover, the fact that the government was a major stakeholder in KT (formerly known as Korea Telecom) ensured that the company would implement this mandate. One South Korean telecommunications company executive has suggested that without these governmental directives and if companies had instead based their business decisions purely on market concerns, they would not have deployed broadband as aggressively on a national scale.…”

“…and Internet telephony. 227 Similarly, now that much of Japan can access the high-speed Internet, the ubiquitous-net Japan" (U-Japan) project is working to spur widespread use of applications. 228 In the United Kingdom, the Technology Strategy Board's Technology Program provides funding to encourage innovation and research in developing broadband content.…”

“…From 2000 to 2006 total funding for the three KII phases was $16.3 billion.The strong (and somewhat unusual, by Western standards) relationship between the South Korean government and its private sector ensured that companies such as KT, the incumbent telecommunications service provider, agreed to provide the lion's share of the investment in broadband infrastructure. This pattern continued with the successor programs to the KIIthe Broadband Convergence Network (BcN) and the IT839, for which the South Korean government projected it would provide over $70 billion in low-cost loans to broadband providers to build high-speed while they initially pledged to invest an equal amount 96. While investments have thus far fallen short of these projections, they nonetheless are impressive.…”