Contents - Connect-World
Contents - Connect-World
Contents - Connect-World
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National Development<br />
access network across 205<br />
villages and 1,208 towns.<br />
As a result, 93 per cent of<br />
the homes in agrarian and<br />
fishing villages (3.47 million)<br />
were connected to the<br />
Internet by the end 2003<br />
and half of these are now<br />
using broadband Internet.<br />
Meanwhile, the government<br />
has added the public<br />
access points at government<br />
offices, post offices,<br />
etc., for people who have<br />
no desktop at home or who<br />
have trouble using the<br />
Internet at home. In 2003,<br />
even the smallest town, village<br />
or ward, has at least<br />
one public access point.<br />
The Ministry of<br />
G o v e r n m e n t<br />
Administration and Home<br />
Affairs has fostered 180<br />
villages as the information model villages<br />
since 2001 to increase information<br />
access for rural residents and let<br />
them use Internet for their daily life.<br />
Likewise, the Ministry of Maritime<br />
Affairs & Fisheries is setting up about<br />
250 information living rooms at<br />
selected fishery villages.<br />
The government provides free or inexpensive<br />
Internet service to students in<br />
primary, junior and senior middle<br />
schools. The government finances PC<br />
leases and Internet fees for 50,000<br />
students from low-income homes.<br />
About 40,000 used desktops were<br />
handed out at welfare facilities, rural<br />
homes and to the handicapped.<br />
Since 2003, the government has provided<br />
aid devices that help the handicapped<br />
use computers. Low-income<br />
homes and the handicapped are entitled<br />
to discounted rates for fixed and<br />
mobile phones.<br />
Promoting information use<br />
through education and<br />
content development<br />
To reduce the gap in Internet usage,<br />
the government has implemented<br />
massive IT education programmes<br />
that target people with little information<br />
access.<br />
Figure 3: Digital Divide Characteristics Based upon 2003 Internet adoption rate.<br />
A total of 13.8 million people benefited<br />
from this project by June 2002. In July<br />
2002, a second-phase plan was established<br />
which focused on practical education.<br />
Under this programme, 5 million<br />
farmers, fishermen, labourers, handicapped<br />
and senior citizens, are receiving<br />
elementary and mid-level IT<br />
courses.<br />
Meanwhile, about 30 types of content<br />
have been developed, available at<br />
www.itall.or.kr, to help senior citizens<br />
and the handicapped make better use<br />
of IT.<br />
Establishing the legal<br />
foundation<br />
In January 2001, the act on bridging<br />
the digital divide was enacted to establish<br />
programmes for bridging the digital<br />
divide. In January 2002, the<br />
guidelines for providing senior citizens<br />
and the handicapped with IT<br />
access were drawn up to help these<br />
people make better use of computers<br />
and the Internet.<br />
New directions to bridge<br />
the digital divide<br />
Stages of the digital divide<br />
It is necessary to identify the concept<br />
about the stages of the digital divide to<br />
establish policies to bridge the digital<br />
divide. Discussions among the scholars<br />
are summed up in Figure 2, which<br />
introduces three stages of IT accessibility.<br />
Stage one simply promises<br />
access to IT devices and services.<br />
The second stage is IT literacy, which<br />
is concerned with the skilful use of IT<br />
devices and information. The third<br />
stage calls for users to make productive<br />
use of IT in their daily lives and<br />
generates digital opportunity.<br />
Future directions<br />
As Korea becomes a full-fledged information<br />
society, it becomes necessary<br />
to shift policy focus from increasing IT<br />
access or ownership towards its skilful<br />
use.<br />
The concept of the information gap<br />
must also evolve to provide digital<br />
inclusion and digital opportunity.<br />
Digital inclusion stresses the importance<br />
of including everyone in the<br />
information society rather than stressing<br />
the gap between those who can use<br />
information and those who cannot.<br />
The emerging concept of digital<br />
opportunity seeks to enhance the productive<br />
utilisation of information.<br />
This means that the goal of policies<br />
that seek to reduce the information<br />
gap is now to reduce the imbalance<br />
between those who utilise information<br />
productively and those who do not, so<br />
that Korea can enhance its return-oninvestment<br />
in information and<br />
improve its competitiveness. Korea<br />
must now shift the focus of its IT policies<br />
towards improving productive<br />
nature of IT.<br />
The policy drive to narrow the information<br />
access gap that still exists must<br />
continue, if only to keep Koreas citizens<br />
equal to the challenges that the<br />
future launch of new IT devices and<br />
services that it will surely bring and to<br />
forestall the creation of a new gap in<br />
the future. <br />
21