The Month of Information Culture was established in 1988 to commemorate the introduction of the computer to Korea in 1967 and the successful completion of nationwide telephone automation in 1987. It has been held as an occasion to spread sound information culture and invigorate the productive utilization of information.
Various events are organized to offer opportunities to the public to look back at the footprints of computerization, including the development history of the information and communication industry and the social and cultural changes that arose from Korea's transition toward a more computerized society based on information.
In addition to the commemorative ceremony scheduled for June 7 at the COEX Auditorium, a series of events are scheduled nationwide. The events start with the Week of Participation and Sharing which is from June 1 to 10, The Promotion of Information Utilization from June 11 to 20 and The Sound Use of the Internet from June 21 to 30. The events include various volunteer activities to be held jointly by the government and civil organizations, an information gala for the handicapped and conferences on information culture.
"These commemorative events," says Son Yeon-gi, president and CEO of the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity & Promotion (KADO), "will offer us good opportunities to look at the influences of the informationalization of Korean society and form a social consensus on the visions for a desirable information culture in the ubiquitous world."
Son said KADO will strengthen the rights of the underprivileged to facilitate their easy access to information and actively respond to new gaps.
"Firstly," Son continued, "we will fortify the web access of the public sector and embark on the TRS [trunked radio system] service in earnest so that we can innovatively improve the IT accessibility for the disabled and the elderly. Also, we will expand the supply of IT devices to strengthen the foundation where the weak can better access information. At the same time, we will support the development of IT devices that fit the special needs of the handicapped."
"Secondly, through the practical education of the underprivileged, we have continuously been alleviating the information utilization gap and have strived to promote the productive utilization of information. For this, we will educate about 5 million underprivileged people by the year 2010 and expand it for the new brackets of the weak, including the handicapped, the poor and the elderly, farmers and fishermen, escapees from North Korea and migrant workers."
"Thirdly, through the policies on solving the information gap, we have been actively involved in finding solutions to the pending social problems, including economic bipolarization, ageing, etc. Among others, we plan to provide specialized education to young people and create jobs for the elderly.
"Lastly, we plan to strengthen Korea's global leadership in the IT field by continuously solving the information gap among countries," Son explained. To this end, KADO is newly carrying out special projects to dispatch IT Special Advisory Teams to provide cooperative assistance in the IT field to Vietnam and Indonesia for a period of three to four months starting next month.
The invitational training of overseas IT experts and corporate leaders for transmitting Korea's information system model started in 1998. Until 2006, it discharged 2,102 recipients of the education from 99 countries. And this year, the education will be offered to 292 persons. Since 2002, KADO has constructed a total of 10 information centers of the Koreantype IT infrastructure in developing countries, building two every year. Especially from this year onwards, KADO plans to build three information centers every year.
In terms of dispatching youth service teams for the promulgation of the Internet overseas, KADO has dispatched a total of 1,650 young men and women of IT talent to 57 countries since 2001 until last year.
This year, KADO plans to dispatch 320 persons. On May 16, the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced that Korea ranked top in the digital opportunity indices of 181 countries in the world and placed Korea at the top for three consecutive years.
