Government to Spend $341 million on IT Workforce Training

The Korean government has announced that it will spend $341 million to fund a four year program aimed at enhancing the country's information and communication technology sector.  According to the Joongang Daily, the money will be used primarily to train basic researchers for the corporate world, with lesser emphasis on training for employees of government agencies and in the IT convergence sector.  The money will be given primarily to universities across Korea to develop training programs and provide students with financial support.  The primary emphasis of this new funding, in a departure from past patterns, will be on graduate level training rather than undergraduate.

Korea's e-business Mired in the Past?

An editorial in the English edition of the Chosun Ilbo today declared that "Korea's E-Business is Mired in the Past."  It pointed out that people in Korea cannot shop online, do internet banking, or access government or tax office sites using their smartphones.  The editorial notes that this is unheard of in the 80 other countries that introduced smartphones (read Apple iPhone and Android phones) before Korea.

The reason for this situation is the officially certified electronic payment standard used in Korea, which was introduced in 2000.  To meet that standard, local companies developed solutions that were only compatible with  Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and required use of ActiveX controls.  According to the Chosun Ilbo, Korea is the only country in the world to use a certification program using only ActiveX functions. Furthermore, it notes that other countries have chosen standard web technologies that can be used on both personal computers and smartphones and do not require users to download one ActiveX security program after another to make a single electronic payment.

Seamless Home Networking to Debut in 2011

Not far in the future, when a housewife is caught in an unexpected rain shower, she won't have to rush home to close the apartment windows.  Instead, she will be able to use her cell phone to shut the window through a ubiquitous home networking system.  Not only windows, but almost everything in the home will come under the control of its owner when home networking is fully realized.

As outlined in The Korea Times, the government this year is preparing standards for such home networking systems. Starting March 2011, any newly-built apartments will have to equip their network gateways with a general purpose engine developed by the state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute late last year.  The engine will bridge the differences of various technologies or communication protocols.  Older apartments will also be able to add the ETRI engine to their gateways as the government plans to offer the program free of charge to enable upgrades to older systems.