레이아웃 1

Transcription

레이아웃 1

www.ittimes.co.kr
April 2008 / Vol. 46
Semiconductors
at
Real People in IT
Songdo u-Life
A City of the Future
Focus
Information Security and Software
U.S. $9.00 / KOR.￦8,500
04
ISSN 1739-2950
Academia
KAIST University put the culture into technology
G
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P ve
ol r
ic nm
y
en
t
Government registration No. Seoul-Ra-10914 Tel: (82-2)3459-0664~0665 Fax.:(82-2)515-2719
Digital Society
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ew
3rd~6th Floor, Seoul Metropolitan Facilities Management Corporation B/D, 540, Cheonggyecheono, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, Korea (133-050)
Korea’s No.1 Information Technology Journal
Company profile
Namuga - Cameras for the Future
Namuga(http://www.namuga.co.kr)
has been developing hardware and
software applications which can be
applied to image processing for
2008 CMOS cameras, compression
and recognition techniques.
Namuga have been doing so since
2004, when it started developing
camera lens.
It has been developing and
producing futuristic technology for
Seo Jung-hwa, CEO of
cars,
networks with fixed-lines and
Namuga
ATMs. Namuga has also been
working on robotic cameras and is currently focusing on
cameras that work inside and outside PCs - a huge market
for CMOS cameras.
We are doing our best to create digital techniques for the
future, and to become a company that works together with
other parts of society to create a better business culture.
Business Areas
- Embedded Camera Module
This is a Notebook and Camera Module for a monitor. We
are leading the high-end market with developed a
functional and an in-depth level, our creative design and
competitive price range are different from other low-priced
Chinese or Taiwanese products. It is the line-up product of
VGA, 1.3M, 1.3M Dual, 2M, 3M Auto focus and it is
exclusively supplied to Samsung Electronics, LG
Electronics and Intel.
- Stand-alone USB Camera
This is a USB camera for desktops and notebooks. We are
the top vendor with Embedded Camera Module for the
high-end of the market with perfect management product
quality. We have abundant experience with design and the
establishment of a self-test standard for resolution. In
addition, we focus on the development of new products
with our own software technology and a singular plan for
the production of a USB Web Camera that is different from
those offered by other Taiwanese and Chinese ODM/OEM
companies. We also exclusively supply this product to
Samsung, Intel, Hewlett-Packard Development Company,
L.P. and Creative Technology Ltd.
- [Application] Camera Module or Application Per
Camera Module
This is a product is based on the stable image processes
and algorithms. It is optimally developed and supplied to
customers for application. We promise the highest quality,
and a resolution that can be adjusted for all of our clients.
10 _ April 2008 KOREA IT TIMES
● Camera for automobiles: This is applied for keeping cars
in lane when Connected to a satellite navigation system,
it behaves as a black-box for automobiles, and a
synchronization acquisition camera for back-up.
● Camera for ATM M/C: This is for an image of security at
ATMs and it supplies the best quality image in any
environment.
● Robotic camera: It is applied in many industries as nextgeneration core technology.
- High-definition Video Codec IP Camera
It is combined with image and fixed-lined network
technology and applied to the newest advanced image
compression technology, such as H.264. So rapid image
process and IP accessibility is increased with this product
and we supply sensible image delivery. This is growing fast
in such areas as image conversations, image meetings
and an image education for worldwide IPTV services and
new customers' services with an image system of
education.
- Flash Memory Card Reader
It is the part that continuously being developed as
introducing variety of Flash Memory as a desktop product.
We are the 1st vendor to supply products to the big-sized
company
- Software
Applicable software for Embedded Cameras is supplied.
This works with all operating systems including Windows
Vista, Win CE and Linux. We have developed applicable
programs for the hardware.
(Headquarters) Suite 709, Biz Center, SKn Technopark,
190-1 Sangdeawon-dong, Jungwon-gu, Seongnam-si,
Gyeonggi-do, Korea
(Chinese Production Headquarters) 2/3 Floor, 7# Building,
Lijincheng Industrial Park Gongyedong-road, Longhua
area, BaoAn District, Shenzhen, China
I-Components - Plastics for the Age of IT
I-Components(http://www.icomponents.co.kr) is a leading
players in the advanced IT era. We
are maker of engineering plastic film
which opens the informatization age.
Based on management equipped with
broad understanding of LCD
materials and the related components
industry, the company is making
efforts to develop film and materials
Kim Yang-kook, CEO of
I-Components
used to produce components for
display films based on precision
chemistry, polymers and material engineering.
In an effort to establish a global network, our company has
maintained a solid partnership with domestic and
international companies, such as Basf in Germany,
Marubeni in Japan and the Korea Development Bank. IComponents has achieved global standards earlier than
other firms by establishing a firm cooperation in production
and marketing.
I-Components, in line with the growth of the display
industry, has materialized optical features, including optical
transmittance and double refraction, as well as surface
features, like surface flatness and thickness uniformity, and
has supplied highly-functional and applicative PC, PMMA
and PES to various customers.
Glastic PES, a key material with a flexible display which
the company developed for the first time in Korea, is an
optical film we are exclusively supplying to Basf through
strategic cooperation. It is an advanced product which will
lead the next-generation plastic market, because it is
remarkably heat-resistant and has high transmittancy,
surface flatness and
optical isotopes.
Glastic PES is being used
for TFT-LCD, touch
panels, E-Books, smart
cards and substrates for
flexible displays which
requires high-temperature
processes, such as
organic EL OLED.
In comparison with glass, glastic PC is an engineering
plastic film with 250 times more impact resistance, a
sophisticated appearance, printing property, formability,
heat resistance and numerical stability.
The company, for the first time in Korea, has developed
and mass-produced thin films for LGF sheets used in the
key pads of mobile telephones, and these have won high
popularity on the market.
In addition, this
product has been
used for printing in for
as car dashboards,
electronic
name
plates for various
home appliances and
switches, as well as in
mobile telephones.
They are excellent in
terms of their printing
property and effectiveness.
In connection with molding areas, there are plamodels for
toys, mobile phone inmolds and helmets.
As a flame retardant, it is being used for the insulation of
electronic goods, electronic heaters and IC chip trays.
For coating, there are the screens of portable handsets, ski
goggles, protection windows for compact displays and
caps that block ultraviolet rays.
It also is used for the decoration of office and home
furniture to upgrade exteriors, providing an elegant finish to
such products.
Glastic optical PMMA has excellent surface strength,
weather resistance and avirulence ,and it is receiving
favorable responses in the market by realizing high optical
transmittancy and surface strength.
Glastic optical PMMA is being applied to windows, such as
protection windows of mobile telephones and PDA screens
and frames for PDP TVs.
In displays, it is widely used for refrigerators, airconditioners, audio systems, DVDs, notebook computers,
MP3-players and LCD protection windows.
For exteriors and windows on home appliances, it is being
used for refrigerators, office electronic instruments and the
panels of automatic vending machines.
Unlike existing goods, glastic optical PMMA and glastic PC
have a remarkable purity, transparency and processing
ability, therefore they are becoming essential products in
the IT industry which is leading the core industries of
Korea.
I-Components is vigorously advancing to become a
worldwide leading company in the field of IT materials,
Korea's number one industry in the 21st century. We are
doing this through continuous investment in research. We
continue to innovate and run our business based on our
broad manufacturing experience and knowledge of the
entire display film industry.
I-components, a global top leader in plastic film.
Advance together with I-Components and change your
future.
KOREA IT TIMES April 2008 _ 11
Contents
22 Policy
31 Interview Highlights
10
10
11
Company profile
Namuga - Cameras for the Future
I-Components - Plastics for the Age of IT
14
Editorial
15
Analysis
The "Grand Canal" and IT
16
Cover Story
The Semiconductor Industry at War
22
22
24
Policy
Lee Myung-bak's difficult first month
Ministerial briefings
29
Digital Society
A former software programmer talks about he new
career path
31
Interview Highlights
Nam Jong-soo is confirmed as CEO of KT
32
u-life
Songdo's city of the future
34
Academia
KAIST University put the culture into technology
36
Display 2008
Experts say Korea needs more display investment
32 u-life
38
Finance
A credit service for Gyeonggi-do's smaller businesses
40
40
42
43
Vision 2008
Focus on the IT security industry in Korea
E&I Club strikes new partnership deal
Solar power
44
44
45
Software
Software struggling in the shadows
Korea's software industry needs to mature
46
Spotlight
Alsaba - A Taste of South Asia
48
48
49
Interview
Korea Venture Business Association
Buyer's Guide
54
Company Focus
Hyundai Mobis
56
Green IT
Is it time the Korean IT business became a little more
eco-friendly?
58
IPTV
Spotlight on the latest developments in the world of
Internet television
April 2008 / Vol. 46
38 Finance
60
44 Software
Event
Venture business group change their name
61
Podcast
Your guide to our new, free service
62
62
64
65
Feature
Is UCC really here to stay?
Can we build bridges with IT?
The true value of good workmanship
66
In-depth report series
How is IT transforming Korea?
68
Focus
The Incheon Free Economic Zone
70
70
72
73
Hot Issue
You Tube in Korea
Telecoms merger on the cards?
LCD production to step up
74
74
75
News in Brief
World
Korea
76
How to...
Find a good job in IT
80
Briefing
Graphic Design _ Lee Do-won
Chairman & Publisher
Executive Advisor
President-Publisher
Advisor
Vice President
Editor-in-Chief
Editor
Supplement Director
Managing Editor
Editorial Director
Industry Editors
Staff Reporters
e-mail: [email protected]
Kim Tae -sub
Han Kon- ju
Chung Youn-soo
TA
CGE
LKH
LCM
JKS
KWH
KHS
KEJ
YCW
LKM
Chang Hong-yul
Huh Pyung-youn
Kim Byung-woo
Monica Chung / monica
Tim Alper/tim
Kim Joo-hyung
Chun Go-eun/toclair
Lee Kyong-hwan
Lee Chung-moo
Jeon Kyung-sook
Koo Won-hum
Photographer
Advertising Manager
Art Director
Designers
Internet Manager
Ki Hee-sung/hskih
Kim Eun-jeong/aceellie
Yeon Choul-woong
Lee Kyung-min
Ko Ki-wan
Cho Eun-jung
David Jones
Dondu Sarisiik
Matthew Weigand
Shin Sung-won
Jude Kim
Lee Do-won
Cho Hee-sang
Bok Dong-kyu
Financial Auditor
Financial Secretory
Choi Eun-kyung
Cho Hye-kyung
Freelance Reporters
Business Manager
Circulation Manager
Administration Manager
Sales & Marketing Manager
Publication Team Manager
Correspondents
N.America
Europe
Southeast Asia
Far East
China
Oceania
SW Asia
M.East
Kim Chang-ho
Park Mi-jung
Kim Si-hwan
Yoon Jong-jin
Ko Yeon-sang
James Joo young-hoon
Choi Young-zun. Lee Sung-ki
Lee Jin-bok
Kim Moon-soo
Chun Jong-sung
You In-kyung
Choi Duk-hee
Chung Jung-ja
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Editorial
I
Let's show some love to our lab rats
t is hardly the kind of news that fills headline writers with
joy - according to the UN patent agency, Korea, along
with China, is the country that showed the biggest
growth in registering patents in 2007.
Registering patents brings to mind very few exciting
images. Perhaps those images are little more than officials
in stuffy offices and lab rat-like engineers with complexions
like they have never seen the sun.
But little things like patents can create things much
greater and of much more importance. From the smallest
acorns do the greatest
oaks grow. WiBro, IPTV
and DMB are Korean
inventions that are bringing forth global acceptance.
They, too, were once
nothing but numbers in a
patent office.The incredible speed of modern
technological progress
means that registering a
high amount of patents is
a must if you want - as
Korea does - to make a
primary industry out of IT.
A strategic shift is
needed by anyone who
wants to get involved in
the modern IT rat race.
Whereas in the past,
Korea was happy to undercut the Japanese and Americans
with cheaper labor prices, this country long ago lost that
high ground to the Chinese and Taiwanese.
In fact, even though the Chinese have been fast to register a huge amount of patents themselves, this should be of
little concern to people here.
The Chinese are not the nation Koreans have to compete with in IT any more. That war has already been fought
and lost. But the Chinese are at a disadvantage in IT - their
specialty will always be mass-production, rather than developing niche technology that later turns out to be widespread.
In fact, the latter is a game the Japanese have been
playing and playing well for some time. But Korea, in
investing heavily in Research and Development, is showing
an interest in remaining an IT leader.
The Americans, too, have been at the forefront in IT
development, and their unparalleled ability to think outside
the box has often given them the edge. Who else but them
could have given us the likes of Google or the iPod?
Unique technology is an absolute must now Korea has
found its place in the IT world as not a bulk producer but a
specialized niche developer.
Niche technology might sound like it is a step backwards
from working on the big products that everyone wants, but
actually
through
developing products
for a minority of
users, we are bound
stumble across the
next big thing at
some point. In order
to globalize, sometimes it is more
important to look in
more detail at smaller
markets.
It has been said
before in this magazine, but it is worth
saying again - the
real battlefield for
Korean IT is not the
high-profile squabbling and one-upmanship of major companies like Samsung and Sony, Hynix and Mitsubishi. The
real fight is between the small fry of Korean IT and the
small fry of Japan and the US.
If our little niche companies can be encouraged to strike
gold on the world market though government subsidies and
a better support network, that is what we must give them.
The future lies in the hands of those pale lab rat engineers - it is the year of the rat, after all, and what better
time to realize that we need to give them all the help we
can muster?
TA
Analysis
Technology
can put the
“Grand”
E
into Lee's
Canal Scheme
veryone I speak to about the "Grand Canal" seems
to think it will never be built. They smile and dismiss
it as wishful thinking or some crazed Lee Myung-bak
project that will never actually be carried out, just discussed into oblivion.
Personally, being from the UK, my picture of canals is
the now-disused British waterways that were constructed
during the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s. They are
now full of nothing but shopping trolleys and rats for the
most part. In a world where railways, roads and airports
exist, I cannot think of any possible need for a BusanSeoul-Pyongyang canal or anything of its ilk.
But from what I have gathered about President Lee, he
was elected on the basis of being a person who is able to
get things done. Construction is his forte; he built his reputation from the period when he headed up Hyundai's
Construction and Engineering division.
Seoul is littered with his work - Seoul Forest, the
restored Chungyecheon stream and the City Hall square
were all built under Lee's mayorship of Seoul. This is a
man who likes two things: building things and getting things
done.
And Mr Lee does not seem to be the kind of person who
will go back on his word after picking up just shy of 50% of
the popular vote last November.
The Grand Canal will be built, ladies and gentlemen, like
it or not.
So probably the best course of action here is not the dismissive "ah, it'll never actually happen" approach, or harboring a sense of outrage. We had just better learn to live
with the idea of a Grand Canal, and think about how it can
best be done.
Last issue, we ran a nice article by Park Ki-shik, the
Vice President of the IT Services Research Division at the
Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute.
Mr Park wrote of his vision of a high-tech canal that uses
RFID chips on the boats which use the canal, building a
WiBro network along the waterway, and so on.
Mr Park's piece might have got a lot of people thinking.
Suddenly the image of the canal has gone from some
muddy, polluted stream full of mosquitoes and bike parts to
a futuristic waterway that sounds like something out of a
sci-fi novel. What if we all just stopped hating the idea of a
Grand Canal and thought of ways to help it become something we can all be a part of?
A canal is an idea that seems, on the surface, to be
straight out of the history books, but if we can find a way to
integrate the both the construction and the operation of the
canal with IT, it suddenly becomes a whole new proposition.
In fact, construction and IT are arguably two of Korea's
three primary industries - with automobiles the third. This
country is bristling with young, hungry technologically-gifted experts who have good ideas by the bucketload.
What we need is a forum, a chance for these people to
suggest and debate possible ways for IT projects to help
the canal be a success.
We need RFID tags on ships and on cargo, so customers can trace where there product is. We need digital
video links and Wireless Internet functions so that the crew
of the boats and staff at stations along the waterway can
be in constant contact with ports and harbors.
Or maybe we do not need anything of the sort. But the
government needs to do the decent thing and let the IT
community in on the canal plans before any further action
is taken.
IT must play its part in this and every aspect of Korean
life, for the sake of the economy and the future. If the
Grand Canal is going to live up to its name, it needs to look
like it belongs in the next century, not in the last one.
TA
Cover Story
Semiconductors and the Automobile Industry
The Way Forward?
A
utomobiles are not just the
combination of their metal
parts. In the contemporary
auto industry, they are more than
what they look like. They are the creatures that come from the electronic
logics lagoon.
Without electronic functions and
chips, automobiles are no longer
automobiles. The things we drive
around in every day are totally different from what Henry Ford originally
intended them to be.
Modern automobiles are required
to be more comfortable, more reliable
and safer for the convenience of drivers. To this end, they need to use a
lot of electronic chips and sophisticated parts, all of which are smaller,
lighter and increasingly complex. If
automobile manufacturers fail to meet
diversifying customer needs, they will
go bankrupt immediately.
Electronic Control Unit, the ECU,
Engine Fuel Injection (EFI), Anti-lock
Brake System (ABS) are modern
devices that consumers take granted
as part of the modern driving experience. Navigation and mobile television, like DMB, are also regarded as
important commodities for drivers.
Lee Yoon-jong, Director of Dongbu
HighTek, explains, "Most people don't
think about how it is possible for drivers to have so many functions at their
disposal? None of this is possible
without semiconductors. In calculating
speed, igniting engine, and injecting
gas supply, automobiles need state of
the art semiconductors. Light Emitting
Diodes cannot do without them."
He says, "Sensors installed in
every car are the highlights of semiconductors. Sensors that keep you a
distance from cars driving ahead of
you, sensors that identify dangers out-
Is convergence technology between car-makers and
the semiconductor sector a way to make Korea more
competitive in both industries? We take a closer look.
side on the road at night,
sensors that measure the
air in the tires. They are all
territory that semiconductors can conquer."
Lee asks up to imagine
that Micro Controller Unit is
like a device that has 100
small computers inside.
According to him, it is like a
brain that controls all the
sensors, and such systems
as DMB and navigation.
Ultra-high frequency chips for
satellite communication and chips for
multi-media are becoming a necessity
for automobiles. The ratio of electronic function in automobile system will
reach 40%, a huge increase of 20%
from 2005. Semiconductors will take
care of more than 80% out of that.
Semiconductors for cars are different from those used in cellular
phones, display, and other electronic
appliances. Semiconductors for auto
are the things that enhance the convergence of cars and semiconductors,
thus creating new markets while semiconductors for other products are the
decisive things that make products
what they are. In this sense, we can
say we have two kinds of semiconductors.
For the past 25 years, semiconductor makers have concentrated their
efforts on the markets of memory
fields, even though two thirds of the
world market comes from system IC,
where Korea has a relatively low level
of competition.
In order to catch up with the rest of
the global market, government and
business circles alike have worked
hard, but in vain. In this context, semiconductors for cars can be a springboard for makers to build the industry
up to right level.
There are a few makers that can
produce semiconductors for cars in
the global markets. If Korea could be
one of them, Korea could be more
competitive in terms of both quality
and technology. Even though Korea is
one of the major auto exporters, this
country still remains behind in this
area. Experts point out that making
semiconductors is more profitable
than worrying about where they end
up.
As cellular phone and display solutions have become cash cows for
Korea, the ability to make cars can
help semiconductor makers compete
in the world market. If Korea can converge them, it will find its way to victory in a high value industry.
CGE
H
ow many people still use diary
to jot down phone numbers
today? How many people try
to memorize song lyrics when they
can read the lyrics on a screen and
sing along? It all comes from the neverending development of the semiconductor. People today are all too
reliant on the semiconductor - its elephantine memory and analyzing skill
are second to none.
A semiconductor, in general, is the
major component that makes up the
rectangular shaped chips that are
used in almost every electronic device
we use today. Semiconductors, which
variably conduct electricity though the
use of materials like silicon, diamonds
and aluminium are essential parts of a
whole host of modern electrical
devices.
Without them, computers, cellular
phones, digital audio players and the
rest simply would not exist.
Semiconductors are divided generally into two categories: memory
semiconductors and non memory
semiconductors.
Memory semiconductors are those
that are used for saving information.
Non-memory semiconductors, on the
other hand, are for the more complex
task of information processing.
Dynamic Random Access Memory
chips (DRAM), Static RAM (SRAM),
and Video RAM (VRAM) are classified
as memory semiconductors. NAND,
or Flash, chips - used in USB memory
devices and the like.
Computer Cental Processing Units
(CPUs), multimedia semiconductors,
cell phone chips, Merged Dram Logic
chips, power semiconductors, discrete
devices, and micro processor are
classified as non-memory semiconductors.
Memory semiconductors have
enabled electronic devices to remember and record information so that it
can be used at anytime if needed.
Samsung have written a brand new
chapter in the world semiconductor
history books since the Millennium by
Everything You Always Wanted
to Know About
Semiconductors - But Were
Afraid to Ask
What are semiconductors?
And why are they so
important to Korea?
We answer all the
questions you might
have about computer chips.
investing a lot of money over a short
period of time to make a new version
of the memory chip.
At present, memory chips are normally produced in gigantic quantity, to
be sold on a large scale around the
world.
Non-memory chips, meanwhile, are
like little analysts, who are in charge
of information processing. Intel
Pentium's CPU is a good example.
Non-memory semiconductors require
high technology in circuit design.
This kind of semiconductor is mainly used in mobile phones, DSP chips
(used in radio, sonar and multimedia
devices), and micro controllers, which
are widely applied in various areas
like personal computers, communication devices, electronics, and automobiles.
Korea is highly competitive in the
memory semiconductor market, yet
75% of non-memory semiconductors
are imported from foreign countries.
When it comes to the production of
memory semiconductors, a lot of
investment makes it possible to pro-
duce a vast quantity of these, as they
are always in high demand.
Meanwhile, non-memory semiconductors are produced in smaller quantity with the use of high-value technology. With a little investment, a huge
sum of profit can be expected. This is
why Japan has been giving its all to
non-memory semiconductor production. The new trend in global markets
towards multimedia functions in electronics and computers means that
non-memory semiconductors are suddenly in high-demand.
DRAM and NAND Flash memory
are still by far the most popular memory semiconductors on the market, yet
their price are sinking without few
signs of recovery.
According to a Taiwanese surveying company, DRAM Exchange, the
price of a DRAM DDR2 512Mb 667ß÷
chip in September, 2007 was $2. In
December, the price dropped drastically to $0.88, though there is hope,
as the price battled it way back up to
$0.94 in February 2008.
CGE
Cover Story
Briefing - The Korean
Semiconductor Industry
Samsung - Memory Leaders
S
amsung is well-known around
the world to just about everyone. However, whenever nonKoreans come to this country for the
first time, they are blown away by the
whole
Samsung
experience.
Samsung make not only phones and
computers, it seems, but microwaves,
fridges, cars and even forklift trucks.
Little can compare to the success
of Samsung's semiconductor business, though. Very few companies, if
any, have made as much money
when it comes to semiconductors as
them.
The history of Samsung goes back
to before the Second World War, but
the most profitable arm of the company, Samsung Electronics, was not
founded until the end of the 1960s.
Since they started making memory
semiconductors, Samsung have pretty much remained at the front of the
market, though they lag behind
American giants Intel when it comes
to the industry as a whole, as nonmemory semiconductors, the kind
usually used in computer processors
and the like, are often far more profitable.
In 2005, the company was hit with
a scandal when they, along with rivals
Hynix were convicted of taking part in
a DRAM price-fixing scam at the end
of the 1990s. A court handed them a
gigantic $300 million fine.
Controversy has not left them
alone, though, as a further memory
scandal dogged them in 2006, with
two of their senior memory chip
employees hauled into court in the US
on further charges of price fixing.
Regardless of this, they have
stayed on top, and hope to maintain
their high industry ranking in the
future.
Samsung's big strategy to shake
the semiconductor world now is its
Charge Trap Flash (CTF) NAND technology, the world's first 40 Nano, 32
Gigabyte NAND flash memory chip.
This semiconductor is revolutionary
in its size. It is 1/3000th the thinkness
of a piece of human hair. In other
words, a 32 Gb memory capacity in a
size of a thumb nail that holds 328
memory elements with no errors.
When these 16 NAND Flash components are put together as a 64 gigabyte memory card, 400 years worth of
the contents of this monthly magazine
can be saved, which is the equivalent
to 36,000 pictures, 40 movies, and all
the geographical and cartographic
information in the world.
Ten cards like this can save every
single page from the 2,200,000 books
in the National Assembly Library in
America, and literally make the
phrase, "a library in your hand" come
true.
Samsung predicts a huge success
in the NAND flash market over the
next five years after making its debut
in 2008.
Samsung Electronics also developed a 512 Mb Phase-changeing
RAM (PRAM) and a System on Chip
for hybrid drives.
A Samsung spokesman said,
"Korea is no longer weak in the nonmemory semiconductor market. As of
March 2008, 20,000 different kinds of
non-memory semiconductors are
going to be displayedon global market
and will take up 70% of that market.".
However, taking up a large space
in the market still does not automatically mean more money. Korea is a
country that has to sell low-priced
semiconductors to buy oil, something
that is becoming more an more
expensive by the year.
In short, if Korea were be able to
by a barrel of oil by selling 50 semiconductors in the past, now this country has to sell in excess of100 to buy a
barrel. Although the demand of memory-semiconductors is high, only a
small amount of profit is expected in
spite of large sum of investment and
time. Intel and Toshiba's NAND Flash
prices are decreasing every month.
And the question we all want
answered is this - Will Samsung's
faith bring about miracles for the
Korean market once again, or is there
no hope this time?
CGE
Hynix - Back to Non - Memory the Way
Forward ?
T
ake a trip to Icheon, in the suburbs of Seoul, and you will find
a town dominated by a single
company. Just as Suwon is Samsung
City, Icheon is Hynix Town.
Founded in the early 1980s, Hynix
came into the market at exactly the
right time to make an impact on global
markets. PCs were starting to become
commercially successful, and the
mobile phone, as we know it, was
about to be born. The Japanese semiconductor industry, which had been
the major player on the global market,
was in terminal demise, and Korean
labour prices were still relatively
cheap.
By the mid 1980s, they were producing 256 Kilobyte Dynamic Random
Access Memory (DRAM) chips, and
selling them at very competitive
prices. The company continued to
grow and expand their operations,
developing their DRAM operations.
In the 1990s, they enjoyed further
success as mobile phones, laptop
computers and digital cameras started
to become more than just gadgets,
but everyday household appliances.
They went into the new millennium
on a high, after successfully merging
with LG Semiconductor, and in the
early part of this decade, they made it
up to the rank of World's number two
memory chip producer.
This decade, too, has seen Hynix
involved in a bitter war of words with
other Asian companies after a sudden
loss in trade saw the World Trade
Organisation swoop in to bail the
company out as huge debts threatened to drive the company into bankruptcy.
In 2004, increased competition and
more debts saw the company sell off
its non-memory business, for a total of
$822 million, to the American
Citigroup corporation, and renamed
MagnaChip.
At the end of last year they
announced a 24% decrease increase
in revenue from the previous quarter's
2.44 trillion won, and a 29% decrease
from the 2.61 trillion won in the same
period last year. However, according
to iSemi, global semiconductor
research company, Hynix still ranks
as the World's 6th biggest semiconductor firm on the planet.
But with memory chips starting to
plummet late last year, Hyunix's new
CEO, Kim Jung-kap announced last
October that Hynix was going to go
back into the non-memory industry.
He was quoted as saying, "We will restart our non-memory operations. We
will do it through water-tight preparations and strategy."
The Rest Minnows Also
Have their Part
to Play
Frans Van Houten, Chief Exectuve
of NXP Semicondutors, has said he
believes the world semiconductor
industry is worth around $213 billion a
year, so there is plenty more money
to be made in the semiconductor market, though it is well-renowned as cutthroat industry - full of intense rivalry
and dramatic cycles of huge market
growth and sudden falls.
But even in the brutal sink-or-swim
environment of the industry, there are
other Korean companies doing well in
the semiconductor world.
Other success stories include
Dongbu Electronics, who built their
reputation on supplying semiconductors to American electronics manufacturers Texas Instruments. Dongjin
Semichem have been around since
the sixties and have operations running all around Asia, including Tiapei
and mainland China. And Fine
Semitech are a company that has
also been active on the LCD front.
According
to
the
Korea
Seimiconductor Industry Association
(KSIA), there are 223 member companies in their organization. The
majority of these companies are
involved in the equipments business,
while materials and design are other
major fields for Korean semiconductor-related companies.
TA
Cover Story
A
sia
at
Semiconductor
War
Korea is stuck in the
midst of a pitch battle
that has the whole of
the world in crisis over computer chips
T
he annals of history are littered
with some very strange wars
indeed. In the middle ages, the
Hundred Years War between England
and France lasted more than a hundred years. This while the 1896
Anglo-Zanzibar War was a mere 38
minutes long. 1969 saw El Salvador
fight out the Football War - which
started with a riot at a sports match. In
the 1970s, there were the Cod Wars a row between the UK and Iceland
over fish.
And now, after all these bizarre
wars in Europe and Latin America,
Asia is having a go with a strangelymonikered conflict of its own - the
Semiconductor War.
A semiconductor is possibly the
most boring-looking piece of machinery mankind has yet come up with.
Yet the biggest companies in Asia are
entrenched in a vicious guerilla war
over these computer chips. And if
something is not done about it, things
are going to get a lot worse.
After much speculation and worry,
it seems the worst has happened, as
feared, with DRAM memory chips
starting to tumble in price. Samsung
and Hynix are feeling the burn as
NAND flash players start to lose their
value not only for them, but for international companies like Intel.
Yet in the wake of tumbling prices,
the blame game is still raging, with
Asian countries all queuing up to point
the finger at each other, accusing
each other of being at fault for the crisis in prices.
Well they might, though - computer
hardware spells pretty much primary
industry for Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
However, for those not of us blessed
with insider knowledge, it is hard to
understand just what these warring
countries hope to achieve by taking
sly digs at one another.
March saw Korea appeal to the
World Trade Organisation (WTO) with
complaints about excessive Japanese
import duties.
But this particular bitter battlefield
is not a new one. War has pretty
much been raging on this stage since
the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
bailed out Hynix, a Korean semiconductor company and the third biggest
semiconductor manufacturer in the
World - back in 2002.
The Japanese were outraged then,
accusing the WTO of subsiding
Korean semiconductor makers, and
have since then hoiked their import
taxes up to a prohibitive 27% for all
Korean memory chips, thus effectively
cutting Korean companies out of their
own domestic market.
Given the fact that Japan is a massive electronics exporter, this has
been a huge obstacle for Korean firms
- just about everything electrical
nowadays needs a semiconductor.
Taiwan have also waded into the
battle. Last year, Fank Huang, chairman of Taiwanese chip manufacturer
Powerchip
Semiconductor
Corporation, accused Korean company Hynix of attempting to flood the
market by increasing their annual bit
growth by 120 percent. This was
against an average of 70 to 80 percent among Taiwanese manufactures.
But China, relative newcomers to
the semiconductor business, but a
powerful new player in the industry,
are not content, either. They want to
get involved in the semiconductor
scrap as well, and have themselves
been accused by Taiwanese companies of cases of industrial espionage.
However, that is not all - the Asiawide semiconductor war has spilt out
across the oceans to a whole new
continent. It seems the USA want to
play, too. Over in the America, Intel,
the company that created the semiconductor, have been locked in a bitter scrap of their own, trying to outdo
their nearest country rivals.
A second American Civil War has
broken out with On Semiconductors
buying up rivals AMI and slashing 200
jobs at the firm to streamline operations. Advanced Micro Devices have
just released a quad-core processor
chip, only to be hit with the news that
rivals Intel are on the verge of releasing a six-core chip. Goodness knows
what happens when octa-cores start to
hit the market.
As a result, a new trend has
emerged in the conflict - joining forces
with companies from your own country
in order to better perform on an international scale. In Japan, Toshiba and
Sony have agreed to form a new joint
venture for the production of high-performance semiconductors. These
flashy new semiconductors will be
used in PlayStation games consoles.
If this were not enough, Europe traditionally the poor relative in all
things semiconductor related - has
also been keen to drag itself into the
war, with talk of a potential merger
between the continent's three biggest
Semiconductor companies, Holland's
NXP, Germany's Infineon and FrenchItalian outfit ST.
Where will the mad one-upmanship
and inter-continental sniping end?
According to experts, there may be
more gloomy news for this war-ridden
industry.
In March, Gartner, IT Researchers,
said there was a "glut" in the inventories of semiconductor producers
worldwide. And a "glut" in inventories
is not good news, either. It means that
these companies' warehouses are filling up with cancelled orders or unsold
stock. There are too many chips being
produced in today's semiconductor
world.
The President of the Semiconductor
Industry Association, George Scalise,
said in a statement. "Even with healthy
demand from important end markets,
a very competitive environment resulted in price pressures for these products which in turn led to continued erosion in average selling prices."
A Samsung Semiconductor
researcher, who, due to the sensitivity
of the subject, asked to be only identified as K., says that he thinks price
wars are inevitable in the modern
semiconductor environment.
He explains, "As a rule - the semiconductor industry works like this: a
company develops a new technology
in semiconductors and makes a profit
by selling it. But then other companies
come along and copy the chip and put
their version on the market. In that
kind of environment, it is hard to avoid
dumping - with companies trying to put
a huge amount of stock onto the market before their rivals arrive and undercut them."
Samsung has led the way in semiconductors since the DRAM boom in
the 1980s, and K. explains that this is
vast amount of available produce has
flooded the market and caused a price
war," says K.
It has done so as companies
reduce prices on stock that will be out
of demand should it sit in their warehouses too long.
Is there an end in sight for the
Semiconductor War? No chance,
according to K.
Indeed, new breakthroughs in semi-
due to the fact that their technological
research and development has been
second to none thus far.
According to a principle called
Moore's Law, developed by Intel
employee George Moore in the
1960's, the capacity of computer chips
doubles every two years. However,
Moore's Law, as the man himself has
said, is not an infinite projection.
Moore says that physical limits will
start to restrain the process in around
2010.
And K. agrees. He says, "As semiconductors respond to market needs
and get smaller and smaller in size,
this makes it harder and harder to
make advances in technology."
"As the need to develop new technology increases, smaller companies
have ganged up together to produce a
high quantity of chips. At the same
time, bigger companies like Samsung
have not cut their production, and this
conductor etching machines are set to
bring rich rewards for companies that
have invested in them. Says K.,
"Toshiba is spending an enormous
amount of money on expanding a new
product line so it can recapture the
number one spot in the semiconductor
standings."
Semiconductors are just little bits of
plastic and metal, but as they are integral parts of a whole host of electrical
devices, they become of utmost importance not only to the individual companies who produce the chips, but also
the countries, like Korea, whose entire
economies rest on the exporting of
electrical goods.
The war might seem petty, or even
ridiculous to outsiders, but for those
involved, it is sink or swim time. There
have already been casualties, and
there will be more to come in the very
near future.
TA
Policy
First Month No Bed of
Roses for Lee
A
fter a month in office,
President Lee Myung-bak said
that four weeks had gone by
like six months. What he meant to say
was that his work as President was
much tougher than he had thought.
Lee, the former CEO of Hyundai
Construction who was once nicknamed "the bulldozer," was very confident that he could boost the economy from its slowdown during the
tenureship of former President Roh
Moo-hyun. But things were not that
simple.
Since he became President, the
economy, at home and abroad, has
worsened with uncertainty snowballing.
Overseas, skyrocketing oil price
and the endless credit crunch have
left few options for Lee, who appointed can-do spirited economists as key
ministers in his cabinet. Oil prices
soaring to $100 a barrel seemed to
deliver a fatal blow to his original plan
to increase the economic growth rate
to 7% within his first year of office.
He, a man who knows what $100 a
barrel oil means to the economy,
could not help changing the plan, lowering it to 5%. But experts strongly
recommend that he should reduce it
yet further -to just 4%.
The Credit crisis from U.S.A.managed to cast a very thick, dark over
the head of President Lee. Even
before Bear Stearns collapsed, US
investors in Seoul had started to sell
off their assets including stocks,
meaning the KOSPI, the Korean stock
market index, had a Black Monday
experience all of its own.
Market analysts say that stronger
shocks are yet to come before the
likes of Hank Paulson, the US
Treasury secretary, can afford any
time to relax.
Can the "bulldozer" defeat his
enemies? Experts are starting
to express their doubts. They
answer that Mr. Bulldozer will
come to the sudden realisation
that there exist some things he
cannot do in business.
To make matters worse, the former CEO faces a huge drop in popularity within Korea. In Korean political culture, popularity sometimes is
more important than economy
and if a leader has a
good
public
image, he can do
everything with
the full support of the
people.
Harsh financial conditions
mean that Lee Myung-bak,
Korea's new President, has
had a tough first month in charge
of the country.
All in all, things are looking less
rosy by the day for Lee.
Fortunately, however, it seems that
he believes he has the answers to all
these problems. The first plan he has
produced to solve theses puzzles was
to start creating a business-friendly
atmosphere in Korea.
Here. businesspeople have felt the
effects of working under a leftist
regime for the past five years. His visits to business associations right after
his inauguration were characterized
as signs that he would be different
from former President Roh, who was
branded as a left-wing social planner
by conservatives.
Next, he ordered his cabinet members to pull out all the "electric poles,"
the name his regime has fiven to antibusiness regulations. The term "electric poles" came out in a
meeting presided over
by Lee when he
unveiled a complaint about electric poles.
In that meeting, he told a
story
about
companies in an
industrial complex
in a southern city
who had asked civil
servants several
times to to
remove the poles that prevented
trucks with heavy and bulky cargo
loaded from making u-turns because
they stood in the way along the side
of the road.
Lee reprimanded them for neither
listening to the complaints nor removing the poles. After his remarks in the
meeting, the poles were quickly
removed, and the power lines were
buried under the ground. Since this
story, local journalists have used the
term "electric poles" when they write
stories about reducing inefficiency
and deregulation.
Deregulation is the backbone of his
business-friendly policy. He thinks
that all the provisions that have
blocked businesses from moving forward and backward freely should be
gone. No regulation should be
imposed on the mutual capital investment between mother companies and
offspring companies.
In order to help domestic companies defend themselves from being
attacked by foreign capital ventures
that are hungry to make profits
through mergers and acquisitions, he
will permit owners and leading shareholders to take measures like poisonpills and golden shares, both of which
in action in advanced capitalist countries. The Ministry of Justice and the
Ministry of Finance are working
together on the matter.
Revision of tax-related laws is likely
to get under way sooner or later, for
the sake of business circles.
Speculation has it that the government will lower the corporation tax
rate and cut personal income tax. If
the government can save 10% of its
budget, tax cuts can be made. Lee
seems to think that there is a lot of
room for budget saving, something he
made an artform of when he was a
mayor Seoul.
To find some mokgeri or food for
tomorrow, as the Korean idiom goes,
is Lee's main duty. Even though
Korea has been doing very well in
such world markets as shipbuilding,
semiconductors, and automobiles, if
we fail to find new sources of mokgeri,
the future will be gloomy.
One source of mokgeri could the
Information Technology sector. As a
matter of fact, for the past few years,
Korea has enjoyed a relative superiority in IT. In Korea, wired and wireless
broadband services provide people
with a new horizon of communication.
Cellular phone makers have set a
record for production, with Korean
firms among the seven biggest retailers of handsets.
New services, such as WiBro and
DMB are the successors to the throne
of the handset. WiBro is a new trend
of wireless broadband that enables
broadband users to use the Internet
while in cars, trains subways, anywhere when they are on the move.
The seamless WiBro is now being
applied in commercial services in
Korea, while other countries are also
testing their own services. DMB is
also a new trend in television. As is
well-known in Korea, Digital
Mutimedia Broadcasting is a service
that works in conjuction with cellular
phones.
You can watch TV programs on it
when you are not using its phone
functions. With DMB, you do not have
to rush to home or stay in an office or
pub to watch the Super Bowl.
Samsung and LG Electronics are
competing in a competitive world market with brands like Nokia, Motorola
and Sony-Erickson.
The question remains unanswered
as to how President Lee can keep the
IT flag flying in a market where uncertainty rules. Experts point out that
everything is not favorable for Lee.
They say that Lee will need time to do
something for IT expansion because
he has shut down the MIC (the
Ministry of Information and
Communication) that played a key
role in encouraging the IT industry
and made it blossom in the rugged
country of IT.
The
new
Committee
of
Broadcasting and Communication,
which will replace the MIC is still in
the chaotic midst of a political controversy over the appointment of chairman.
President Lee is writing a grand
novel. The title will be "The Great
Canal of Korean Peninsula." If his
party wins the parliamentary election
on April 9th, he sure will put that fanciful scenario into action, overcome any
lingering doubts about the feasibility
of the project from both inside the
government and outside it.
If he obtains a majority in the election, his speed of action will be fast,
even though the anti-canal voices are
getting stronger and stronger by the
day. As the former CEO of Hyundai
Construction is really good at construction.
He has often referred to the success of Dubai, where people have
succeeded in building a new city in a
desert, one free of regulations. It is
one that has attracted more than ten
thousands of foreign companies in
less than twenty-five years.
But Dubai can could turn out to be
little more than a mirage in the desert.
Soaring oil prices and the credit
crunch will not permit Captain Lee to
sail a peaceful way. If he fails to get a
majority in the April election, he might
not even be able to raise the anchor
on some of his proposed reforms. It
all means that the second month of
his presidency could turn out to be an
even longer one than the first.
CGE
Policy
6% Economic Growth - Spring Arrives
For the Korean Economy?
"3
50,000 new jobs and the
maintenance of consumer
prices below a 3.3% rise in
and 6% economic growth in Korea."
After a long hard winter, this sounds
like the first swallow of spring to
Koreans who have been suffering
from a harsh economic slowdown.
On March 10th, the Ministry of
Strategy and Finance (MOSF) reported about the new administration's
plans and goals to President Lee
Myung-bak.
The Minister of the MOSF, Kang
Man-soo, said that he planed to cut
corporation tax by 3 to 5% this year,
to 11-22% next year and to 10-20%
by 2013, The current rate is 13-25%
percent, depending on the size of a
business.
Minister Kang also showed his
strong willingness to act by mentioning that they would do their best to
transform the old economy into a
more capable one with 7% growth
ability in the new government era.
Furthermore, the new government
decided to expand the long-term
growth foundation by increasing
investment in research and development (R&D) to 5% by 2012, from a
current rate of 3%.
The new administration's other
efforts were made known on March
3rd. Not only will they decrease oil
prices by 10%, but they will also use
4.8 trillion Korean Won, the international surplus fund of the central government, to support tax cuts and the
revitalization of economic projects.
To succeed in this goal, the government is trying to increase corporate
investment and Korean consumers
The government
reveals new financial
plans for the goal
of achieving
a 7% total national
growth rate
Kang Man-soo, Minister of the MOSF
domestic activities, through deregulation and tax cuts.
Needs of the Korean government
in times of global recession
There are difficulties in promoting
these new plans, while there are more
silver linings in the plans. Korean economic power has been weaker of late,
and people have a hard time of it in
worsening external and internal conditions. In particular, the US economy is
experiencing a slowdown that negatively affects the entire global economy.
It is currently causing worsening
trade terms and higher oil prices. It
can also raise the price of raw materials, consumer goods and services as
well as creating a bottleneck in
domestic spending and job generation.
Due to the global recession, MOSF
has set a goal of 6% economic growth
from the 7% total rises in President
Lee's period. In addition, the new government has planed three "must-do"
details which are the recovery of
Korean economy, continuous growth
and long-term growth. This means
taking step-by-step action in detailed
project-by-project analysis, with specified action-dates.
The new government has also tried
to encourage active business trades
with four principles made in order to
conquer the current economic barriers. The principles are minimizing regulations, minimizing tax rates, globally
standardizing finance and constituting
the relations between labor and capital.
The government hopes these new
economic plans reflect Koreans' wishes wto see the depressed current
Korean economy expetience a new
revival. Koreans have a thirst for the
"booming economy" which President
Lee' has promised will materialize in
his tenure as head of state.
Korea IT Times
KEJ
Real-time News
in Your Browser
www.ittimes.co.kr
Government to
Focus on
Investment Growth
I
LeeYoun-ho, Minister of the MKE
n its business plan report to the
President Lee Myung-bak on
March 17, the Ministry of
Knowledge Economy (MKE) focused
on investment stimulation and securing future growth engines.
In particular, important industrial
policies such as "combination of IT
with other mainstream industries,"
"fostering parts and materials industry," and "strengthening service industry" are leading to securing future
growth engines.
The MKE has made a plan to
spend about $10 billion on the development of IT-based convergence
technology until 2012. That entails
combining IT with five mainstream
Ministry plans to
boost the parts,
materials and service
industries.
industries - shipbuilding, automobile,
medical, national defense, and construction - consequently creating high
value added continuously.
Minister Lee Youn-ho said, "The
important task we are now facing is to
realize the creation of high value
added on a sustainable basis through
IT-based convergence technology
development and intensive fostering
of parts and materials industry."
Innovate Korea
In an effort to enhance the competitiveness of SMEs (Small and Medium
sized Enterprises), the MKE is going
to start an innovation campaign
(called Innovate Korea) from June this
year.
In line with the fundamental
changes in the national industry
framework, the fostering strategy for
SMEs also has to be changed. The
MKE believes that SMEs should be
able to support the progress of large
companies and that the solid partnership between small companies and
large companies is not only critical for
a healthy national economy, but also
very important for the enhancement of
Korea's industrial competitiveness.
Recently, Minister Lee has been a
series of field visits emphasizing the
importance of helping SMEs stand on
their own two feet. Through the
"Innovate Korea" initiative, the MKE is
going to spread this movement all
around industrial fields starting from
June.
The productivity of domestic SMEs
now stands at 35%, compared with
that of large companies. In case of
developed foreign countries, their
SME's productivity reaches to about
60% of their large companies. The
MKE plans to raise the productivity
level of domestic SMEs to that of
advanced countries within 5 years
through this campaign.
Creating a better investment environment
Investment attraction plays a key
role in stimulating the real economy.
Smooth money flow and active investment is material to revitalise the difficult current situation of our real economy. According to a report from the
World Bank, the business environment index of Korea ranks thirtieth.
In comparison with its trade volume
ranking of 10th or 11th, this is a very
big discrepancy. In particular, in the
case of business foundation, it ranks
far lower because of its overly complex procedures.
Minister Lee said, "Until 2012, we
will raise Korea's investment attraction
to the make at least the top ten.
Although investment-related laws and
regulations are mutually connected to
many ministries and government
organizations, the MTE will take the
lead in finding out about any hindering
factors in attracting and stimulating
investment, while checking how the
alternatives are being implemented in
the field."
Before long, a "Business Support
Center" will be established and enter
into operation to deal with all kinds of
problems related to investment, business environment, and regulations in
a single place.
Bridging the gap in parts and
materials
In the MKE's business plan report,
President Lee has stressed the importance of parts and materials industry
and revealed his intention to foster the
industry.
Prior to the report he said,
"Although the parts and materials
industry plays a important role in the
development of our economy, the
problem of the technology gap
between Korea and Japan still
remains unchanged. Therefore, we
should push ahead with competitiveness improvement of parts and materials industry."
Before this, President Lee had
already given an instruction that we
should seek the way to solve the
trade deficit problem between Korea
and Japan by means of fostering the
parts and materials industry. On 20th
April, he is scheduled to visit Japan.
For this reason, his remarks on this
problem before his visit to Japan
attracts our attention. It is also reported that among the attending members
to his visit to Japan are many businessmen engaged in the parts and
materials industry.
In order to foster the parts and
materials industry, President Lee has
pointed out the following two strategies: securing technology through foreign investment, and joint technologi26 _ April 2008 KOREA IT TIMES
cal development through cooperation
between SMEs and large companies.
Soon after the MKE's report,
President Lee visited Asahi Glass, of
Japan, located in Gumi Industrial
Park, thus giving a hint that the
expansion of foreign investment and
transfer of world-class technology is
vital to the revitalization of the Korean
economy.
Meanwhile, during the report concerning the energy-saving policy,
President Lee made the following
comments on the bus lanes in the
downtown Seoul, reflecting on his
days of served as Seoul mayor: "In
the case of a serious policy, government officials have to do their best to
persuade people with a positive attitude, although it will bring more or
less inconvenience on the people in
the short term."
He continued, "The bus lane has
caused inconvenience to some citizens, but from the aspect of public
interest, it has made a great contribution to energy saving."
Transfer of government jobs to the
private sector
Many government jobs related to
technologies are to be transferred to
the market or to the private sector.
This job transfer is based on marketcentered and field-oriented management philosophy.
To begin with, the MTE plans to
transfer certificate jobs related to LS
(Logistics Standard) and ES
(Excellent Software) - both jobs now
belong to the KATS (Korean Agency
for Technology and Standards) - to
the private sector respectively in
September and in November this
year.
Also, jobs related to recycled products and new products are to be
transferred to the private sector. The
major functions of KTTC (Korea
Technology Transfer Center) are to
undergo sweeping changes; the technology related jobs such as technolo-
gy transfer, technology evaluation,
and M&A brokerage are to be transferred to the private sector until the
end of this year.
As a result, the KTTC is scheduled
to deal with technology infrastructure,
including technology evaluation, specialist fostering and management of
unused patents. Accordingly, its name
will also be changed.
Sharing facilities and the equipment of universities and research
institutes will be made available on a
no-fee basis or on a common use
basis.
These facilities and equipment,
supported by a government budget,
will be used by SMEs. In fact, there
are a lot of idle facilities, idle equipment, and idle devices in government
organizations, universities, and
research institute, which cost much
money for both storage and maintenance.
Fund-raising initiatives
In order to invest money in the
promising industry, the MTE plans to
raise funds so that it can be used for
the future growth engine industry.
50% of the fundraising comes from
government, and the other 50% from
the private sector. So it can be called
a semi-official fund. To deal with
fundraising for the future growth
engine industry, the MTE has decided
to set up a new organization named
"growth engine bureau" under its
umbrella.
This fund will begin with a budget
of $40 million, and will increase by
US$ 20 million each year until 2012,
eventually reaching US$ 100 million.
Venture capital will also be raised and
mezzanine financing will be expanded
to promising SMEs.
KWH
Policy
I
Convergence Master Plan
Set to Boost Growth
n a business plan report to the
President Lee Myung-bak, the
Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology (MEST) has put its priority on the private sector-driven strategic distribution of R&D resources and
research capacity strengthening of
domestic universities and research
institutes.
The MEST has decided to make a
"convergence technology based
growth engine master plan" by August
this year through the National Science
and Technology Council (NSTC). This
master plan will include diverse convergence technology based R&D
tasks of many related government
organizations.
For example, the following are
expected to be included: convergence
technology stimulation, new industry
creation (u-health and robot), and
industry intensification (next generation automobile and u-city). In order to
facilitate the participation and investment from the private sector, tax
reduction measures are also to be
made until December this year.
For an effective distribution of R&D
resources and efficient investment,
MEST is to review the whole process
of national R&D projects: planning,
resources distribution, project management, evaluation, and utilization of
results.
And from the overall point of view,
inefficiencies will be removed. Until
August this year, the Korea Research
Foundation and the Korea Science
Foundation will be merged.
By revising existing rules and regulations, the different project management methods of each government
organizations are to be integrated and
simplified. The integration of R&D
evaluation systems is also expected
to follow. Industry-university linkage
programs are to be introduced.
In order to expand the research
capacity of universities, the government plans to extend its financial support from a current 15% up to 23% by
this October, and at the same time it
will support the establishment of three
or four industry-university technology
holding companies in order to commercialize the technologies that many
colleges and institutes hold.
A task force team will be set up for
R&D and manpower fostering in an
effort to strengthen the research
capacity of domestic universities and
research institutes.
Council to become control tower
for R&D
The National Science and
Technology Council (NCTC) has
become a top national decision-making body for science and technology
policies. Because of this, the status of
NCTC risen, for the position of deputy
prime minister for science and technology, who was responsible for planning and coordinating of major policies for promoting science and technology, has disappeared from the new
governmental organization.
The existing organization of the
NCTC is rather complex: it was composed of one Steering Committee,
one Council, and two Special
Committees. The steering committee
and special committees have also two
or three sub committees. At this point
in time, however, the MEST has simplified the existing complex system as
Kim Do-yeon, Minister of the MEST
follows: one Steering Committee and
five Specialized Committees, all under
its control.
It also attracts people's attention
that the NCTC has entered under the
direct control of the President. Up until
now, the existing NCTC has been
composed of senior high-ranking officials, but had been a nominal body
without real power.
Now under the new government
organization, the NCTC has become
a real control tower for R&D, planning
and controlling mid- and long-term
R&D development.
The First Secretary of education,
science, and culture in the presidential office is in charge of the Steering
Committee, thus playing a linking role
between Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office), MEST, and government-owned research institutes.
This means that the presidential
office will directly participate in the
mid and long term major policies for
science and technology. The five specialized committees under the
Steering Committee are mainly composed of experts coming from the private sector, in an effort to better
reflect customer opinion.
KWH
Policy
Land, Transport and Sea Ministry
Urges Drastic Deregulation
Increased competition and futuristic control centres pave
the way for a new transport infrastructure.
C
hung Jong-hwan, the Minister
of Land, Transportation and
Maritime Affairs, has emphasized that his department will give top
priority to lifting the regulations that
hinder and restrict day-to-day business activities in order to revitalize the
economy.
Also, in an effort to foster construction and traffic as new growth engine
industries, the Ministry of Land,
Transportation and Maritime Affairs
(MLTMA) has made a plan to step up
an IT-based ubiquitous city (u-city)
project and to set up Intelligent
Transport Systems (ITS) as soon as
possible.
The ministry's seven major tasks
are as follows: (a) drastic removal of
regulations that hinder business activities, (b) expansion of future growth
engine industry, (c) building global
traffic and logistics network, (d) stabilization of real estate market and realization of housing welfare, (e) reduction of traffic congestion, (f) sustainable land management, (g) reasonable management of public construction project costs and budget saving.
On the occasion of enacting a law
for u-city construction support, the
MLTMA is prepared to push ahead
with the building of several u-cities on
a full-scale basis, investing about US$
100 million in R&D until 2012 in order
to improve competitiveness.
Following Dongtan City last year, it
will build a u-city respectively in
Yongin this year, Paju and Pangyo in
2009, Suwon in 2010, Sejong in 2012,
and Songdo in 2013, consequently
Chung Jong-hwan, Minister of the MLTMA
providing about 2.3 million people with
all the amenities of u-city by 2015.
Also, in an effort to reduce architecture and construction-related regulations, it will extend the eArchitecture Information System (eAIS) nationwide until June this year,
shortening the current required time of
60 days for permit and license of
architecture to 15 days, eventually
saving social costs of about US$1.5
billion a year.
Meanwhile, in order to encourage
LBS (Location Based Service) and
stimulate the traffic and logistics
industries, intelligent traffic systems
are to be established as soon as possible. At the same time, it will contribute to fostering new growth engine
industry, in areas such as traffic information services and intelligent automobiles.
As of last year, 27% of all national
highways have been equipped with
ITS, but it will increase to 45% in
2012, and the current 800,000 subscribers of traffic information services
is expected to increase to 5 million in
2012.
By setting up an integrated information systems to cover land, sea,
and air, the MLTMA plans to enhance
the quality of logistics service and to
foster logistics specialists. To this
end, it will soon start to develop and
complete an RFID based logistics hub
information system in 2012, which will
link all airports, harbors, and inland
logistics bases.
It is also set to introduce a Bus
Information System (BIS) to provide
transport news for local areas. This
year, the system will be set up in
Daegu, Ulsan, and Jeju, and next
year the BIS will be extended to
seoul.
Meanwhile, in the report, President
Lee made this comment, "The new
government is pushing ahead with
two major economic policies. Those
are - strengthening competitiveness
and drastic deregulation. Their success or failure hangs on the MLTMA's
efforts, as about 50% of related regulations are MLTMA rules."
He added, "From now on, taking
into consideration the problems of pollution and environment, more effort is
needed to make more use of railroad
and sea transportation instead of land
transport. Also, as far as logistics are
concerned, Korea has to be the logistics hub for the Northeast Asia."
KWH
Digital Society
Breaking the Code
Having advanced IT skills does not mean you have to spend your life
chained to a computer. Mok Ha-young gave up a career as a computer
programmer to look for a different way to use her skills.
She tells us her story.
Who are you?
Mok Ha-young is a 33 year-old Web Consulting Manager for
joinsM, a company that provides marketing solutions for hospitals and medical clinics. But things were not always this way for
her - once upon a time she was a successful software programmer for Choyang Shipping, one of the largest companies in the
land at that time.
She was working at the frontline for one of Korea's biggest
industries, but when Choyang went bankrupt, she decided to go
down a different career path.
After almost four years at Choyang, Mok decided to call it a
day on her software programming career, and instead to delve
into the world of marketing. She says that she has never looked
back since.
Mok Ha-young - My Story
Software Programming
Korean programmers, maybe all programmers, even, tend to
think of the programmes they make as their babies. We are
immensely proud of them, and we feel they are very precious for
us. It was the same for me when I was working as a programmer. I had to spend a few nights working straight through until
the morning, but I was always satisfied with the results.
My biggest happiness as a software programmer was seeing
other people use my work in their daily lives.
Marketing
Marketing is more based on statistics than I thought. I often
had to deal with accounting and statistics information as part of
my job in computer programming. I had an idea, about how to
improve some aspect of my company's marketing strategy. This
idea was taken up, and it gave me a lot of confidence in myself.
From then on, I became interested in marketing.
Most of the people I used to work with are working as planners or consultants - it seems to have become the rule rather
than the exception in the Korean programming industry of
late.
As part of my new job, I spend a lot of time with people.
I am out and about, and spend time meeting new and
diverse people - that is something that was not the case
when I was working as a programmer.
An edge in a new industry
Online marketing is actually a fairly logical industry for a
programmer to get into. We have a better understanding of
the inner workings of the Internet than most people, we
have the skills that a lot of companies need.
Simple advertising and marketing looks ugly and modern Korean "netizens" see straight through it. We have the
knowledge to make sophisticated marketing to attract
Korean tech-savvy "netizens."
A few years ago, people had to put in a lot of time and
labour into marketing in order to get the desired result, but
with programming skills, we can get the job done in much
less time, with a lot less effort. This is my strong point in
this field, and for anyone else who is in a position like mine.
We can make, compile and understand data much
faster than most other marketing people. We know and
understand the trends of the Internet better than anyone
else, we can spot what peoples' interests are and see what
they want to spend their money on.
Dreams
I did not always want to be involved in marketing. Even
before I studied computer science and became a programmer, I had other hopes for my future.
When I was at high school, I dreamed of being a
teacher. I especially liked geography, and my geography
teacher, and I wanted to teach geography, too. But I failed
the university test. It was the end of that dream, but it
turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me.
People say that everyone has three chances to "make
it" in their lives. I think that teaching was my first one.
On Korea and IT
A lot of Koreans think that Korea is some kind of IT powerhouse, but I don't really agree. Someone I know who
went to KAIST, Korea's top technology university, but IT
salaries were leaving him in financial difficulties, so he
ended up taking a medicine conversion course at another
institute just to get by.
Just studying pure science in this country will make it
difficult for you to find a good job after you graduate. These
kind of people often find it difficult to find work that is well
paid. The government needs to support exactly this kind of
person so that we can concentrate harder on development.
Inspiration
I have paid a lot of attention to what Steve Jobs, the
founder of Apple, has had to say for himself. He was born
into an unconventional family environment, and dropped
out of university.
What is most amazing for me is that he designed the
Apple Mac computer in a converted garage. I think he
shows us that the most important things in life are confidence and spirit.
Importance of IT
We live and breathe technology in the modern world.
Can most people imagine even a single day without a computer on their office table at work? Most office workers
would have to just go home if there was no terminal for
them to use. We can communicate with the entire world at
the touch of a button via email, and if that is not enough,
we can use video calls to speak to people as though they
were in the same room as us.
We do not need bulky counting machines, calculators or
long division on pieces of paper to do complex monthly
account settlements - we just press a few buttons on our
keyboards and the calculations are there instantaneously.
Mok Ha-young was talking to Tim Alper
Why are there so many
different computer
languages?
There are thousands of programming languages, with new ones being created every
year. But why have computer engineers created so many languages? If there were only
one programming code - would our lives not
be easier?
Not according to C# Project Manager Eric
Gunnerson. He explains, "Why are there so
many kinds of programming languages in the
world? You might as well ask why there are
so many kinds of saw. There are different
tools to do different jobs."
So just as you might use a metal saw to cut
through iron and a chainsaw to cut though
wood, C++ might not be the right tool for fixing
one problem, but it might be perfect for solving another.
Interview Highlights
N
am Joong-soo, the chief executive officer of KT, started his
second term on March 3 by
holding a tea-time brainstorming session at the Media Headquarters of KT
for half an hour.
It was a unique oppertunity for KT
staff to be able to have discussions on
management issues. KT aired the
talks with the CEO through its internal
networks of MegaTV, WiBro, Satellite,
and Internet so that 38,000 KT
employees across the country could
watch.
He mentioned in the discussion
that he believes KT should become a
media-entertainment company by providing various content for customers
through such media as TV, PC, wired
and wireless Internet and mobile
phones
We spoke exclusively to Nam last
month on the occasion of the confirmation of his second term.
Q: Congratulations on your second
term as KT CEO. Do you have any
thoughts to share with us?
A: It is a great privilege for me to
serve KT again. I would like to say
that my second term would not have
been made possible without the devotion of all KT's staff. I owe a great deal
to them. And I would also like to
express my gratitude to our cus-
Nam Joong-soo celebrates his second term as KT
President
Nam Wins Second KT Term
tomers and, who have contributed to
the continuing progress of KT.
Q: You have spoken of your belief
that high ranking officers at the company should spend more time out in
the field, instead of staying in the
office. Can you tell us a little more
about it?
A: There is a saying - there are three
kinds of generals, the brave, the intellectual and the generous. But I want
add one more kind to that list - the
field general. The concept of field
general means a general who prefers
working in markets and workplaces to
staying in their office. If you go out to
see customers, for example, you can
see what you cannot see in the office.
You can hear complaints from customers more directly than you can
behind your desk.
Q: What is the media-entertainment
business?
A: We are living in an era of convergence. No single service in the IT sector can exist on its own. Look at the
markets at home and abroad. TV is
not what it used to be any more. The
traditional fixed TV in your living room
is now getting up and walking aroung
with its owners. DMB is an example of
this.
Modern TVs can play multimedia contents, providing TV plus Internet serv-
ices. Internet TV is the child of this convergence. The media-entertainment
business is a new area that combines
information and communication services with the entertainment service. In
order to survive in fast-growing future
markets, we have no choice but to educate the KT family and invest in assets.
Q: SK Telecom bought Hanaro
Telecom, second largest broadband
provider. Will it be a threat to KT, as
number one broadband provider?
A: In the short term, that could be a risk
to KT because the turnover might mean
that we will face some harsh competition in the market would happen. But in
long term, KT can take advantage of
the competition to make KT stronger.
Q: Analysts recommend that KT should
merge with KTF, KTs offshoot mobile
phone company to compete with the
SKT-Hanaro group. What is your opinion?
A: I am taking it into consideration. But
the important thing is that a merger
should be done in a way that help to
cement competitiveness and giving
added-values to customers. The merger should focused on the values of
shareholders, customers and KT.
Q: You played guitar six years ago for
your staff when you were the CEO of
KTF. What is the inspiration you were
trying to give to your workers?
A: A CEO playing guitar in front of
workers was pretty much unthinkable in
Korean business culture. CEOs were
too often depicted as a person who has
no charisma and does not smile in public.
But things have changed. In order to
change the culture, directors need to
change their image. Younger people
prefer a fun CEO to a boss who is
stuck in their ways. A CEO can change
the way his or her staff think, so that
original and creative ideas can come
out more freely. In this convergence
era, a spirit of challenging and creativity
is essential. And CEOs should spearhead that campaign.
CGE
U-life
The City of the Future arrives in
Incheon
Songdo's International Business District promises more than just investment - its residents will inhabit a sustainable, highly-connected and intelligent City of the Future.
A
A projected image of Songdo International City
cross the water from Incheon
International Airport, you can
see four brand new high-rise
60+ story residential towers located in
the City of the Future being built
today. That city is called Songdo
International Business District, located
in the heart of Incheon's Free
Economic Zone. Songdo IBD officially
opens in September 2009 as the first
new city in the world designed and
planned as an international business
district.
Songdo IBD is the closest city to
the number one airport in the world Incheon International Airport will be
only 15 minutes away via the new 7.4
mile superhighway bridge. This
US$30 billion plus, 100-million square
foot, master-planned Aerotropolis
brings together urban, regional and
business site planning along with
international airport proximity in a syn-
ergistic manner and is the largest private real estate venture in the world.
The city's plan includes fifty million
square feet of office space - including
a landmark 65-story Tower and
Convention Center, thirty million
square feet of residential space, ten
million square feet of retail, five million
square feet of hotel space and ten
million square feet of green space.
Because of its central location within
the Yellow Sea Economic Basin which comprises an economically
active population of more than 200
million with a GDP of USD 1.3 trillion Songdo will act as the business hub
for multinational companies in
Northeast Asia.
Dr. Young Maing, the CEO and
Chairman of uLife (Songdo IBD's
ubiquitous computing division), notes
that Incheon's new City of the Future
offers the opportunity to other IT com-
panies as a test bed for cutting-edge
technologies. Songdo uLife was created by a joint venture of Gale
International, POSCO E&C and LG
CNS. Songdo residents will enjoy
myriad digital technologies supported
by uLife's state-of-the-art city-wide IT
eco-system running on a Broadband
Converged Network (BCN).
This BCN is a unique, world-class
integration of wireless, wired and
WiBro networks meshed together citywide, meaning you can always stay
connected throughout the entire city
without ever having to find a hotspot.
The BCN is being designed to offer
virtually unlimited potential for all
kinds of data, voice, text, photos,
online DVD-quality movies, etc. sharing the entire network seamlessly and
without crashes, slowdowns nor interruptions.
Though Seoul is still on top of the
TheAge.com's published list as the #1
Tech Capital of the World, Songdo is
already on the list and hasn't even
opened for business yet. "Upon completion, Songdo will likely be the ultimate digital city. Even as a work in
progress, it makes the list."
Not only is Songdo IBD's the
largest private project in history with a
best-of-class IT infrastructure, it is
also a frontrunner in leading sustainable (re: green) city development, creating an unprecedented, lasting heritage from scratch. The Songdo project is being developed by New York-
based Gale International on 1500
acres of reclaimed land along
Incheon's waterfront.
Gale International has committed
to making Songdo IBD a hub of commercial activity while ensuring the
highest environmental standards. In
order to attract the best multinational
companies, the developers of Songdo
IBD are taking unprecedented initiatives to make it one of the "greenest"
places in Asia. Indeed, Songdo IBD
was recently named a "green urbanism" pilot project by the U.S. Green
Building Council.
In addition to maintaining an
impressive 40% green space within
the Songdo IBD, Gale has made it a
priority that all significant buildings in
the project meet at least Leadership in
Energy
and
Environmental
Development (LEED) Silver ND certification standard for neighborhood
development.
LEED certification means that a
comprehensive list of standards are
designed into the project including
significant reduction in carbon footprint, efficient use of wastewater, use
of local and sustainable materials,
improvements in overall energy efficiency including heating and cooling
systems and effective management of
transportation and waste streams.
The uLife BCN also supports sustainable opportunities for interesting
city-wide projects. uLife is also using
the BCN as the web-based data
pipeline to manage individual buildings with installed Intelligent Building
Systems. IBS enables buildings to run
more efficiently and safely in four
areas: energy efficiency, life-safety
systems, telecommunications systems and workplace automation.
With the fast, ubiquitous and robust
backbone city-wide, in a legacy-free
infrastructure, uLife's BCN also elegantly enables an integrated
approach to facilities management.
Integrated Facilities Management
(IFM) creates a cross-building com-
munication network for monitoring
similar systems within multiple facilities.
Building owners can reduce costs
of running their buildings due to IFM's
economy of scale as fewer engineers
can monitor multiple spaces at the
same time on the same, affordable
web-based infrastructure as well as
automating/controlling city-wide energy use through load sharing and
power use and centralized security
monitoring.
Maing Young, Chairmain of Songdo uLife
International education is also part
of the City of the Future's DNA in
Songdo. Currently, Gale International
and Microsoft Learning are collaborating on the "Educational Excellence in
Technology Initiative" to link students,
parents, educators, academic institutions, local industry, and government
partners in a shared vision of how students and workers can reach their
potential through technology skills
training in a global context.
Specifically, the agreement outlines
the integration of the Microsoft Digital
Literacy curriculum and Microsoft IT
Academy
into
the
Songdo
International School, Asia's newest
and most modern private preparatory
school, where it will be available both
in the school curriculum and in after-
hours adult education for local citizens.
Microsoft joins an already extensive
list of best-in-class multinational corporations selected by Gale International
to act as strategic partners for Songdo
IBD including Morgan Stanley, United
Technologies, ISS, and Taubman
Centers, among others.
Chairman Stanley Gale said, "The
objective of the initiative is to provide
students of all ages with the relevant
knowledge and skills to expand life
experience, enhance employment
opportunities, and enable social innovations as citizens of a global economy. This effort will serve as a paradigm for other institutions around the
world."
John B. Hynes, III, Chief Executive
Officer and Managing Partner of Gale
International, said, "We believe this
partnership with Microsoft Learning is
further evidence of how Songdo IBD
can contribute to the economic competitiveness of Korea."
Gale International aims to build a
high quality international city where
both Koreans and foreigners will want
to live and work. Songdo will be one of
the most environmentally sustainable
and technologically advanced cities in
the world.
Gale is building a true community
where residents and visitors are connected to one another through fully
integrated, synergistic mixed-use habitats, state of the art and environmentally responsible architecture and systems, and cultural and educational
institutions.
A brand new development, the
Songdo International Business District
will have an impact beyond the bricks
and mortar of the city. It aims to lead
the world through visionary design,
engineering, and green living.
Responding to the needs of a changing planet, Gale International is committed to working with its residents and
partners to create the ideal city of the
21st Century.
Academia
KAIST Fusing Culture and Technology
"If you are going to hire someone to
cook for you, you need to know how
to cook yourself." This is a common
business proverb in Korea. Industry
bosses regularly quote it at each
other.
The same idea applies in the army,
too. A commanding officer in the army
does not ask soldiers to do something
that he would never do himself. If
those sayings are right, then how is it
possible to know and do everything in
every field?
The modern world requires a leader
who is an expert in one area, and also
a jack of all trades. Becoming a master of one is feasible in Korea; if you
posses 19 hours a day dedication
throughout your school and university
years. The theory is that you will get a
survival kit required for the real world.
But how do you go about becoming a
jack of all trades too? The Graduate
School of Culture Technology (GSCT)
in the Korea Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology (KAIST)
think they have the answer for person
asking themselves that question.
The Dean of the Graduate School of
Culture Technology, Wohn Kwangyun Ph.D., is the founder of the term
Cultural Technology (CT) in Korea.
He established a graduate school in
2006 with a vision to carve students
into multi-talented individuals who can
become IT leaders in the real world.
Wohn says, "KAIST has consistently
been one of the best engineering
schools in Asia. We excel at training
students to become leaders in a fastgrowing information technology industry. But new inventions in IT create
new culture in the society, and all
industries tend to relate to culture
both directly and indirectly."
He also said that this increases the
value of the culture industry. It was
necessary to develop a field of education that could rise alongside the field
of engineering. This field could be
derived from sociology, management,
or cognitive science, but the overlap is
small, while the technology-based culture industry is large, according to
Wohn.
Engineering and science have a lot to
contribute to culture and the two meet
in highly pragmatic circumstances.
The new department was established
to serve as a bridge between engineering and culture.
Wohn explains, "The development of
science or research can create a
deeper understanding of culture. As
an example, natural science researches nature while humanity studies the
nature of human existence. Just as
many things, including the sky and
human hardware, can be investigated
by science, so too can the cultural
phenomena be approached by the
same means."
With these academic, pragmatic, and
inner-motivated purposes, the
Graduate School of Culture
Technology was launched with the full
cooperation and financial support
from the Korean Ministry of Culture
and Tourism.
The Graduate School of Culture and
Technology offers two core educational programs: an M.Sc and a Ph.D.
course. Students trained at the School
are expected to take an active role in
culture technology and explore the
emerging convergence between the
arts, humanities, and technology.
The School's major study areas are
Media Science and Engineering,
Contents Creation and Planning, and
Management and Policy for the
Content Industry. Some of the nine
course clusters include Compulsory,
Music, Sound, and Performance,
Wohn Kwang-yun, Dean of Graduate School of
Culture Technology
Human-Computer Interaction and
Games, Economics, Business and
Policy, and Visuals, Design, and
Architecture.
"No other schools in Korea teach the
subjects of culture and technology as
systematically as we do. Some
schools are strong in computer music
while others are known for their
graphic design courses, but our
school is more inclusive, because we
deliver an all-in-one program with toprate teaching professionals," says
Wohn.
GSCT even runs a Center for Culture
Technology (CCT) to encourage creativity from students who face challenges while researching original topics. Seven different research labs are
open to the full-time research staff
and artists alongside the GSCT's faculty and students.
These labs include: a Visual Media
Lab, an Experience Lab, a Music,
Sound, and Technology Lab, a
Digitalmedia and Contents Lab, a
Digital Storytelling and Cognition Lab,
a Culture Management and Policy
Lab, and a Physical Interaction Lab.
The wide variety of courses and labs
suggests that GSCT is a place where
interdisciplinary education and
research can operate independently.
"One of the few things I emphasize at
orientation every year is that research
is an extreme sport. A high degree of
spiritual strength is required in
extreme sports to achieve speed,
height, and a high level of physical
exertion. The same is required from
students for researching as they challenge their intellectual and physical
limits," Wohn explains.
Dr. Wohn talks proudly of KAIST's
"venture history in IT." As the word
venture itself was still catching on in
Korea, the first few generations of
graduates from KAIST started some
successful venture companies like
Qnis, Nexon, and Cyworld, and
carved out a path for IT ventures in
Korea.
However, only a few of the KAISTtrained engineers have become IT
leaders - because they understood
engineering but not the culture behind
it.
One of GSCT's visions is to invent
prototypes of cultural artifacts by considering cutting-edge issues in culture
technology. After all, says Wohn, universities are places to learn new
things."
He explains, "We can't teach things
that Wikipedia can already offer people. Realistically, we can't expect to
create Renaissance Men like
Leonardo Da Vinci. The real world
requires team work to make a project.
In order to make a productive computer game - a programmer, an artist,
and a businessperson must put their
heads together. By studying at GSCT,
students can increase their communication ability for real world situations."
Assistant Professor Noh Jun-yong
practices this idea by assigning students to work on projects in groups.
Professor Noh has worked in an
American firm and realized that most
of what he learned in school was irrelevant once he started to work in the
real IT world. After two years of training or internship, most workers finally
find a comfort zone at work.
Noh says, "My teaching philosophy is
that what our students learn in our
classrooms should be practical in the
real world. It's in our best interest to
educate students to become unique
leaders in the global market."
According to Noh, students in top universities in America are recognized
for their work during school years by
firms and get scouted before they
graduate. In Korea, at least six
months training is expected for students who already gave their all while
training for real life jobs while at
school.
"The video contents created by our
students are quite amazing. It is my
personal ambition to see Korea using
its own competitive software to create
high quality image contents in the
near future," says Noh..
Simply being an expert in one field of
IT is a limiting thing to do to your
career. And forward-thinking professors like these are doing their best to
guide these young student sailors to a
successful exploration into a new
vision of an IT future.
CGE
Hats off to the Students of the GSCT
The Graduate School of Culture
Technology is full of explorers who
are challenging themselves to
cooperate with other visionaries to
create new business models in both
the IT and cultural industry. Cellist
Kim Tae-woo joined the GSCT with
a specific goal after he majored in
music at Yonsei University.
As a performer, he still struggles
with the question, how do you make
money with culture? Kim wants to
learn how to persuade companies
to invest more money in culture at
the GSCT.
In real life, when a performance is
not a huge success in public, it is
not supported by firms or organizations. Thus, potential does not
always translate into professional
success. Kim has worked with several groups to gain a better world
picture.
One of his partners, Lee Jong-eun,
is a student at DMC Lab. He
majored in Media at Soongsil
University. He sought to find a way
to connect media and digital contents at GSCT.
Park Eugene, from the department
of management at Yonsei
University, worked at Samsung
SDS for three years after graduation, yet found his work piled up
with an enormous amount of paperwork. In order to take a look at the
big picture, Park joined the Cultural
Management and Policy Lab.
These three students won the
Future Handset Idea contest that
was presented by KAIST
Convergence Research Center.
Without an engineering background, the students brainstormed
ideas together and took an emotional approach in their idea.
In the end, their silver phones,
which allow users to access and
transfer information easily using
computing power technology, were
credited for their creativity and
uniqueness.
Through communication, we can
challenge the limits of art and computers. There is a limit to what technology can do, but not there are no
limits to the imagination - and that is
our strongest weapon.
Display 2008
Korea Needs to Show More
Display Initiative
Experts say the Korean display
industry must not rest on its laurels
as China and Taiwan look to overtake
in the international LCD race.
Y
ou step out of the house in the
morning and get your newspaper. A normal day. Except the
paper is not some clumsy myriad of
newsprint and oversized pages - it is
a single electronic page, one that
changes in front of your eyes as new
stories break.
As you walk down the street, liquid
crystal billboards change before your
eyes. The bus timetable gives you
realtime information on where the bus
you are waiting for is, before displaying the latest road safety information.
In the shops you walk past, price tags
change and flash up messages for
shoppers and shop staff.
No, this is not Blade Runner, you
are not in some sci-fi fantasy set two
hundred years in the future - this is
happening right now, in 2008. Last
year, Sony launched a reading device
that is 0.3 millimetres thick, and the
likes of LG and the rest are hot on
their heels.
And these are not devices that
strain the eyes like reading a e-book
on a PDA, either. As closely as possible, these devices are trying to mimic
the experience of looking at real
paper. Rather than being backlit, they
use flexible display technology.
But this is all the tip of the iceberg.
Organisers talk shop at the IMID Display Conference in 2007
When John Logie Baird, the Scottish
inventor of the television set, started
making televisions, they used a cathode ray diode to display pictures on a
curved screen. But in modern times,
the Plasma screen and now the LCD
panel have meant that a whole new,
more sophisticated process can give
TV viewers and compute users a better picture and a flatter, less bulky
device.
According to experts, the display
industry is not just growing, it is ballooning. In the next five years, analysts are predicting the industry will
continue to expand at rate of 20% a
year. Yes, that is 20%. So in five
years' time, the industry will be twice
its current size.
When it comes to LCD display
manufacture, the whole industry is a
very Asian affair. In fact, the whole
business is more or less run by four
East Asian countries. The Japanese
invented the technology, but Korea
were quick to move and have since
taken over as the leading force in
manufacture.
However, as is so often the case in
Asian industry, the Taiwanese and
Chinese want in, and their cheap land
prices and labour costs make them
more competitive than any of the
other display suitors.
According to Professor Kim Hyunjae of Yonsei University and
Executive Commitee Secretary of the
IMID, Korea might rule the digital
empire for the moment, but this country needs to watch its back. "The
Taiwanese are very good at catching
up, and China is definitely a powerful
emerging force in this market," he
says.
The reason for all of this is the
"Clean Room" - an assembly area
that is totally (as the name suggests)
clean.
For the uninitiated it sounds very
nice, if a little uncomplicated. But the
reality is that Clean Room environments are exceptionally difficult to
create. LCD panels are so sensitive to even the tiniest particle of dust
that they would be ruined should they come into contact with foreign
matter of any sort. That sort of technology will set you back a cool $2
billion per assembly line - and that is why not many companies are prepared to make the investment.
So why are countries like Korea and Taiwan so happy to make this
kind of pricey, complex "Clean Room" environment and bigger
economies like the United States and Europe, are not?
The answer is, surprisingly, semiconductors. It turns out that LCD
manufacture is not the only industry that needs a Clean Room - computer chips do, too. And, if there is one thing that Japan, Korea, Taiwan
and China all do well, it is semiconductors. Clean Rooms are the norm
in all four countries, so this goes a long way to explaining why they lead
the market by such a huge margin.
Right now, major Korean companies like Samsung and LG have the
LCD panel industry cornered, but Kim says this may change. He
explains, "It is possible that Korea will be caught up, especially if
Taiwanese companies start to cooperate with mainland China on this,
as they have such favourable conditions there for industry and manufacturing."
Kim suggests that Korean companies needs to be more inventive
and forward-thinking if Korea wants to remain number one in the LCD
manufacturing business.
"There are obviously a lot of parallels
to be drawn with the semiconductor
business, but there are also major differences. Semiconductors don't need a
lot of components, but LCD do, and we
are importing most of these at present.
We need to start developing our own
unique components so we don't need to
rely so heavily on foreign sources for
this," he says.
Indeed, Kim firmly believes that
being unique is something Korea must
strive to do when it comes to display.
He says, "Intellectual property issues Kim Hyun-jae, Professor at Yonsei
and Executive Commitee
are becoming major sticking points for University
Secretary of the IMID, 2008
companies in the display world. Korea
has been manufacturing LCD panels for ten years. But the components
required in assembly are so diverse. There are so many parts that it is
like building a car. We need to be involved with making some of these
components ourselves."
In spite of this, it seems hard to believe that Korea will be able to stay
ahead of the Chinese for long. There is no competition when it comes to
industry in most other areas, why should LCD be any different.
Kim agrees, and adds, "That is why it is so important to be inventive.
Korea will never be able to compete when it comes to consumer goods
that are produced on massive scales, like laptop monitors and the like,
which use LCD. We need to focus on developing new products, and
developing new products for the top end of the market - it is the only
way we will stay ahead."
The International
Meeting on
Information Display,
October 2008
A new, improved version
of the display exhibition,
to be held in Seoul this year,
aims to be the best of its kind.
The IMID has a seven year history,
but organisers of this year's conference
say that IMID 2008, to be held from the
13th to 17th October, will be the biggest
and best yet.
Although the US organises the SID,
currently the biggest display conference
in the world, America itself does not produce LCD panels, so it makes more
sense for Asia to showcase the technology, seeing as the Orient is the place
where LCD companies operate, say
IMID organisers.
This year's event will be moved from
Daegu to Seoul, to make it easier for foreign visitors to make the journey to the
event, and on show will not only be display goods, but semiconductor devices
and consumer electronics.
However, the only drawback for the
IMID is that it has seen relatively few
visitors come in from abroad - organisers say that around 70% of the people
who have come to the exhibition have
been Koreans.
That said, the new format and diverse
nature of this year's event promises to
change all that. Putting the event on in
Seoul should attract more people, as
should the consumer electronics and
semiconductors on display.
Says Professor Kim, one of the organisers of IMID, "It is going to be different
from most stuffy conferences, because it
is also a display exhibition. That means
there will be tons of things to see and
do. Anyone thinking of coming along can
expect to have a lot of fun."
TA
Finance
Visiting Credit Guarantee Service Promises
to Build an Oasis for Small Businesses
G
yeonggi-do is no ordinaryprovince in Korea - as the
area surrounding Seoul, its
population is huge, and it is home to
the headquarters of dozens of multinational coorperations, including the
Samsung Group.
The Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee
Foundation provides vital credit guarantee services for smaller businesses
within the region.
The foundation has offered aggressive, customer-oriented, guaranteeing
and customized services to various
different companies and groups. As a
result, the GCGF provided 15,155
guarantees, amounting to about 763
billion won in 2007.
It has also greatly helped smaller
businesses and economic leaders in
the province. This has been a boost
for all who are suffering from the sluggish economy.
The GCGF, which is in charge of
providing financial assistance to
smaller businesses and economic
leaders in the province has spearheaded the efforts to create a business-friendly province. It has done so
by establishing a smooth capital
assistance system and by trying to
achieve management stability for
Korea's smaller companies.
In September 2007, GCGF
became the only institution to receive
the highest grade in a management
evaluation of 20 public agencies in
Gyeonggi-do.
The GCGF is not going to sit on its
laurels and be satisfied with the result
of the evaluation, though. It is expected to become a local general credit
guarantee institution which speaks up
for small companies and economic
leaders in the region and leads them
by continuously providing customized
guarantee services.
However, the dropping Won - US
Dollar exchange rates, high oil prices
and various regulations which are
becoming obstacles to companies in
the metropolitan areas, have worsened the business environment for
business people in the province. All of
these make up the backbone of the
national economy.
Park Hae-chin, Chairman of GCGF
In this regard, the province has
always sought measures to provide
assistance for its small- and middlesized firms and small economic leaders. The GCGF has performed guarantee assistance connected with
industries and policies aimed at cultivating smaller businesses in the
province.
It has played the role of effectively
creating economic policies by more
swiftly providing credit guarantees
and simplifying credit evaluation and
office procedure.
Park Hae-chin, Chairman of the
GCGF, has broken the age-old supply-oriented custom. Park believes in
the management philosophy of ``visiting credit guarantee service.''
He has led the efforts to relieve
corporate financial difficulties by posi-
tively expanding credit guarantee supply through business-oriented methods of supply and efforts to construct
a business-friendly province.
Gyeonggi to Provide One-Stop
Service to Cultivate Smaller
Businesses
The GCGF started to provide
assistance to cultivate small firms in
the province in August 2007, the time
taken for the entire procedure has
been reduced to seven days from an
initial fifteen days.
Accordingly, the province has
reduced the steps involved in the procedure from four to two by improving
the management system of the funds
for cultivating small companies. As a
result, the GCGF can provide onestop service involving capital assistance and credit guarantees.
GCGF Spearheads Overseas Efforts
The GCGF and Gyeonggido Small
& Medium Business Association have
concentrated their energy on helping
related companies expand their business to overseas markets and established a bridgehead for those firms.
As a part of such efforts, officials
from the two agencies visited
Washington in the US, in July last
year and provided support for OKTA,
a sister agency of the GCGF, to sign
an agreement for trade exchange
cooperation.
In this way, the GCGF has focused
on assisting companies in the
province to develop in domestic and
foreign markets so that businesspeople, who have faced unlimited competition due to the Korea-US Free Trade
Agreement (FTA), can actively cope
with the situation and occupy the markets faster than their rivals.
KWH
Interview with Park Hae-chin, Chairman of Gyeonggi
Credit Guarantee Foundation
Q. What are plans of the GCGF for the year 2008?
A. The government and major financial research institutes
predict Korea will achieve 5% economic growth due to the
gradual consumption recovery, but the nation is expected
to suffer from an economic slowdown because of a number
of negative factors, including the sub prime mortgage crisis
in the US, insecure financial markets and high oil prices.
Considering such situations, the roles to be taken by the
GCGF will become more important. The GCGF will exert
utmost efforts to complete the construction of a businessfriendly province by providing practical and comprehensive
credit guarantees for small- and medium-sized companies
and local economic leaders this year.
For this purpose, the GCGF plans to raise its share of the
credit guarantee market to about 13% by supplying credit
guarantees amounting to 700 billion Won to about 15,000
firms in the province in 2008. In addition, the GCGF is
going to provide top-quality customer service and to carry
out its innovative new campaigns.
Q. Do you think regulations on companies in the
Metropolitan areas will affect the economic slowdown?
A. As I said, the financial troubles which smaller companies
and business leaders in the province have been experiencing due to the poor domestic consumption are expected to
continue for the long term.
However, as the new government has said it will reform
regulations and invigorate the national economy, there is
hope for this year.
The economy of Gyeonggi-do has played the role of a driving force for national growth. Therefore, the provincial
economy should recover for the sake of the national economy. In other words, one of the biggest tasks of the economic policies of the current government is to make businesspeople comfortable with the idea of expanding their investment.
Korea will be able to achieve economic growth only when
there is more active investment by businessmen. The government should review various regulations, such as restrictive policies in metropolitan areas, which have hindered
activities of businessmen in the province in the past.
The province has taken the role of a driving force in the
national economy and represents up to a third of Korea's
entire small and medium companies. To create a businessfriendly environment, it is important to abolish restrictive
regulations on companies and it is key to national development that we activate corporate investment.
Q. What is the 5S movement - your new management
goal for this year - and what are the management
policies you are pursuing?
A. All executives and workers of the GCGF, above all, are
making smaller companies and local businesspeople in the
province work together in unison. We are making the
utmost efforts to provide business-oriented services so that
smaller firms - the driving force behind Korea's economic
development - display business activities to show that they
are powerful figures in the national economy.
In addition, the GCGF has improved services mind by
strengthening the ethical awareness of our employees.
This is done by carrying out educational programs for them.
We are trying to reform through education and training
them to carry out services for customers. We want them to
have knowledge about their jobs. We will make efforts to
offer the best customer service through conducting unlimited voluntary activities for smaller businesses and leading
businessmen in the province. In particular, the GCGF is
going to conduct an enterprise-wide 5S movement in 2008.
The 5S policy stands for service, speed, satisfaction, stabilization and success management.
The GCGF will prepare services to satisfy customers,
establish a swift credit guarantee support system through
simplifying related procedures and cutting through red tape.
We hope to build a substantial and sound organizational
culture by strengthening innovative capacity and preparing
an independent management basis to create a leading
agency of management innovation.
The GCGF plans to establish itself as the top regional
assistance agency and spearhead assistance for the interests of smaller businesses in Gyeonggi-do.
W
hat is the Future for the
Korean Information Security
Vision 2008
Industry?
Experts hope 2008 is a year for improvement
and creating foundations abroad
O
ver ten years have passed
since the nation's information
security industry was created.
The industry has settled as one of
Korea's major industries with the
improvement of the environment for
investment in information security. It is
time for Korea to expand business
abroad based on competitive technological power which has been accumulated until now.
Leading IT companies, such as
IBM and Microsoft, have recently
taken a keen interest in the security
business, heightening concern in
security on the global level. The security business has been getting more
important by the day. In comparison,
Korea's security industry is in a relatively poor state.
Korea's information security industry has created demand in relation to
the security market based on national
technological strength over the past
few years. However, it is true that
Korea should admit that it has downplayed security as a special area of IT
or as part of the software business.
As the Ministry of Information and
Communication in charge of jobs
related to information security has
recently been disbanded, the related
jobs have been spread out among the
Broadcasting and Communications
Commission, the Ministry of
Knowledge Economy and the Ministry
of Public Administration & Security.
Because of this, it is difficult to
understand the policy direction of the
new government on information security. Almost 70% of Korea's information security firms are relatively small
businesses. Such a situation has
become an obstacle for the industry.
In an effort to resolve the problem,
the government should expand the
size of matching fund, improve investment environment through creating
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) funds,
offer tax incentives to companies pro-
tecting information, establish strategies to promote the information security industry and support companies
trying to expand abroad, and encourage small- and middle-sized firms in
their efforts.
The information security market is
expected to grow by about 30% this
year. However, there is a growing
concern that the rich will continue to
get richer and the poor will get poorer.
It is urgent that we create an
atmosphere for M&A to be activated
to enlarge the security market and to
help companies make smooth
advancement into overseas markets.
For this purpose, companies should
request the new administration's continuous assistance. Domestic companies should stop excessively fierce
competition and establish win-win
strategies.
KWH
In an interview with Korea IT Times,
Park Dong-hoon, Chairman of the
Korea Information Security Industry
Association (KISIA), also the CEO of
Nics Tech, says Korea should provide
a turning point for the 10-year-old
information security industry in 2008.
He also stressed that the imminent
task is to reorganise the information
security industry's values. Park said
he would do his best to improve status of Korean information security and
to create a basis for the industry to
expand abroad.
Park Dong-hoon, Chairman of KISIA
Q: The Ministry of Information and
Communication has now gone and
many of its responsibilities have
been
absorbed
by
the
Broadcasting and Communications
Commission (BCC). Because of
this, a lot of people think the the
information security industry will
be curtailed. What is the opinion of
the BCC regarding the government
reorganization? What should be
done legally and systematically for
the development of the industry?
A: The dissolution of the ministry can
hinder the development of the IT
industry but on the other hand, there
will be advantages as well, because
the functions of the ministry will be
divided into various agencies.
As the Korean Information Security
Agency is absorbed into the BCC, the
market is expected to grow quickly.
Korea should establish institutions to
activate information security companies to expand their business into
overseas markets, prepare related
laws, such as a law on protecting individual information. We also need to
legislate on the improvement of maintenance costs, and provide support
for M&As.
Q: NexG was listed on Kosdaq last
year and a number of information
security firms are expected to be
listed on the market this year. What
do you think is necessary for such
companies to have the ability to
stand on their own?
A: They should stop exhausting disputes regarding patents or prices.
Instead, they need to invest in
Research & Development (R&D) to
improve their technological competitiveness and cultivate labour
resources.
Q: The information security business is in a period of "consolidation" at the moment. In addition to
the active consolidation of goods,
there has also been consolidation
of business. What do you think
about this?
A: Like all software, security is also
are expected to be consolidated. The
consolidation efforts will consider the
users' convenience and costs and be
aimed at total security service solutions, in my opinion.
Q: The common task of domestic
security companies is to succeed
in overseas markets. Why do you
think domestic companies are not
successful in overseas markets
and what strategies should they
establish?
A: First of all, companies should
select items for which they can have
competitive power over rival firms and
then establish strategies where they
can concentrate on these items.
Domestic firms should also have technological power regarding the product
and improve the quality of goods. In
this respect, domestic firms are making efforts to improve the reference of
major customers and recognition - to
secure local channels and establish
localization and marketing strategies
in order to expand business to overseas markets.
Q: As KISIA chairman, what is your
vision in terms of leading the
KISIA?
A: There has been a lot of confusion
due to changes in related institutions
and advancement of large companies
into the security market. Amid the
confusion, however, KISIA will promote the unity of member companies
so that they can spearhead efforts to
develop the domestic information
security market as early as possible.
Q: What is your prospect for the
information security market this
year? Please explain KISIA's directions and plans.
A: KISIA will concentrate on preventing individual information from being
leaked and on products such as Web
Application Firewall, security USB and
NAC. In connection with companies,
large firms are anticipated to join the
market and global security firms are
expected to actively join the domestic
market.
Companies are also going to enter the
economies of scale stage through
M&As. The market, as a whole, will
likely aim for total security service,
instead of a united market. KISIA
plans to collect opinions of member
companies in accordance with the
new paradigm and then promote
views through an organic discussion
with related institutions, and reestablish the standing of the organization.
KWH
Vision 2008
IT Clubs Agree to Work Together
An ocean might separate the Electronics & Information Club of Seoul,
and the BayArea K Group of the United States, but they say that doesn't mean they can't work together.
Ra Jung-woong, President of Electronics &
Information Club
O
n a fine wonderful afternoon in
mid-March, Korea IT Times
had the opportunity to interview with Ra Jung-woong, President
of Electronics & Information Club (E&I
Club), a non-profit organization, located in the exclusive Gangnam area of
Seoul. Wearing a gentle smile, he has
received me with a warm welcome.
The office rooms of the E&I Club
are neither large nor luxurious, but its
membership is composed of many
well known veterans who have served
for a long time and have many great
contributions to electronics and information, industries in the beginning
stage of the industrialization in Korea.
Nearly a decade ago, this club was
set up by some major players. In the
beginning, the founding members
mainly came from Gold Star (now LG
Electronics), Samsung and Motorola
but also from small companies,
Korean government, and universities.
Professor Ra, returned Korea in
1971 to become the first chartered
professor of electrical engineering at
KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology), Korea's top
technology university. He is well
known by his development of underground rader to detect the deep
underground tunnel that North Korean
dug in the Korean DMZ (border area
between the North and South Korea).
He served as the President of the
Gwangju Institute of Science and
Technology (GIST), another top ranking technology university, and an
Administrative Committee member of
the
Microwave
Theory
and
Techniques (MTT) Society, IEEE in
the US.
Along with such big names as
Minister Kim Kee-hyong, President
Oh Myung and Minister Seo Junguck, he started up this club in an effort
to contribute to the electronics and
information industry, while sharing
information and friendship among
members.
The E&I Club is holds seminars
once a month, dealing with important
issues directly or indirectly related to
practical management. Through this
seminar, members exchange ideas,
thoughts, and experiences, and at the
same time communicate diverse fruitful information to the incumbent junior
managers. Ra said that the club will
be activated further by recruiting junior managers and presidents as club
members to meet the early high
expectations its founders initially had.
E&I - "We plan to recruit
more high-level staff as
club members"
In an effort to add a new impetus to
the workings of the E&I Club, it has
recently signed a sisterhood agreement with the BayArea K Group in
Silicon Valley of California, America.
The BayArea K Group (the K
stands for Korean) is an Americabased group of Korean IT professionals from diverse fields - including
robotics, mobiles and semiconductors.
It is another non-profit organization,
like E&I, and was founded a year ago.
It now has over 500 members, mainly
composed of incumbent managers in
the related fields.
It has many similarities with the E&I
Club from the aspect of human
resources. Most of its members come
from business circles and the academic world.
As they shared so much in common, the two organizations thought it
logical to work together and so the
sisterhood agreement was signed.
On the occasion of this event, E&I
Club and the K Group said they have
plans to link their respective websites,
step up information exchange, and
play an active matchmaking role for
potential group members.
KEJ
Korean Company Sees
Bright Future in Solar Energy
The Solar power industry is
still in an embryonic state,
but one Korean company
say they are making rapid
progress. We take a closer
look at the operations of
Millinet Solar.
M
illinet Solar are a visionary
solar cell manufacturers, with
their
headquarters
in
Seongseo Industrial Park in Daegu.
The company are now stepping up
the mass production of solar cells.
At present, Millinet's technology of
power conversion efficiency is operating at a level of 15-16%, but they say
they are making every effort to raise
their conversion rate to a world-class
level of 20% by 2010.
Millinet Solar have the ambitious
plan to produce a high-quality solar
cell for power conversion through
applied technology in the near future.
With the help of worldwide solar energy equipment manufacturer Shumid of
Germany, the company's manufacturing system has been completely
equipped with the latest in modern
solar energy equipment.
According to Millinet, this newly
completed production line is superior
to most existing semiconductor production lines, not only from the aspect
of cost saving, but also in terms of
productivity and technology efficiency.
For this reason they have high
expectations that before long, they will
be able to bridge the technology gap
with competitors from countries such
as Japan and Germany.
Also, through joint cooperation
between industry-academia-government, Millinet plans to establish a
solar energy research institute, developing various kinds of solar cell related applied technologies by means of
convergence technology, so that it will
become a world-class solar energy
specialist.
The product of this company is a
multi-crystalline solar cell. Its external
dimensions are 156mm x 156mm,
and its cell thickness is 240 +/- 30
microns. The average energy conversion rate ranges from 15 to 16%.
Treading an unbeaten path
Although the solar energy industry
is still in an infant stage, Lee Sangchul, president and CEO of Millinet
Solar, has spoken of his ambitious
vision to venture into the unknown in
the solar energy business, and succeeded in constructing a huge solar
cell factory in the Seongseo Industrial
Park, in Daegu, Korea.
Instead of seeking first profit and
growth, Lee has put emphasis on the
development of highly-efficient solar
cell technology. Because of his
efforts, the company has succeeded
in localizing solar cells with its own
independent technology, creating new
jobs, and consequently contributing to
the development of new growth
engine.
As a pioneer in this field, there are
still many things to be done. First of
all, specialized workers and
researchers have to be recruited and
trained, and, also, a wide range of
technical alliances has to be made.
By making efforts to raise the technology efficiency of conversion rate to a
level of more than 20%, it will be able
to bridge the gap with Japan and
Germany, who lead the industry.
Hopes for the future
Following Millinet Solar, Hyundai
Heavy Industries and Shinsung ENG
have recently started operations in
this field. In fact, the solar cell industry
has such a high entry level that it
requires a long period of time for
preparation, and a lot of investment.
Millinet Solar have taken a total of
three years to go from market surveys
to factory construction and production.
In addition to these efforts, more
investment has to be made for the
development of specialized manpower and technology, while trying to
build a solid relationship with business
partners overseas.
As of now, the production line
capacity is 30 MWp and is scheduled
to be expanded to 100 MWp in 2009,
to 200 MWp in 2010, and to 300 MWp
in 2012.
Due to partnerships with solar
energy specialists overseas, Millinet
Solar has successfully secured the
raw materials they need at a low price
for the past 5 years.
Because of this preparation, in the
near future the company say they will
not need to produce wafers, ingots,
and modules, but in the mid- and
long-term, they plan to establish an
assembly production line, saying that
they are aiming to produce to the
same level as Q-Cell, the German
company who currently lead the way
in the solar power industry.
Software
Software
- Tech's Poor Relation
I
n every family, no matter how
proud and harmonious-looking on
the outside, there is a relative that
nobody really likes to talk about.
Perhaps he is an embarrassing uncle
who always tells uncomfortably dirty
jokes, a female cousin who dresses a
little too provocatively for her age or a
tearaway nephew who is well-known
to the local police.
The Korean IT industrial family
holds itself in quite a lofty esteem, and
perhaps rightly so. However, although
the hardware industry and Internetbased firms do very well for themselves on both the domestic and international markets, the technology clan
has a relative it is not fond of mentioning at home - software.
While semiconductor companies,
laptop producers, IPTV and wireless
companies keep on hitting the jackpot, a permanent raincloud hangs
over the head of software producers
and engineers in Korea.
But this lonely Korean technological child is not alone in his misery.
Software seems to have a bad name
almost wherever you go. There is a lot
of instability when it comes to smaller
companies, who are in such a competitive business that they can easily
go out of business.
This makes consumers loathe to
trust them - if your software goes out
of date or there is a bug to fix, who
can you turn to if the manufacturers
have gone bust?
But what is the alternative - to use
software solutions designed by bigger
companies? The problem with this
kind of programme is that they are
often too general and "all-encompassing" to solve the specific problems of
individual companies. The bigger
companies who offer more customised software development can
charge exceptionally high rates, a further problem.
Investment in software development and software engineering is distinctly uncool in the modern environment. People, companies and governments are much more easily taken in
by the idea of setting up Internet ventures or working on flashy, welldesigned new hardware than setting
up schools full of geeky programmers
who will spend their time keying indecipherable code into banks of PCs.
However, it is exactly this kind of
attitude that gets the IT industry into
trouble. Software is pretty much integral to whatever you do, regardless of
how little you think it has to do with
software. The basic computer operating system has its limitations, and
even if you run a bank, a school or a
medical clinic, the chances are you
will need some custom-made or specialized software at some point, if you
want your business to work properly
or expand.
Another problem is that the software industry has such a terrible reputation even for people within the
industry. In Korea, horror stories are
regularly told about the painfully long
hours software engineers have to put
in at the big software employers. Too
much time spend stuck behind a computer terminal will cause burnout,
even in this nation of workaholics.
Even the money is not enough of a
motivating factor for many. I can count
in double figures the amount of former
software engineers I know both in
Korea and elsewhere, but I cannot
hold my hands up and say that I personally know a single working programmer.
In Korea, the software business is
something that it is acceptable to be
in for a few years to get a bit of experience and capital behind you, and a
nice chaebol name on your resume.
But once you have served your
apprenticeship, you get out and find
something else to do.
This seems to reflect the world
trend - except for places like the former Soviet Union, most of the world
regards computer programming as
some kind of an embarrassing relative, too, and has far too little time for
it.
There are some signs that people
here, and elsewhere in the world are
waking up to the fact that this unappreciated relative needs to be incorporated as an important member of
the IT family. However, for the
moment, it looks like software will go
on failing to be sexy enough to make
most people's technology agendas.
TA
Korean Software Industry
Needs to Grow Up
R
Lee Dan-hyung, president of KOSTA
equirements Engineering,
Object-oriented programming,
Cache ObjectScript, Java.
These pieces of software terminology
might have stopped many readers
dead in their tracks. Unsurprisingly,
really - they hardly set the pulse racing.
Software suffers from bad press,
bad vibes and a very poor public
image, but without it, our computers
are just whirring fans, bleeps and circuit boards. Try sending a text message on your mobile phone or checking the football results online with no
software. In the modern world, we
need software like we need oxygen.
Yet it lies in a state of abject neglect. People in the IT industry are far
too interested in developing the next
iPhone to worry about trivial issues
like spending money on software
engineering.
Lee Dan-hyung, President of the
Korean Software Technology
Association (KOSTA), is a man who
wants to change all that. While he
admits that software skills and deep
knowledge of the frightening list of
terms above is not necessary for most
everyday people, users need to
respect the industry more as their
most people's software needs are
diverse.
Most people think
software engineering is
the domain of boring
geeks - but that is causing
big problems for the
industry as a whole, says
a software insider.
Lee says that especially now, the
popular demand for software is about
to become intense. He explains,
"Software is the only way to make
products and services 'Intelligent',
because software can work with complex logic. It is the most efficient and
effective way to differentiate your
products and service through
improved functionality and quality."
KOSTA, are a lot of things - an
umbrella association for some 440
member companies all related with
the Korean software industry, a training and placement centre for wouldbe software engineers, and a group
that aims to promote the needs and
value of a healthy software industry in
modern-day Korea.
According to Lee, the industry is
anything but healthy in Korea, or anywhere else for that matter, but there is
something that needs to be fixed
soon. He says, "The mark environment must be changed. What is more,
engineering and pure science are no
longer popular subjects for university
students, who prefer subjects like law
and medicine."
But all this must change, says Lee.
He points to the fact that by 2015, it is
forecast that in the OCED, 50% of
Research and Development will be
carried out in the field of software, and
80% of all functionality of products in
major manufacturing industries such
as aerospace, automobile. telecommunication and medical equipment will
be of the optimal importance in terms
of global economics.
The problem, according to the
KOSTA chief, is that there is a lack of
basic information about software engineering and its importance. In schools,
students often receive some form of IT
instruction, but this all too often focuses on computer science, rather than
aspects of software engineering.
He says, "There are a lot of problems with the education system when
it comes to software - not just here,
but all over the world. Although the
Americans and the Japanese are
starting to show signs of waking up to
the fact that they need to improve their
capacity through education, they still
have a long way to go."
He adds that a lack of global vision
also hurts the software industry.
"Korean companies tend to focus too
much on the domestic market - they
rarely see the global picture, and that
leads them to ignore software engineering. But to increase our competitiveness, we need more training in this
field," says Lee.
And Lee says that he envisages a
future where global collaboration is the
norm in the software industry and
looks forward to a future where a new
age of software entrepreneurship rules
in the global technology markets.
For the time being, though, Lee
admits his immediate goals are more
modest. He says, "Our target is to produce 100,000 high level software engineers - it's a small number for the time
being, but once we've done that, we
can look further down the horizon."
TA
Spotlight
Alsaba A Taste of South Asia
W
Munir Rama, Owner of Alsaba
alk through Itaewon, the
"foreigner's district" in Seoul,
and you will come across a
lot of life's characters - people with
tales to tell. But none, perhaps, with
tales as fascinating to tell as Munir
Rana, the owner of Alsaba, a
Pakistani restaurant in Itaewon.
Although he looks like a man in his
late thirties, Rana is 45, and has seen
and experienced much in his life. He
was born in strictly Muslim Pakistan,
was educated in Catholic Philippines,
and married into a Buddhist country in
Korea.
Rana is a tall, impressive individual
- talkative and friendly, and armed
with an opinion on just about everything. In his life, he has been a model
for toothpaste and jeans, a carpet
trader and now the owner of one of
the most unique restaurants in the
country.
Rana traveled much in Asia before
deciding to settle down in Korea. But
now he has firmly laid down his roots
here. He is a naturalized Korean citizen and has two sons through his
Korean wife, both of whom go to
Korean schools.
Why Korea, one might ask? "It's
closer to the family-orientated lifestyle
that I am used to," he says. "I have
been to Japan, too, but coming to
Korea was the best decision I have
ever made. The system of senior-junior respect, the sense of unity in this
country and the peaceful lifestyle is
very hard to resist."
Alsaba is perhaps like nothing you
have seen before in Itaewon, or even
in Korea.
When most people think of
Pakistani food in a foreigners district,
the image they might get is that of a
typical Indian-style establishment,
with pictures of the Taj Mahal on the
wall, full of non-Koreans speaking
loudly in English. But nothing could be
further from the truth. According to
Rana, at least 70% of his clients are
Koreans.
He says, "I think that Koreans really like Pakistani food. It's very meatbased, as opposed to Indian food,
which contains more vegetables, and
Koreans who like beef are surprised
at how much they like what we serve."
Rana says that to understand and
appreciate South Asian food, we need
to understand the culture of the area a
little better. Much of India is Hindu,
and vegetarian, which means that
they have centuries of experience in
making excellent vegetarian food.
He explains, "Pakistani food has
never been bound by religion in such
a way as Hindu Indian food has been.
Where they make much better vegetable dishes than we, they are no
experts at making meat dishes. As a
Muslim country, Pakistan excels at
making food from beef and lamb."
Indeed, lamb, not part of the
Korean diet, is a specialty of Pakistani
cuisine, and of Alsaba's too. Rana
says, "Most Koreans have never tried
lamb, and have a preconception that it
is greasy and tastes bad. But once
they have tried it in our style, they
quickly change their minds about
that."
And Rana feels that IT, one of
Korea's major industries, plays a big
part not only in the lives of his clients
and his business, but in the life of
modern society.
He says, "Technology is an important part of our business. I think it is
one of the best innovations people
have ever created. With the Internet,
people can make online reservations
and also Muslims who are looking for
Muslim food while they are in Seoul
can find us through Internet searches."
Alsaba was opened just after the
9/11 terror attacks on the US, and
Rana says that culture and politics
were the main reasons why he decided to open the restaurant.
"I opened Alsaba as a direct result
of the attacks, in 2001," he explains, "I
wanted to show people here who
Muslims really were, what they look
like, and what they eat - so they didn't
go around thinking that all Muslims
are terrorists."
Authenticity is a key part of the
Alsaba experience. While other South
Asian restaurants often tend to
"Koreanise" their food, to give it a
flavour more similar to local food,
Rana says he will not allow the
Alsaba taste to be compromised.
Materialism changes food a lot, and I
think that I might make more money
by commercializing our food more, but
that goes against the original ideas I
had when I built Alsaba."
Rana says it is not just he who
thinks so. "A lot of Koreans who have
been to Pakistan and enjoyed the
food and the experience have
enthused about the dishes they have
eaten in Alsaba. Whereas other similar restaurants tend to change their
food in subtle ways to make it more
commercially acceptable, people who
know Pakistani food say they can find
the exact same taste in our restaurant," he explains.
How about spreading the success
of Alsaba to other locations in Korea,
outside Itaewon? Rana responds that
he is against the idea, on principle.
"I have eaten in chains of South
Asian restaurants where the food in
one branch tastes different to the
same dish in another branch in the
same city. It compromises the authenticity in this way," he says.
And authenticity, it seems, is the
very driving force behind Rana's
restaurant. "I don't like the idea of a
chain of Alsaba restaurants. I am
planning to open a new bar and cafe,
but it will be totally different to Alsaba.
I don't want to try to reproduce the
Alsaba experience anywhere else."
The name "Alsaba" draws a lot of
interest from customers, many of
whom think it may be associated with
an influential, wealthy Pakistani family
of the same name, but Rana explains
that the name has a much more personal meaning than this. His wife, a
Korean who has converted to Islam, is
now called "Saba" in Arabic, so the
restaurant is named after her.
There is a real family atmosphere
in Alsaba - month-old babies sit on
their mothers' knees while at another
table sits a table of old-age pensioners celebrating one of therir group's
ninetieth birthday.
They have all come for the unique
Pakistani taste of this restaurant. It
seems fitting that one of Itaewon's
most colourful characters should run a
place as diverse and singular as
Alsaba.
Exclusive Readers' Offer
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www.alsaba.co.kr
Interview
IT Companies Making Beeline for
South America Market
KOVA - the Korea
Venture Business
Association - say new
markets are being
found for Korean
technology in Latin
America
I
n a board of directors meeting with
a INKE, a global venture network of
Korean people overseas, held in
Mexico City at the end of February,
Jun Dae-yeol, the Vice Chairman of
KOVA, signed an agreement for
mutual cooperation between Canieti,
the Mexico IT industry association
and KOVA.
On the occasion of this agreement,
Canieti expressed high hopes and
expectations that Mexico would be
able to learn a lot about information
technology from Korean venture companies, and, in turn become a strong
IT country in its own right.
Jun Dae-yeol, Vice Chairman of KOVA
Jun said, "Mexico is one of Korea's
largest trade partners. We hope this
event will become a wonderful starting
point for better understanding and
mutual cooperation between the two
countries."
He has emphasized the role of
KOVA for trade expansion in the IT
industry. Eleven Korean IT companies
took part in the event, making business consultations with Mexican buyers, and two companies have already
received export orders.
In the meantime, in January this
year, in the Buenos Aires branch of
INKE, KOVA signed a deal with
IECyT (an Argentinean science and
technology venture research center).
Until now, Korean companies have
had few opportunities to trade with
Latin American countries, the likes of
Argentina, but this agreement will provide a new opportunity to start a new
period of trade for Korean companies
dealing in IT exports.
KOVA - "No end to our support
efforts"
Thanks to the business accomplishments of Korea venture companies supported by KOVA, in 2007,
domestic venture companies' exports
have increased to $200 million, a
100% increase on the previous year
of $100 million.
It also has supported six companies who wanted their companies listed on the stock markets of the countries they are trading in, as well as
creating investment inducement
schemes. In addition, it has supported
the establishment of three overseas
subsidiaries and three cases of local
company acquisition.
Korea venture "galleries" set up
overseas
KOVA is currently running two
Korea venture "galleries", one in
Moscow, Russia, the other in Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia, which are overseas
marketing offices established on a
permanent basis.
Last year, the business achievements made by both Korea venture
galleries reached a total of $40 million
- $30 million from Moscow and $ 10
million from Jeddah.
KOVA is also running a venture
gallery in Fukuoka, Japan, and also
this year it is making preparations for
the establishment of a new venture
gallery in Brazil.
Meanwhile, explaining about
diverse business activities and the
recent accomplishments of KOVA,
Jun said that all these outstanding
achievements were possible with the
help of Korea venture businessmen
overseas having a solid local network
as well as the accumulated experiences of domestic venture businessmen.
Said Jun, "A solid and practical
connection between venture businessmen at home and abroad has
really made a great contribution to
these remarkable accomplishments."
Buyer's Guide
ACROHEM CO., LTD.
Products or Technology
Since the multifuncionality of mobile phone, discharging period
of battery has been reduced. So this product would provide
emergency access to your mobile when battery of the mobile
phone is out. This also provide talking time and stand-by time
as a supplementary accessory which can also charge the
mobile phone using secondary battery. Another purpose is to
provide compact-sized charger which can always be carried
with the phone
Business Field / Turnover (USD)
●Manufacturing:
Emergency battery charger for mobile phone and other
mobile phone devices, VoIP Mouse Phone
●1MillionUSD
Telephone : 85-2-6190-0920
Homepage : www.acrohem.com
E- mail : [email protected]
Major Partner / Customer
Mobile Phone Reseller, Stationary Distributors, Corporate Gift
Item, General Trader, Gift Item, On-line Distributor, etc.:
Anyone who is selling and using mobile phones and mobile
devices.
Type of partners or companies we want to meet
●Telecommunication Company
●Telecommunication Devices & Accessory Distributor or
Reseller
●Corporate Marketing / Advertising Manager
Corecess Inc.
VDSL2, ADSL2+ (xDSL), L2/3 Ethernet Switch
GEPON, WDM-PON (FTTx)
Softbank BB, Song Networks(Tele Denmark), Versatel, Korea
Telecom, Hanaro Telecom, Trans-Teco(Ecuado
●Telecommunication equipment
(xDSL, Ethernet Switch, FTTH)
Telephone : +1-510-683-0188 ext.101
Homepage : www.corecess.com
Telco, SI, ISP, VAR/Reseller, CATV Service Provider, Utility
Provider, HSLA for Hotel, MTU/MDU, Metro Service Provider.
Buyer's Guide
C-TECH
Products : SAW filter
Saw is the telecommunication-equipment as a filter. The principle is to convert Electromagnetic Waves into the Acoustic
Wave. And then, Saw filters out the frequency we want. Saw
passes the specified frequency. The advantage of Saw
filter is to remove needless frequency well. The application is
Wireless telecommunication such as Repeater, Satellite communication, Pager, CATV, PCS,GPS and so on.
SK telesys, C&S microwave, Nextlink, RF window, Shyam
telecom, Mtron PTI, Cellvine, et
Manufacturer, Agency, Distributor, Company(Wireless
Communication, Repeaters, Telecom)
●Wireless communication system Employees 55
●US$7,000,000
Telephone : 82-31-703-2086
Homepage : www.ctech.co.kr
DM Technology Co.,Ltd
LCD TV with built in DVD/DviX player
(Available size : 17’’,19’’,20’’,22’’,26’’,32’’,37’’,42’’)
Internet Radio, Digital Photo Frame
PALACIO, DIXONS, COMET,MYIRO, JOHN LEWIS, HARRODS
Retailer, Distributo etc.
●LCD TV with built in DVD/DviX player, Internet Radio, Digital
Photo Frame
●$110,000,000
Telephone : 52-55-5281-7134 (Ext. 103)
Homepage : www.dmtechnology.co.kr
Nextlink Co., Ltd
ICS(Interference Cancellation System) Repeater which is one
of our main products eliminates direct feedback and multipath
feedback signal caused by and between antennas and various
obstacles such as moving vehicles, buildings, mountains and
so on. By using patented interference cancellation technology(Digital Signal Processing) ICS repeater simply clears the
problems which RF repeaters and other in-building solutions
have and provides high quality service and easy coverage
expansion. ICS repeater removes feedback signal up to
99.9% and makes it possible for service operators to provide
subscribers with stable and quality service. The high-performance ICS repeater operates in a site where isolation level
between the service antenna and link antenna is low. Also, it
is not affected by moving vehicles, buildings and other objects
at all. It means ICS repeater can be installed in any place if
there is a small space for installation. The ICS repeater gives
many benefits such as high service quality and easy coverage
expansion at lower cost to service operators.
Mobile telecommunication companies, Repeater wholesalers
or distributor
Business Field / Turnover
●ICS Repeater, Fiber Optic Repeater, RF Repeater
●USD 47.4million
Telephone : 82-31-737-6060(ext.200
Homepage : www.nextlink.co.kr
Major mobile telecommunication companies in Korea and
worldwide
Ncomputing Co.,Ltd
NComputing L series(L130/230), X series(X300)
Up to 30 users on 1 PC !
NComputing products enable you to cut your computing costs
up to tenfold by sharing the untapped power of your existing
PCs. Typically, only one to five percent of a PC processor's
power is used at any one time. NComputing software, extension technology and access terminals efficiently harness this
excess capacity to let up to 30 users share a single PC!
Education, Government, Hospital, Hotel, Public Access market
C-level executives of corporate, IT department Government
officer, Education market procurement related, Computer distributor, reselle
Business Field / Turnover
●Network Computing Terminal
●USD 15,667(thousand)
Telephone : +1-650-594-580
Homepage : www.ncomputing.com
Buyer's Guide
RF Window Co., Ltd
RF Window is a fast growing, dynamic company which offers
various wireless last mile solutions for mobile networks. RF
WindowOs patented ICS technology has changed the way of
RF frequency can be transmitted. Unlike common RF
repeaters, RF WindowOs ICS(Interference Cancellation
System) Repeater:
Cancels all feed-back signals by using DSP (Digital Signal
Processing) technology
Provides coverage extension for open areas (urban, rural,
highways etc.) as well as closed areas (in buildings, subways, underground)
Improves the service quality in urban Cell-Shrinking and
Pilot-Pollution areas
Increases transmission speeds for the EV-DO and WCDMA
networks RF WindowOs ICS System is the last solution for
network companies which want to reduce both CAPEX and
OPEX at the same time.
Mobile telecommunication companies, Repeater wholesalers
or distributor
●ICS Repeater, Fiber Optic Repeater, RF Repeater
●USD 47.4million
Telephone : 82-31-737-6060(ext.200
Homepage : www.nextlink.co.kr
Major mobile telecommunication companies in Korea and
worldwide
Sbntech Co., Ltd
SBN Tech are Korean next-generation video phone makers
for easy communication with workmates, family and freinds.
SBN exhibited its WiFi videophone at CES 2008. USB ports
mean that it can be used as a picture displayer when it is not
in use. It also has a translation function based on ASL
(American Sign Language) for people who are hard of hearing.
1. Calling parent, Friend, Relatives and lovers anywhere in the
world.
2. The doctor can easily check this patints health condition
without attending on sight
3. Provide effective way to inter/infra conference in corporate
4. Using high internet connection, communicate naturally and
easy of sing language.
Provider Video Relay Service for Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Associate of Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
●IP CAPTION VIDEO PHONE
●1,600,000
Telephone : 82-2-2026-2191
Homepage : www.sbn-tech.com
SELOCO, Inc
Many parking & building management companies,
Many users with a private surveillance system, Etc
Smart Standard DVR
1. Based on the ASIC technology and Linux OS
2. Pentaplex (Live / Recording / Playback / Networking /
Backup)
3. High frame rate support (240fps live / 240fps record)
4. Triplex mode support (live monitoring & playback simultaneously)
5. Huge Storage support (Max 1.5TB, internal 3 HDD)
6. High Performance Network (Dynamic/Static IP, PSTN)
7. Flexible backup (Built-in CD-RW or DVD-RW / USB HDD /
Remote Backup)
8. High Compression rate: 1 ~ 2.5 KB (Enhanced MPEG-4)
9. Remote S/W (Live/Search/Web Viewer, SMS)
10. Graphic User Interface (GUI): USB Mouse, Remote
Control, Keypad
Surveillance company, Security Solution company, A selling
agent relating to DVR
●DVR, EDA S/W, ASI
●1,600,00
Telephone : 82-2-3433-0010
Homepage : www.seloco.com
Shehwa P&C
Technology : A Personal information protection screen that
can be attached to the LCD monitor, It uses an angle-control
method to work as a fine blind. Therefore, when the user looks
at it directly, the screen can be
seen more clearly; while if others
attempt to look at it from an
angle greater than 30degrees,
they will see a black or blank
screen, making it great to protect private information.
Mecican Distributor, Wholesaler and Manufacturer who is in
IT, mobile phone and computer accessory industr
●Privacy filter, PE form
●13 million
Telephone : 82-31-335-6635, 82-10-8201-0008
Homepage : www.shehwa.co.kr
Distibutor, Wholesaler and
Manufacturer who is in IT,
mobile phone and computer
accessory industry.
Company Focus
Ice On The Roads
The conditions could hardly be tougher for cars at
Hyundai Mobis' Swedish winter test centre
T
he knee-deep snow and hanging icicles make the scene look
like something out of a fairy
tale. The beauty of the countryside
make people's heart flutter but the
freezing temperatures mean the landscape is all but uninhabited, but for a
cluster of undaunted souls. This is the
winter test track for of Hyundai Mobis
located in Arjeplog, about 500Km to
the north of Stockholm, the capital of
Sweden.
A little way behind, there is a small
building behind a signboard with the
word ``Mobis'' written on it. This place
is not only the command centre for
the winter test tracks, but also the
headquarters for the development
planning of the Mobis control system
and its design.
"Temperatures here go down as
low as -30°, we can get ice over 50cm
thick in winter. That makes it exactly
the right kind of place for winter test
tracks. As a result, the more than thirty companies from across the world,
like Mobis, and also Mercedes-Benz
and BMW, use this region for their
winter test tracks," says Lee Seungho, a researcher at Mobis' technological research institute.
Winter test tracks are made up of a
series of land track and lake tracks.,
which means that the cars drive both
on road surfaces that have frozen up,
and also on solid ice.
The Mobis land tracks in Arreplog
are set out just in front of the office
building. There are three kinds of
track.10°, 15° and 20° slopes test
traction control system (TCS). Split
roads test split electronic stability control (ESC) and anti-lock brake system
(ABS). And urban tracks check the
combined functions of travel and control after setting up obstacles like
those that might be found on urban
streets.
TCS , which is tested on hill roads,
prevents wheels from running idle
when starting up the engine or speeding up. If a driver presses down on the
accelerator when the car is at a standstill on icy or snowy roads, wheels
tend to skid. The TCS, however, can
maximize the accelerating force of the
vehicle by properly adjusting power to
the driving wheel.
ESC is an advanced technology
enabling safe steering by automatically controlling wheel skidding and the
turning angle of the car through sensors installed in the four wheels. It
works by computing and comparing
the driver's actions and actual movements of cars when in sudden dangerous situations, such as coming
across an unexpected bend in the
road, or an obstacle.
The ice track is located on a local
lake, which is about 3-minute distant
by car from the office building. Due to
the extreme cold weather, the water in
the lake can freeze to 15 metre-thick
sheet of solid ice.
Here, it is possible to conduct onestop test controls, driving, traveling
and safety performance to test automobile safety for ABS on straight
roads, widely used ESC test roads,
handling course tracks.
Cars also have to go around circular tracks, which are used for turning
tests and slippery roads. Every kind of
surface is thrown at a vehicle - icy and
snowy roads, curves and slopes.
Each track is systematically managed to make the toughest of tests.
The icy tracks used in this place are
made of polished ice. Unlike the
rough surface of natural ice, polished
ice is as smooth as the ice used for a
skating rink. Rigorous tests are executed under the worst possible conditions to ensure the cars can handle
whatever can be thrown at them.
Hyundai Mobis has developed a
sash-integrated control system, incorporating technologies used for MDPS,
which is now being mass-produced. In
addition, air suspension and
advanced airbags have been supplied
for the Genesis model since 2006.
The unforgiving tracks established
in Arreplog and excellent Mobis technicians will play an important role in
the development of systems and help
get a better product out to customers
in a shorter time.
Mobis Accelerates Development of
Integrated Control System
Korea's first ABS system for commercial vehicles set
to start production by mid-2008
H
yundai
Mobis,
which
announced it would become a
global car part maker this year
after achieving sales of 1.5 trillion
Won through changes and innovation,
will get one step closer to the development of vehicle incorporated control
system by developing a new, luxurious model.
Hyundai Mobis said in March that
the company has completed the
development of ABS for commercial
vehicles as well as state-of-the-art
control devices - the ABS and a higher model for ESC. It is now testing
with a view to mass-production.
Regarding this control system,
named Mobis Electronic Brake (MEB),
Mobis has finished the establishment
of mass-production system for ABS
which is over 30 percent smaller than
the existing some models and will
launch its production. The ABS for
commercial vehicles will be applied
for models such as Mighty County of
Hyundai Motors from the middle of
this year and a test of its performance
has already been completed.
ABS for commercial vehicles,
which has been developed in Korea
for the first time, is better at control
compared with those produced by
other leading companies, and is also
cheaper. As a result, products by
Hyundai Mobis will likely be competitive in both domestic and foreign markets. They also hope to create an
import-replacement effect amounting
to about 100 billion Won over five
years.
Hyundai Mobis is focusing on the
development of electronic control system because the related technology
will advance the development of vehicle incorporated control system.
This system is a concept of combination of two pieces of technology.
The first is the "active safety system'',
aimed at preventing crashes between
vehicles in advance, such as adaptive
cruise control (ACC) - which controls
collisions by maintaining consistent
distance from a car ahead. The second is the "sash incorporated control
system,'' which promotes travel stability by combining and controlling individual systems.
In this way, a vehicle-incorporated
control system, which controls various
electronic systems using an ECU, is a
unique system, one which can protect
the safety of passengers under any
traveling situations and reduce costs
by using various sensors and controlling devices.
If this system is commercialized,
passengers' safety will be strengthened through a reduction in traffic
accidents, and Korea's spending on
traffic accidents - which amounts to
1.5 trillion Won per year, will be
reduced by about 20%, according to
industry figures.
Hyundai Mobis has secured core
technology for a vehicle incorporated
control system after developing a
high-quality electronic control device
and will be able to speed up the
development of a vehicle incorporated
control system by linking MDPS which
is being mass-produced by Mobis and also advanced airbag technology, for air suspension , which is being
provided for Genesis.
In the meantime, at a recent presentation, Hyundai Mobis unveiled a
plan to increase the annual production
of ABS and ESC to 2.87 million units
by 2009, - from the current 2 million,
and increase the annual production of
their EPS system to 1.6 million units
by 2010 - from the current 800,000
units.
Green IT
L
Green the way to go for IT
ooking at the successful story of
General Electric (GE) would
suggest that the answer to that
question is feasible if the flow is created and linked to the companies' revenue. When GE's profit growth rate
dropped to single digits, the company's President Immelt took out the
"Ecomagination Card" as a new business plan. That long word is an emalgamation of ecology and imagination.
Experts were cynical and bitter
about the idea - after all was GE not a
company that was heavily criticized
for creating all kinds of pollution. But
GE's unstinted investments and
scrupulous preparation not only
helped them to gain credit from environmentalist, but also helped the company to gain the title of the global
leader in the eco-friendly industry.
The Biodegradable Bamboo Phone, designed by
Gert-Jan van Breugel
GE's most recent sales and net
profits have increased by 18% and
15% with the help of the
Ecomagination Strategy and its ecofriendly products. As Immelt said,
"Green is green."
GE is seeking to increase the sales
of eco-friendly products to 20 billion
dollars by 2010. Preserving nature
Green is the new buzzword for the
Information Technology industry
worldwide. But is going along with the
flow of the world's trend helping the
growth of Korean companies?
signifies more than natural habitats or
organisms; it is a money and growth
engine for entrepreneurs.
What does it mean by creating a
flow? How do you connect this flow to
the business? Mobile phones that are
made of bamboo shoots and cotton
are just one of the many examples of
this.
Close to a billion mobile phone
handsets are globally produced every
year, yet only 10% of them are recycled. Cell phones may be a humans'
new best friend, but they are a a real
enemy of nature.
Gert-Jan van Breugel, a designer
from the Netherlands, has designed
the bamboo phone and suggested a
solution to the problem of recycling.
The bamboo phone is made from elements extracted from bamboo trees
and the entire phone is biodegradable, except for its antenna and battery.
This environmentally-friendly
phone has another surprise; it comes
with bamboo seeds embedded in the
casing. When the battery, antenna
and print board are removed, the case
will begin to disintegrate in a few
weeks. The bamboo seeds within the
cast will then start to germinate and
grow.
This phone is designed to be used
without charger as well. Instead it is
equipped with a manually-operated
crank charger; a 3-minute cranking
session gives the phone enough
power to make one call. This means
the bamboo phone never needs to
leave you stranded with no battery.
The phone is also equipped with a
monochrome display to ensure maximum energy efficiency.
From the same urge to save the
environment came designer Qian
Jiang's cotton-based Softphone. It
uses electronic cellulose structures in
the form of a series of discs and fine,
optically clear electronic fibers
stretched in between that allow
enough light to pass through and display simple contextual menus.
The phone's antenna, battery, camera and microelectronic components
are contained inside a tiny chip which,
itself, is made of soft squeezable silica. But the best part of this easy,
squeezy technology is that when want
to hang up, you simply have to give
your handset a squeeze.
Green IT is the latest trend, but to
make a business out of it requires
more than just technology. Originality
is the key to the success.
Korea is working on environmentally friendly products as well. To begin
with Kolon Sports' designer Jung
Hang-ah has introduced textiles that
are made from soy, bamboo, and
charcoal.
Five backpacks and one T-shirt
that are made from plastic bottles
were shown off in the company's
recent Spring collection, and environmentally-friendly clothes are to be
made more and new ranges are to be
introduced throughout the year.
Since 2004, more than $50 billion
has been stumped up by the government to develop 13 core parts of
hybrid cars. 1386 cars have been provided for test in public places. An
extra 40 billion US dollars has been
invested in working on the core technology of environmentally-friendly
cars.
The Green IT breeze is blowing
everywhere. The Industrial computer
market is seeking ecologically-friendly
products as well. A Company called
Advantech (www.advantech.co.kr)
has recently released two types of
industrial touch panel computers that
satisfies the standards of Restriction
on Use of Hazardous Substance in
Electrical and Electronic Equipment
(RoHS).
Their computer parts are environmentally friendly and save energy.
Low electric power CPU and fan-less
hardware helps efficient usage of
energy and reduces pollution. The
President of Advantech, Choi Youngjoon said, "Every computer our company brings out this year will be ecofriendly. We aim to be the greenest
computer makers in Korea."
The ongloing slush fund scandal
seems to have slowed the managing
clock of the Samsung Group since
October 2007, but it is hoped here
that ecologically-friendly products can
serve as new growth engines.
ULTRASPARC T2 of SunMicroSystems - a chip
that runs on low power
The Softphone - a mobile made of cotton
The cycle of products in IT industry
only lasts for around six months.
Although Samsung is very strong in
semiconductors and electronics, large
investments and long period of time to
develop products for six months of
glory has not always brought triumph
to the company's revenue.
The Samsung Group is brainstorming ideas on solar light, nano-technology, and environmentally friendly
strategies to get the clock ticking
again.
Samsung Data Systems, the consulancy and business management
arm of the Samsung group, were the
first to take the plunge into the Green
IT market. They made their move with
an Environmental IT Consulting business. The "Environmental IT consulting program" helps companies to offset pollution and operate within international environmental restrictions.
SunMicroSystems, a company that
is currently promoting Go Green,
Save Green campaign. The company
progresses every project under an
environmentally-friendly base. The
most recent processor, ULTRASPARC T2, runs on low power and
meets eco-friendly standards.
According to a survey conducted
by ETNews Korea, 52.9% of 725 people said that they would be prepared
to buy Green IT products even if they
cost 5% more. This means that Green
IT is not just a simple concept, it suggests a product value that will open
up consumers' wallets.
An increasing number of companies are planning to establish a Green
IT-promoting department sometimes
this year, and are to start using ecofriendly parts in their products.
Only 15% of the 142 companies
surveyed have a Green IT
Department, but 33% are planning to
establish one this year. However, only
a small number of companies are
actively working on eco-friendly
strategies. The companies who educated employees with Green IT training program also stopped at 11%.
The ecology gap between global
market and Korea is getting bigger
every day and Korea must speed up
to keep up with the pace. Every IT
organization will soon to be required
to conform to environmentally-friendly
protocol. It is high time Korean companies became more aware when it
comes to setting up workable strategies and become a leader in the
Green IT movement, rather than a
simple player.
CGE
IPTV
Race is On for Companies
Trying to Bag IPTV Subscribers
T
he starting gun has gone off.
Straight out of their blocks, the
runners sprinting for the finish
line are KT, Hanaro Telecom and LG
Dacom. The prize at the end is IPTV
commercialization, which will change
people's shopping culture, the health
care system, and even the way we
watch television.
KT, Hanaro Telecom, and LG
Dacom are now promoting free IPTV
trials and will be showering potential
customers with free gifts for the first
three to nine months. The competition
is getting tougher every month, and
now expensive mobile phones are out
there to attract people who are considering registration.
These three companies are also
prepared to keep their original customers with convergence service
package deals that add extra money
to subscribers' pockets. The cancellation process and fees are set prohibitively high, to encourage more commitment.
This means that subscribers had
better study carefully before they
choose a player to make commitments with. Choosing a carrier is now
like marriage: a big financial commitment with hefty penalties for divorce.
KT and LG Dacom are providing
services only to those who are subscribed to high speed internet. Hana
TV, however, is open for everyone
who is interested in their IPTV service. Because of this, Hana TV's subscribers are increasing fast. In spite of
the long battles in the IPTV billing
process and the industry's uncertainty, Hanaro Telecom have launched
Hana TV. Hanaro Telecom now has
860,000 subscribers compared with
KT's 360,000.
The three competitors think that
IPTV is their most impressive new
Three Korean companies do battle for
the new market in Internet Television,
but do they all have the legs for the
chase?
product and are sure that it will create
a fabulous new source of income for
them. All three are set to be reborn as
media entertainment companies, and
are eager to shake off the mantle of
being labeled as traditional telecommunication companies.
"In order to survive in the next-generation broadcast and communication
convergence market, we need to
expand contents and multimedia services. If not, we will soon be put to the
sword by the competition," a KT
spokesman said.
The communication trend is changing from a Personal Computer-based
Internet network environment to a TVbased Internet network in IPTV. This
can guarantee revenue from the
telecommunication market.
Starting from April, the competition
is expected to get tougher with convergence service packs. High speed
internet, IPTV, and Internet phone are
parts of the the basic package that will
be mostly offered to subscribers.
The Kyung Hee University Medical
Center recently equipped 150 rooms
with IPTV, where their patients can
lay down on their beds and be examined by the doctor on monitors they
can also use to watch the latest
movies, listen to music, and shop on
IPTV with a remote control. By July,
the hospital is planning to fully equip
1000 patient rooms with u-bed IPTV
sets.
Another thing that makes IPTV so
competitive in Korea is its e-learning
contents. Three companies are building their own strategies and ensuring
high-standard educational programs
to attract subscribers. Four out of ten
students are found to be studying
online, and the numbers are expected
to increase with the recently-passed
IPTV Act. KT is providing contents in
partnership with MegaStudy, the number one online education center in
Korea.
Another business model companies seek to push through with IPTV
concern shopping contents. KT's
280,000 Mega TV subscribers and
Hanaro Telecom's 730,000 Hana TV
subscribers are currently shopping
through Video On Demand serices
(VoD), but the payment transactions
are still being made through the
phone.
A Hanaro Telecom spokesman
said, "If the IPTV service goes full
whack in the New Year, a simple payment system with a remote control will
be provided for subscribers."
Hana TV has recently announced
that Hana TV's Open Market will soon
open for retailers to create SellerCreated Contents (SCC) and provide
contents through VoD. Reviews of the
products can also be sent in User
Created Contents (UCC) form.
KT, Hanaro Telecom, and LG
Dacom have been warming up long
enough to prepare themselves to run
on this course. But it looks like being a
long distance race, rather than a
sprint. They still have to run quite a bit
to reach the finish line, but are showing no signs whatsoever of slowing
the pace.
CGE
W
Yoo Kwang-hoon, CEO of Millinet
Television
Revolution
Only
Moments
Away
Experts say the Internet
is about to change our
best electronic friend,
the television
here would we be without
the television - our babysitter, our comfort? In Oldboy,
the Korean hit film, Choi Min-sik's
character is locked away in a room for
twelve years with only a television set
to keep him company. He ends up
referring to it as his friend - and even
his lover.
When we feel lonely, bored or
afraid, we reach for the remote, and
the house is filled with images and
sound to make even the darkest night
a little brighter. That is why even the
most delicate of changes to what is
broadcast on our sets, on how they
work and what they look like, is of
utmost importance to the average person.
That is why the Internet Protocol
Television (IPTV) revolution is, or
should be, of such interest to the
average consumer. It promises many
things. First, a new means of transporting television signals from producers to viewers - the Internet. And second , it promises to take the idea of
realtime away from the broadcasting
world.
Not much of a revolution say the
skeptical, but imagine it - your images
no longer come from some monolithic
radio mast atop some hill, they come
streamed via the same cable that
goes into the back of your computer.
Gone are the days of fiddling with
an easily breakable antenna. And so
too will be the days of risking life and
limb in a mad dash home in order to
make it in time for the latest episode
of Muhan Dojun or Prison Break.
But despite all the uprooting effects
of this impending revolution, television
fans need not fret, according to the
experts. The IPTV set-top box is a
simple device that is easily installed
and should be fairly easy to operate,
they say.
Millinet are a Networks company
working with some of Korea's top telecom companies and Internet
Providers, and hope to be waving the
flag in the frontline of the IPTV revolutionary army. Their CEO, Yoo Kwanghoon, says there is not cause for concern.
Says Yoo, "There is no need to
throw your television set away just
yet. A set-top box is an easy piece of
equipment to use, and it is very
enabling for the viewer. It will give
viewers a new kind of freedom."
Yoo believes such a change is
inevitable. He explains, "It is a logical
extension of the kind of services that
already exist. Companies like Hanaro
are already using the internet as a
kind of DVD rental store. For a fee, a
few clicks of a mouse or a remote
control can have a blockbuster
movies on your screen in seconds.
IPTV will take this further, to the
realms of everyday television programmes. You will be able to watch
what you like, when you like."
According to Yoo, it seems the climate is blowing favourable winds in
the direction of IPTV. He believes the
technological and political boundaries
standing in the way of progress are all
but gone.
"There are few obstacles left in the
way of IPTV's progress. It is only a
matter of time until this becomes the
accepted norm for the television experience," he says.
The changes will not come for free,
though. This will be a fee-based system, says Yoo, with customers forking
out in the region of 25,000 Won per
month for subscription fees.
However, television has already
become more than its early pioneers
could ever dream that it would
become, but now it is ready to take
the next step. With so much high tech
in our lives, hitting TV sets to get a
picture or fiddling with antennas is all
so twentieth century. Our friend, our
babysitter, our lover - the television
set - is about to grow up and join the
rest of the electronic world in the 21st
Century.
TA
Event
Industry Association Changes Name And Focus
A revamped, renamed "KOIBA" aim
to speak up for the interests
of smaller IT companies through a
new policy under a new
government tenure.
W
KOIBA announce their new moniker at a press conference
hat is in a name? A lot, if you are a business trying to change the scope of what you are doing.
On March 31st, the 12th general meeting of Korea IT
Small- and Medium-sized Businesses and Venture
Business Association (KOIVA) was held with 135
Information Technology businesspeople at the
Renaissance Hotel in Seoul. In this meeting, the IT members with Seo Seung-mo, the chairman of KOIVA
announced to that they were no longer KOIVA. Instead,
they now want to be known as KOBIA - the Korea IT
Business Association.
Since KOIVA was found in 1996, it has been responsible of building up strength for the base of the IT industry
and providing support for companies working in the IT
industry. However, KOIVA's attempts to be developed
themselves into the representative IT organization with a
responsibility for the Korean IT industry has been diversified with the revised new government organizations.
The newly-monikered KOBIA plans to speak up for
small- and medium- sized IT venture companies' rights and
interests as well as to maintaining sponsorship of a variety
of companies in the near future.
KOIBA say they will also focus on projects set to merge
and expand the base of the overall IT industry in a better
business environment. A spokesman also said, "We will
continue to improve developed techniques, and build better
cooperation between IT companies and also network with
companies in other industries. We are looking to build an
up obstacle-free atmosphere, and support services for
companies trying to do business overseas."
In addition, the spokesman said they plan to fortify
KOBIA's status as a representative generalized IT association. However, KOBIA underlined that all of their grand
plans depend very much on the policies of information and
communication organizations and other associations in the
IT industry that have a say over these matters.
On the same day, Lee Chang-han, the director general
of Director General for Electronics And IT Industries at
Ministry of Knowledge Economy also gave a speech about
the political direction of information and communication in
2008 after the KOBIA announcement.
In addition, Korea Trade Promotion Corporation
(KOTRA) and Korea Development Bank (KDB) spoke at
the meeting about the importance of creating an assistance
system for smaller- and medium-sized companies in 2008.
KEJ
"We will build up networks
and interbusiness cooperation."
Podcast
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our
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on all the issues that matter in
the world of IT Korea and elsewhere in the world.
How can I get the Korea IT
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The best way to do this will be
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Feature
UCC - More than a Flash in the Pot?
Video sharing sites are all the rage,
but will the excitement over the sites
die down or is it here to stay?
Cho Eun-jung investigates.
A
pot full of water boils over - for
a moment there is nothing in
the kitchen but lather and commotion. But when the steam clears
and the mess has been cleared up,
there is nothing left in the pot.
This is Korea's favourite metaphor nembi geonseong - literally "pot character." It means that like the pot,
everyone in Korea gets themselves
excited about something that appears
to be the next big ting. But ask them
again about it next year and they will
not even be able to remember anything about it.
Hines Ward was a classic example
of this - a Korean-American sports
star who was an unknown on the
Korean peninsula until he was named
American Football's MVP in 2006.
Nobody had even heard of him
until he scooped the prize, but afterwards, you could not escape Hines in
Korea - he was everywhere, beaming
down at you from advertising hoardings, staring at you from the cover of
every magazine in sight.
But if you mention his name now to
the average Korean, they will sit in
thought for a while before suddenly
smiling and saying "Oh yes, Hines
Ward! I remember him!"
That is why Koreans are skeptical to the extreme about anything claiming to be "the next
big thing," just in case it
turns out to be a case of
nembi geonseong, a Hines Ward in
disguise.
For a little while however, the world
of technology has been quietly murmuring predictions that User Created
Content (UCC) is not from the pot. It
is no fad - it is here to stay, say the
voices, and the more they keep saying it, the more true it sounds.
It all started with a very simple concept - with video capabilities becoming cheaper and more accessible to
the ordinary consumer, people needed the ability to upload what they had
recorded on their digital cameras and
mobile phones onto the web. They
wanted to show off their holiday
videos to their family and friends or
even to all-comers from the rest of the
World.
Internet entrepreneurs like Bill
Gates and the like must be wondering
why they allowed the likes of plucky
companies like YouTube and Pandora
get involved in the whole scheme.
Had they acted earlier, we might all
be watching UCC videos on some
kind of "Microsoft UCC Viewer"
instead.
Instead, YouTube was an overnight
success story - set up by a group of
American twentysomethings in a converted garage. The friends had inadvertently spotted a gigantic gap in the
market. Suddenly people around the
world were sitting on throusands of
megabytes of contents,
but they had no way of
sharing it until YouTube
and their ilk.
But though most of the
world thinks that YouTube was
the first UCC video site to make it
to the net, this is, actually, a myth.
Pandora TV, Korea's biggest video
portal, predates the American site by
a whole six months.
Pandora have a gigantic share of
the Korean market. By 2004, they
were already getting over one billion
page views per month. In 2008, figures have it that they now have a million Korean visitors every day.
However, though Pandora are the
biggest fish in the Korean pond, they
are not even making a splash on the
global scene compared to YouTube.
Chen and Hurley sold their company
to Internet giants Google for a gigantic
$880 million, in a deal that shook the
IT world. Now, with the clout of
Google behind them, YouTube are
out to take over the world - and that
includes Korea.
However, with companies like Mnet
cast, Gom TV, Mgoon, Daum, Afreeca
and Pandora already offering Korean
Internet users video options by the
truckload, just how YouTube intend to
find a way in to this already saturated
market begs the question "how?".
Korean companies are realizing,
however, that though they might be
the bosses of their own patches, they
have very little global influence.
Pandora has launched a global site,
aiming at markets within Asia, and
have announced plans for an English
version of their site.
Rumours have it, however, that
they will be providing services in
Chinese, Japanese and Spanish, too.
April also sees them go live with a
global version of their site, Global
Pandora. Last year, an American IT
venture firm called DCM reportedly
invested $10 millions dollars in
Pandora's operations. DCM clearly do
not think UCC comes from the pot.
The experts
believe that as the Internet continues
to expand, the user experience will
develop. Some Internet experts have
even called it a new age of the net,
with Irish Internet Tim O'Reilly dubbing the new, richer, more dynamic,
user-based Internet experience, "Web
2.0."
Daum are a Korean company with
their finger in a variety of Internet pies
- they are one of the biggest UCC
video sites in Korea. Their Video
Service Team Manger, Shin Jongseob believes UCC will be apart of the
Internet's new age.
Says Shin, "As the Web 2.0 age
approaches, users find themselves
using an Internet that is in a better
condition for making and using UCC,
so the output is increasing all the
time. And as the value of UCC
increases more and more, its value
goes up by the day."
Critics point at UCC and make
derisory comments. What is on the
likes YouTube, Daum and Pandora,
they ask. Is there anything else than
what many people would consider
cyber trash - people falling off bicycles, schoolchildren lip-synching pop
songs into hairbrushes, random rants
about inane subjects. UCC looks like
unbridled chaos from the outside.
Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager is
a short comedy show broadcast by
American friends Matt Sloan and
Aaron Yonda on YouTube, starting in
2006. However, although it started as
a very low-key production, the first
episode of the Star Wars spoof has
been viewed over 6.5 million times.
The program has been featured on
America's ABC network, has been
translated into French,
Spanish and Portuguese and
has spawned a merchandising
line of DVDs, t-shirts and other
memorabilia.
Chad Vader might be an bizarre
aside in the annals of Internet history
for the moment, but any video series
that can pull in a global audience of
that size is going to have advertising
managers reaching for their cheque
books as they look for sponsorship
possibilities.
Advertising incentives are going to
propel the notions of business and
profit into the UCC world, one which
has, until now, been pretty much "just
for fun."
Daum's Shin says, "UCC sites are
in a position where they can make a
profit because they get so many visitors, who stay on their sites for a long
time. Advertisers are looking for new
ways to post their content and this is
also starting to surface. Companies
are looking to promote themselves
through this new form of media. They
want to blend UCC and business."
In addition, Daum think that the
craze for UCC is borne of a boredom
with the conventional media - which
they think has run its course. "People
are getting bored with the way that the
television presents them with information. Videos that are uploaded to sharing sites are rough, for the time
being, but web users are hooked now.
They find the whole experience
empowering," Shin says.
Nembi geonseong exists in Korea,
but not in the world of UCC, if experts
and web site hit counters are to be
believed. In fact, as the Internet's contents get richer and richer, what people put up on UCC sites represents
not just a new, interesting thing, but
an intoxicating freedom, a new
democracy and a freedom of speech
that meddling governments and big
business have, for the time being,
very little control over.
Feature
IT Bridges not
Strong Enough
for Brittle
Human
Emotions
Technology helps the world
become a smaller place, but
though human relationships are
now easier to conduct,
Kim Eun-sil asks if they are not
suffering as a result.
T
he camera focuses on a table where a middle-aged
man and his son are having breakfast. "Your hair is
so messy!" So says the older man to his son. And
these are the only words spoken between them during the
meal.
After breakfast, the older man is looking for his mobile
phone before he goes to work so the son calls his father's
phone, and he find the phone on the table. On the display,
as the phone rings, we can see his caller ID and the son's
picture on the phone with, instead of his name, the words
"My Hope."
It is quite an impressive televisual moment, to be hon-
est, it almost brings a tear to the eye. I was not the only
person who was moved by this SK Telecom commercial. It
is one which makes a fantasy of the IT world and nowadays, advertising like this is becoming the norm.
But the fantasy is becoming a reality with the appearance of WCMA. According to adverts, if you talk via video
phone, it will make your husband come home early or turn
you into a dutiful son.
Through a well-known portal site, you can help someone
who have never met. Society is warmer than before
because of portal sites and the world is full of humanity
with WCMA. If the commercials are to be believed, IT is
building bridges between people.
I also regard technology as a convenient way of getting
in touch with people. I can tell all the members of a presentations team about a meeting time by SMS at once, and we
can even have a meeting online. Every document which
we need for our presentation can be uploaded in mere seconds.
Now presenters do not have to meet each other face to
face before presentation. "Hello" - it is an embarrassing
word to say just once on the day of the presentation. After
the presentation, everyone feels relieved and they say to
each other, "Thank you for your trouble."
But these superficial pleasantries mean to say, "We are
done here, we don't need each other anymore." The next
time they meet, these individuals will probably pretend not
to recognize one another.
Most people habitually log in to MSN's Messenger or
Nate On every day. Messenger comprises lots of people's
names in long lists. Some of them might not know each
other well, and some of them might even have never met in
real life.
If you do not want to see a name anymore, even with no
real special reason, you can break that relationship in a
second with just one click. With one click we built the
bridge, but with a similarly brief click, we can also break it.
We are becoming more and more accustomed to the
terms of the "IT Bridge". An image on a phone can replace
our faces, and letters on the screen take the place of our
voices. IT helps us build bridges more rapidly than ever,
but also gives us the means to destroy them in the blink of
an eye.
If the old man had told his son he was his "hope" with
his own voice, face to face, it would have made the bridge
between them stronger than any "IT Bridge". People need
strong bridges, ones they can trust, ones that they can
walk on and feel safe. If we play our cards right, perhaps
we can find a way to couple our intelligence and the power
of technology to build bridges that are sturdy enough for
our frail human characters.
Tech Wizardry
an Undervalued
Skill
A
David Jones, a teacher at Boston Campus, a
language school in Korea.
my's laptop was screaming
bloody murder. The big CPU
fan was whirring and chirring,
behaving like a sick, overweight man
running a marathon. Good in spurts,
but there was no way he was ever
going to finish.
We thought the laptop was finished, making all manner of noise,
working momentarily, then straight to
the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death).
Besides an over-priced cellular
phone, her laptop was the only way of
communicating with the outside world.
There was a job to do.
I brought it home one night, puzzling over what looked like a perfectly
normal laptop in most respects. The
only real concern I had was the
amount of filth and grime covering
every centimeter of it.
So, after some research on the
Internet, I figured out a plan of attack.
I had to unscrew the keyboard from
the laptop in order to have access to
the big, obnoxious, pain in our backsides.
Trouble was, it appeared normal in
every way. I gave it a shake, solid. I
spun the fan blades with my finger tip,
normal in every way. I gave the fan
plug a jiggle, and attempted to pull it
out gently. It was then that I knew we
had a problem.
The connector remained attached
to the motherboard, and what I had in
Sometimes there is no substitute for
good workmanship, and it does not
always have to cost the Earth.
my hand were three frayed, naked
wires, pointing back at me as to say
"Why are we out of our protective
sheath? " It wasn't as easy as somehow rolling them back on there. This
was a job for a professional.
I broke the news to Amy. She was
more than cool about the situation,
and even offered to tag along. We
had to get the wires soldered back
into the connector, and I figured the
best place would be Technomart at
Gangbyeon Station in Seoul. It was a
quick bus ride away, and I had been
there many times with all types of purchases in mind.
It was the first person we got to talk
to who turned out to be the most helpful. The picture of us both was pretty
funny, looking back on it. I had the
laptop in question toted under my arm
like a school book, wandering from
place to place on the 7th floor, saying
"laptop fix?"
After having a few people shooing
us away, we met a really nice man.
His English was limited, but, they
were far superior to any Korean either
Amy or I had acquired up to that point,
and he was more than happy to have
a look.
With the keyboard off in a matter of
seconds, he got right to work. I only
had to point at the problem, but he
already had his soldering iron in hand,
preparing some molten metal for the
application.
He re-attached the wires with the
precision of a quiet assassin, picking
his targets, and hitting them with
acute accuracy that some Olympic
biathalon participants would be proud
to witness . The work of a solderer
should be revered in our culture, but,
it seems their destiny is to live a modest, quiet, happy existence, helping
the common man with his troubles.
We were at his tiny little cubby-hole
of an office for no more than 15 minutes. In that time the laptop was taken
apart, fixed, and put back together.
Amy and I spent this time chatting
about how such a shop could exist in
such a big building, with seemingly no
customers, and make any kind of
money at all.
We postured that these repairs
were going to be pretty pricey if he
were to keep his tiny place open. So,
when he handed back the laptop, I
kind of cringed and asked him how
much the job was going to cost us in
my broken Korean.
He said, matter-of-factly "Man
Won". My eyes went wide, and he
shook his head in approval, so as to
say "I know you thought it was going
to be more, but yes, all I really want
for this is 10,000 Won." We left shaking our heads, not knowing how
places like these stay open - but we
left smiling.
David Jones [email protected]
In-depth report
How is IT Transforming Korea?
The sixth in a ten part series
"I
would even sell the house for
the sake of my child's education," is a phrase that is
uttered from the lips of Korean mothers across the nation. Another common expression you might hear is, "I
have bent over backwards before the
sake of my child." Let's have a look at
the ten year old boy next door to see
if these expressions are only exaggeration, or if they bear any truth.
At three o'clock, Min-su comes
home from school. Twenty minutes
later, a van with martial arts stickers
all over its front and side doors stops
in front of Min-su's apartment building.
Soon after, kids in taekwondo costumes pop out the of doors and
streets, and get into the van. An hour
later, another van comes and girls in
the neighborhood run to the van, they
are going off to an Art Academy.
Thirty minutes go by, and the taekwondo van comes back to drop off the
kids. Min-su now has to go to a tutoring center to learn English and Maths.
He normally finishes his school homework there as well. Min-su's friends
say hi to him as they walk to the piano
and violin academy.
Around six o'clock, kids stand
around the food stand eating spicy
rice cakes, fishcakes, or a bit of chicken on a stick. Min-su gets home
close to seven, since his academy
does not send him home until he has
completed his assignments. Min-su
has to stay at the tutoring center until
9 o'clock during test periods. On
Saturday, he has to go to basketball
practice and on Sunday, his writing
tutor comes to his house to teach him
for an hour.
According to a study conducted by
the Korea National Statistical Office,
households' education expenses have
increased by 10% since 2007. Most
families with children in the city area
are spending $2400 dollars per
month, and at least $300 of it is spent
on educating their children.
Further studies predict that the
minimum cost of education will
increase soon. University tuition has
increased by 10%, while a 13%
increase occurred in expenses for
after-school learning centers, private
tutors and extracurricular activities.
The price of education supplies has
increased 6%, to its highest point
since 2003.
Eight out of ten students are taking
extra lessons with private tutors for at
least 8 hours a week. Korea's national educational spending for 2007 was
$20.1 billion. A study from Hyundai
Economy Research Center shows
that the actual cost of education is
way more than the statistics from the
Korea National Statistical Office.
Hyundai Economy Research
Center has found that the increasing
number of kindergartens, whose
monthly tuition fees of $2700 is also
increasing. Currently, 15% of kindergarteners are paying more than
$2000 tuition every month to receive
superior education.
Further research shows that 20%
of high school students spend at least
$1000 a month. This is the country
where families generally spend at
least 20% of their income on education, and 26% of mothers take on
part-time work, or second jobs to keep
up with increasing educational spending. Where else would online education contents be more welcomed?
But how is IT transforming student's lives? There is always so
much to learn, but limited budget and
time. If it were common to find students shuffling through vocabulary
cards in the buses and subways until
recently, now it is more common to
find students watching their cell phone
screens. Students choose private
tutors on their own by reading their
profiles or checking out the short
video clips of their potential teachers,
and download chosen subject lectures
on their mp3s or mobile phones from
learning aid websites like MegaStudy.
Lectures are available in mp3 format from $1.50 to $7 and can be
replayed as many times as students
need. The Ministry of Knowledge
Economy's research shows that four
out of ten people are getting online
education. The average spending on
online education per month is estimated to be around $29.
According to a month-long survey
conducted from October 26, 2007 by
the Ministry of Knowledge Economy
and Korea Institute for Electronic
Commerce, 67% of students aged
between 6-19 are using e-learning
programs online.
National online educational spending in Korea increased 7% from last
year to $1.7 billion. Sun Eun-jin, the
Director of MegaStudy said, "The ELearning market has been growing
since 2000 and its contents and quality are improving fast. We expect to
see more subscribers this year with
the expansion of the subjects available."
From March 16 to 21, JTC1/SC36,
or the educational information technology committee meeting, was held
on the Island of Jeju. Fourteen countries, including America and Japan
took part in discussions with 80
experts from the International
Organization for Standardization
(ISO). JTC1/SC36 has been running
with 25 member countries since 1999
to set international standardization in
the education information field.
According to Korea Educational
Metadata, there are three types of
metadata technology for education,
technology, copyrights. This technology has been tried out in 16 cities, so
if it is internationally standardized,
Korea's E-Learning contents and
service industry will become more
competitive than now.
KT's Mega TV, Hanaro Telecom's
Hana TV, and LG Dacom's My LGtv
are focusing on educational contents
to attract Internet Protocol TV (IPTV)
subscribers. When IPTV develops yet
further, students can study with a private tutor online and have a realtime
conversation, just as if a student was
actually studying with a teacher face
to face.
KT's MegaTV educational contents
are near to 3,600 at the moment with
500,000 subscribers. Mega TV subscribers can access to any of these
educational programs without paying
additional costs. 8,300 lectures are for
first grade to third grade elementary
school students on the subjects they
learn at school.
Also, a special lecture has been
designed for mid-term exams and
final exams for students, to study with
special help before the test. For high
school students who are studying for
don't provide - such as Thomas and
Friends, Veggie Tale, Between the
Lions, and Learning English with
Ozmo. We also have programs
where children can learn English by
songs like Thomas Sing Along,
Teletobi
Everywhere,
and
DoodleBobs."
Children who are with LG Dacom's
college entrance exams, KT has
made partners with leading education
institutions, MegaStudy and Jongro
Academy. Once again, all e-classes
are free for Mega TV subscribers.
7,000 educational contents for English
and Creative classes are also offered
for young learners.
Hana TV is working in partnership
with VitaEdu, the online teaching center that is best known by the high
school student in preparation of the
college entrance exam. Hana TV's
contents provide strong TOEIC and
English learning aids for adults. They
also provide lectures for those who
are studying to achieve Government
Official Certifications.
Vice President of Hanaro Telecom,
Kim Jin-ha said, "Hana TV is especially strong in contents for young learners. We offer unique, yet competitive
programs that other TV providers
myLGtv can learn English through
childrens' songs, stories, and some of
the PBS English teaching programs.
Children can learn to read and write
English using various programs. The
most amazing part of using myLGtv is
the subtitle system you can control
the speed. This helps young learners
pronounce difficult words by playing in
a speed that fits the students' English
level.
Children will no longer have to hop
on and off the vans to go to all sorts of
academies after school for extra curricular activities. Guitar lessons,
piano lessons, taekwondo programs,
English lessons, all school-related
subject lessons, and even certificate
lessons for adults - these are all available online for one tenth of the price
of learning offline. It might be that IT
is helping students like Min-su get a
part of their lives back.
CGE
Focus
The Incheon Free
Economic Zone A City From
Nothing
The Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority tells
the Korea IT Times about Northwestern
Korea's big hope for the creation of a futuristic
megapolis where once there were only mudflats.
T
he Incheon Free Economic
Zone (IFEZ) is a project aimed
at reviving the national economy by restructuring it into an
advanced industrial structure.
In the world of Today, Korea still
lags far behind Japan in economic
terms, and China has emerged as a
giant market. Under these circumstances, if we continue to reply on the
manufacturing-centered, export-led
economy, Korea will still remain a
weak nation sandwiched between
tech-savvy Japan and the new economic powerhouse - China.
The IFEZ was built as a way to further Korea's economic development
to an advanced level, while taking
advantage of Korea's great geopoliti-
cal location. The goal is to secure an
important engine needed for the country to attract high-value industries,
including state-of-the-art technology
businesses and tourists.
The IFEZ will create business and
an eco-friendly residential environment that will meet global standards.
Its mission is to attract industries,
spread this trend to the entire country,
and become a business centre in the
huge Northeast Asian market.
As of January 2008, a total amount
of US$8.9 billion has been committed
to the IFEZ. Of this amount, $299 million has been from foreign direct
investments.
In terms of attracting investment,
the IFEZ is still in its initial stage, with
a little more than four years having
passed since its establishment. What
is important is its competitiveness.
The IFEZ is a competitive zone
thanks to its location, its infrastructure, its personnel resources, and its
urban planning.
The current strategy to attract
investments is to focus on attracting
knowledge-based research facilities.
These facilities will serve as a catalyst
to attract enterprises and create continued value based on their relationship with enterprises.
One of our major duties is to help
Korean and foreign global enterprises
- the leaders of the global economy select the IFEZ as their advanced
base and a testbed to advance into
the rest of Asia.
Now into its fifth year since its
founding, the IFEZ has gained in
recognition, and a growing number of
foreign investors are taking an interest
in the IFEZ. We are going to maintain
a close relationship with the central
government to speed up the "quality
management" and remove the negative factors that hamper urban development and investment attraction
efforts.
First of all, Songdo International
City will become a centre for multinational enterprises and modern technology. Currently, Gale International,
an American developer, and POSCO
Construction are building the Songdo
International Business District, the
IFEZ's main district with state-of-theart business and eco-friendly residential environment.
Portman Holdings, another
American developer, Samsung
Corporation,
and
Hyundai
Engineering & Construction plan to
build Songdo Landmark City in northwestern Songdo, where the 151-story
Incheon Tower will be built.
Yeongjong Airport City will be born
as a hub of logistics and tourism.
Fiera Milano, a group of Italian companies that not only manages spaces
of exhibition centers, but also organizes shows and exhibitions globally, will
build an exhibition center in the logistics complex.
Kempinski, a European hotel operator, will develop a leisure complex in
the coastal area west of Yeongjong
Island, and Lippo Group, a developing
firm from Hong Kong, will develop a
similar complex in an area northeast
of the island.
The Cheongra District is turning
into a center of international finance
and a leisure resort. One of the main
development projects in this district is
Cheongra World Trade Center (WTC),
which will be built in the middle of the
district.
This district will be housed with a
77-story WTC building, and business
and commercial facilities. Besides,
Incheon High-Tech Park will be built
in an area south of Cheongra.
The geographical strengths the
IFEZ possesses makes the free economic zone distinguishable from other
cities. The IFEZ has strength in terms
of its geographical location, infrastructure and abundant local population.
As the IFEZ is located at a midway
point between major East Asian cities
like Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and
Hong Kong, and it will be convenient
to travel from here to any of those
cities.
In addition, it has both an international airport and a harbor, which
make it possible for people and goods
to travel fast and easily. Korean people also are industrious, and are welleducated and very IT-savvy.
On top of the natural competitiveness of Incheon, the IFEZ has also
developed three urban development
strategies to help it grow. First, it will
build the world's first "ubiquitous city."
Ubiquitous systems will be introduced
into all aspects of urban life to speed
up business and create better residential environments.
Secondly, the IFEZ will be an ecologically-friendly venture. More than
35% of business and residential areas
will parks or gardens.
The IFEZ will be developed as a
"designed city." From the urban development stage, everything - from the
urban skyline to advertising standards
- will be taken into consideration.
Major buildings will be planned and
designed at a global level and emerge
as new landmarks in Northeast Asia.
All these features are possible only
because the IFEZ is quite a new concept in city development. It is being
built as a city from scratch, in contrast
to Shanghai or Singapore.
The three districts in the IFEZ Songdo, Yeongjong and Cheongra are being built under different development plans. Songdo is
modeling itself as a center of multinational enterprises and
knowledge-based industries.
Yeongjong will be a centre of aviation
logistics, tourism and leisure
resorts, and Cheongra will become a
capital of international financing and
leisure.
In addition, each district is also
designed as a self-reliant city that has
residential, commercial and leisure
facilities, with their specified industries
working side by side.
But it has not been plain sailing for
the IFEZ, by any standards, and we
still need a lot of work done.
Most of all, there has been a lack
of public understanding when it
comes to what we are doing at the
IFEZ. When it was established, the
IFEZ was regarded as a national project aimed at securing a new growth
engine for the national economy for
the future.
But regrettably, there has been no
clear-cut definition of the IFEZ's status
and nature yet. For example, nobody
can find answers to questions like this
- What does the "free" in the IFEZ
mean? They are not sure if this is a
national project or a provincial project.
We are in urgent need of generous
support from central government. We
need them to help by lifting various
restrictive regulations and providing
subsidies.
The IFEZ is a national project with
clear visions of building a businessfriendly city. One of the visions is to
build a "free" Incheon and a "free"
Korea. If the "free Incheon" model is
established stably and successfully, it
can act as a model for the whole
country.
Hot Issue
“ We Will Improve in Korea”
YouTube Chief -
The online video
site's founder tells
Korea that
YouTube's international perspective
gives them the
upper hand in the
UCC war.
B
usiness managers around the
globe must get tired of this dull
mantra: "East Asia is the next
big market." However, as this area
contains one third of the World's population, and as Asian markets just
keep on growing, the increasingly
large disposable income of young
Asians means everything to corporate
fatcats in US and European offices.
The English Premier League is the
most popular football league in Asia so much so that its Chief Executive
recently announced plans to "export"
games, and have matches played
elsewhere - including Asia. Or especially Asia, maybe.
And the IT big hitters are no exceptions to this marketing rule. Google
has been trying to crack the gigantic
nut that is the Oriental market for
some time now. However, Internet
companies elsewhere in the World
are quickly finding that although their
flashy websites from Europe go down
well in the US or vice versa, this is
just not the case for Asia.
The problem is that in the case of
Korea, Japan, and even in China, the
US and Europe have left it too late
with their Internet ventures. In terms
of search engines, UCC sites and so
on - these sites already exist in Asia,
and have existed for some time.
Naver, Daum, Pandora, Mnet,
Gom. The sites have evolved in
Korea, and have almost exclusively
Korean staff. They helped to create
the national Internet landscape.
Korean versions of hit sites like
Google and YouTube seem almost
doomed from the outset.
It is a Korean instinct to reach for
Naver, Daum or Pandora TV, just as
the rest of the World cannot function
without its YouTubes and Googles. It
is entrenched in the national character
here, and it will be very hard for outsiders to find a way in at this late
stage.
But at a press conference held in
Seoul last month, Steve Chen, the cofounder of YouTube, and its Chief
Technical Officer, seemed to hint that
YouTube was ready to employ a different strategy in the effort to break
into the Korean market.
To all the individuals and companies who have said a resounding "so
what?" to the launch of YouTube
Korea, which went live late in January
this year, Chen asks Koreans to think
of the international angle.
He said, "There is a lot of content
being created in Korea, but people
here find it hard to reach an international audience. We can offer companies, artists and individuals a global
audience, a platform. You can build a
world brand through YouTube."
Reportedly, the launch of YouTube
Korea saw a sudden surge of traffic to
the side of 382,000 visitors to the site
on 23rd of January, the day of the
launch. However, there are now only
around 115,000 daily visitors to the
site from Korea. When you consider
that 997,000 people visit the Pandora
TV website a day, there is an incredibly large amount of ground to be
made up.
And Chen readily conceded that
YouTube Korea has not really made
much of a dent in the Korean market
thus far. He said, "Our site in Korea is
little more than a translated version of
our main English site at the moment.
But we are going to customize it and
tailor it to meet Korean needs."
Chen was in Korea with a team of
Youtube and Google representatives
for a five-day tour, which included
several Google and YouTube-themed
events. The Korean visit completed
his tour of Asia.
And Chen, himself a TaiwaneseAmerican, admitted there he has reasons of his own, which add a new
dimension to his company's desires
for YouTube to succeed on this continent.
He said, "I have a personal interest
in taking YouTube into Asia. I really
want it to have a more Asian focus,
not just the current American and
European outlook."
However, Chen even said that he
has noticed changes as Google have
increased their spending in Korea,
showing signs that the YouTubeGoogle team are here with every
intention of staying. He said, "I was
here in Seoul last year, at the Google
offices, which have grown a lot since
then."
Building partnerships has been a
key YouTube-Google strategy in
recent times. Indeed, YouTube boasts
that it has over 1000 partnerships
Worldwide. YouTube has been busy
especially here, building up partnerships with a diverse network of companies here.
Companies involved in media operations, like the Joongang group and
MBN, have signed up. And in the area
of youth culture, the likes of the
Gorilla Crew break dancing community and Park Jin-young, the music producer behind the Wondergirls, have
also joined forces with YouTube. They
have also set up a channel with
Castnet, an online talent-promotion
site.
Indeed, they also revealed that
they are working with Korean UCC
video site Mgoon, and might see a
site like this as a way into the Korean
market for them.
In recent times, it has been difficult
to get YouTube out of the news, especially in Asia. Last month saw furore
in Pakistan as a video which allegedly
appeared to criticize the Islamic faith
provoked Pakistani officials to impose
a blanket ban on the site, which has
recently been lifted after the offending
videos were taken down by the site.
Pakistan government spokespeople
had labeled the videos, "highly profane and sacrilegious footage."
Over in China, there has been a
myriad of problems, with videos showing the Taiwanese flag causing a stir,
resulting in bans and restrictions.
Thailand also banned YouTube for
around six months last year after
videos that appeared to deride the
Thai royal family were uploaded to the
site.
However, despite these hiccups,
Google and YouTube remain confident that they will break into the Asian
market.
Chen believes the desire to grow
further - into Asia and beyond - is only
natural for a company like YouTube.
He said, "Most of our users are not
from the US. Going global is a logical
step for us."
As UCC sites are, by their very definition, user-based, YouTube are recognizing a need to connect with their
users, wherever they may be. Chen
added, "I'd say about 1% of what we
are worth as a company is down to
our own technical expertise. The other
99% is thanks to our users - the peo-
ple out there who upload and download contents on the site."
YouTube are truly global, but have
come up against a lot of local resistance in Asia. Trying to force their way
into a market that is already close to
saturation is hard. Local competition
between the likes of Daum, Pandora
and Mnetcast is high enough even
without YouTube. But the company
seem sure that their unique "international appeal" will mean that Koreans
are forced to turn to them if they want
to do anything on the world stage.
"Working together [with companies,
TV stations and musicians] we can
sell global advertising on YouTube,"
announced Chen. That is something
not one of the Korean UCC sites can
boast, and if Korean companies buy
into this message, the American company might just have found themselves an edge over Korean domestic
competition.
It is certainly worth thinking about while Pandora and GOM pretty much
have the domestic market sewn up,
one thing they will struggle with is getting commercial messages out to an
international audience. Everyone in
Korea knows what Naver and
Pandora are, but does anyone else in
the World?
Indeed, Pandora are moving quickly to try to rectify this discrepancy.
April is the month when the company
goes live with a global service that is
targeted at markets like The
Philippines, China and other countries
close to Korea in terms of geography
and culture.
However, YouTube have an interesting strategy in aiming for Korean
companies who are looking to expand
abroad, if that indeed is their primary
target. If that is the line they try to pursue - rather than trying to target the
nation's youth, who could not care
less about foreign UCC sites - they
might enjoy some success through
this more inventive approach.
TA
Hot Issue
Telecoms merger
set to go ahead
KT and KTF are set to merge,
but unions worry that job and pay cuts
loom on the horizon
I
t was confirmed that KT and KTF
are to undergo reorganization in
preparation for the consolidation of
the two companies. KT, in particular,
has started analyzing the wage system of KTF, considering changes in
employment conditions which become
the most sensitive in the process of
merging companies.
As KT officially initiated the reorganization process for the merger with
KTF like this, the industry expects that
KT will make an application to get
approval for the merger in good time.
The two conglomerates are making
plans to establish IT, distribution and
logistics subsidiaries which will share
a common infrastructure after the
merger, according to an KT and KTF
statement made on March 23rd.
Lee Yong-kyung, former president
of KT, pursued the establishment of
an IT unit five years ago but the plan
was cancelled following after trade
union protests. It seems that the
unions would agree to the separation
of the company under the proposition
of consolidation.
The industry mentions a plan that
KT, either independently or in collaboration with outside IT consulting
organizations like CSC, will establish
an affiliate in July or August. By that
time, KT will complete the IT infra
planning process innovation (PI) project, which is being pursued by the
company.
Regarding this, KT and KTF said,
in a joint statement, `Àll this is just a
rumor and nothing has yet been
decided.'' The industry, however, forecasts that KT will complete a plan to
establish an IT business but the timing of its actual opening will be
rearranged depending on the
progress of the merger.
KT and KTF plan to pursue projects related to the PI project, and the
next-generation customer management system in consideration of the
organization of consolidated database
and the system compatibility. KTF is
working on a next-generation project
based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) with the goal of launching
its operation in January next year. KT
also is going to finish the design job in
July.
The appearance of a distribution
subsidiary is imminent as well. KT initially pursued a plan to jointly use the
distribution network of KTF M&S, a
KTF affiliate, in the form of owning its
shares.
As the merger process has been
progressed more rapidly than expected, however, KT is making a plan
beyond simply purchasing shares. A
distribution business to be launched
after the merger will reportedly undertake some of the duties of the KT
Plaza in addition to jobs related to the
existing mobile communication agencies.
A KT union leader stressed,
``There will essentially a distribution
company after the consolidation.
However, there remains a problem
regarding the degree of job transfer
and imposing new duties on existing
workers.''
KT management has started to
prepare employment terms such as
the actual wage system, except for
the establishment of affiliates. As
there are significant differences in
terms of wage between KT and KTF,
meaning that KTF workers will likely
suffer pay cuts.
In connection with this matter, an
official from KT admitted that the two
companies are analyzing their wage
system and working on their infrastructure, adding, that he thought it
too early to start talking openly about
the merger.
JKS
S
amsung Electronics started the
mass-production of 32-inch full
HD LCD panels last month for
the first time in the world and other
major panel makers, including LG
Display, Sharp and AUO, are all set to
follow suit.
Such a movement is aimed at maximizing the profitability of TV or panel
makers in the market in which the 32inch displays have occupied the
largest share of consumption. The
PDP industry also is poised to actively
join the 32-inch display market - one
which has been winning great popularity among consumers. As a result,
LCD and PDP makers are expected
to once again engage in a new power
struggle.
Following Samsung's move to start
to produce the LCD panels, LG
Display says it is going to launch the
products as early as this month,
according to sources in the industry
speaking in March.
Samsung will start to supply panels
for TV sets for the company's DM
business and then plans to expand to
major TV makers in other countries.
LG Display has a plan to provide the
first portion of its production to LG
Electronics. Overseas companies also
are taking up aggressive positions.
Sharp, of Japan, is going to launch
the mass-production of 32-inch panels
before the end of the first half of the
year, once it has finished developing
them.
IPS Alpha Technology, a joint venture between Japan's Matzushita,
Toshiba and Hitachi, is going to develop 32-inch full HD panels and then
start its production during the third
quarter of the year. Taiwan's AUO will
start production of their panels as
early as Summer this year.
LCD panel makers are joining the
32-inch full HD market one after
another like this because demand for
the so-called ``second TV'' is rapidly
growing both in emerging markets,
such as China, and in more advanced
markets.
LCD Television Production
Starts in Earnest
As the High-Definition versus LCD display war
continues to rage, the big electronics players
release their products - but with such high
prices, how successful will they be?
Their goal is to increase their profitability by actively exploring the 32inch premium market. The price of a
PAVV Bordeaux 550, the latest model
of 32-inch full HD TV, recently
launched by Samsung, is about 1.5
million won, almost 25-percent more
expensive than HD-class products of
the same size.
The LCD camp which is advanced
in terms of quantitative competition
has aggressively joined the 32-inch
TV market, the PDP industry is
expected to face an increased sense
of crisis once again. Since LG
Electronics launched the world's first
32-inch SD-class PDP module at the
end of last year, the product has
emerged as a successful hit.
LG Electronics and Samsung SDI
had the plan to introduce the HDclass module and actively join the 32inch TV market during the first half of
the year. If the LCD camp starts a
major attack with a full HD product
with higher definition than the HDclass goods, the PDP industry will
inevitably find itself under pressure.
Bu Jae-ho, the Director of Display
Search Korea, a Korean market
research firm, said, `Às domestic and
foreign panel companies will increase
their productivity from the second half
of this year, the 32-inch full HD LCD
panels will have price competitiveness
too.''
He also predicts that putting all
their eggs in one basket may not be a
wise move for many companies.
Says Bu, `Àlthough the PDP
industry is not a leading player, the
two sides will have to wage an uphill
battle as that they have placed a
heavy bet on the success of the 32inch TV market.''
JKS
News in Brief
Mozilla Chief slates Apple's
Safari Update "borders on malware distribution practices"
Mozilla, the company who make the Firefox Internet
browser, has hit out at Apple for using underhand tactics
in getting users of the iTunes music store to make them
download Safari, a rival browser made by the Apple
group.
A new update for the iTunes player prompts users to
install Safari on their PCs, but the CEO of Mozilla, John
Lilly, says that Apple is not playing fair.
The Windows version of iTunes automatically searches for updates for the iTunes player, but the Safari
browser is a totally different product, and would require
a user to specifically request the update sotware not to
have it automatically installed on their PC.
But Lilly says the practice "bad" and says it "should
stop". He implies that it is immoral to exploit users in this
way.
He said, on his personal blog, "This is software that
users didn't ask for, and maybe didn't want. This is
wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices."
Aussie Web Surfer Makes
Meteor Find
An Australian geologist has reportedly found a huge
meteorite crater - on the Internet. Arthur Hickman, who
works for the Australian government, found the 260
metre-wide, 30 metre-deep blast site on Google Earth.
The site, which is yet to confirmed by experts as a
meteor crater, is estimated as being as up to 100,000
years old. It is located in Western Australia, and will be
named after its finder, who said "I wasn't looking for it, I
just saw a circular structure on Google Earth that struck
me as odd."
World
American Town Bans Wireless Internet for
"Health Reasons"
The City Council of Sebastopol, a town in
California, has decided to rescind an agreement with an Internet provider, Sonic.net, to
provide free wireless Internet access for residents.
The Council took their decision after 235 local
residents signed a petition trying to get the
local authorities to take reverse their decision
to allow Wi-Fi in the town. The council said residents were worried about the possible effects
of radiation caused by the wireless signals.
One resident said, "Wi-Fi gives me headaches
and makes me very sick."
Google Boss Expresses Microsoft Doubt
Amid growing rumours that Microsoft are on the
verge of buying up Yahoo's Internet services,
Google's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has
warned that the Internet as a whole may suffer
should the takeover go through
Schmidt said, "We would be concerned by any
kind of acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft. We
are concerned that there are things Microsoft
could do that would be bad for the Internet."
Last year, the European Union fined Microsoft
a record $1.4 billion for ignoring sanctions
imposed on it for anti-competitive behaviour,
caused by linking the Windows and IT Explorer
applications.
Meanwhile, Fortune Magazine, an American
publication says that Microsoft is preparing to
hit back at companies who are turning to free
an open source by asking large corporate
users to pay for what MS claims are 235 patent
infringements made by the software used by
the free operating system.
TA
K
Korea
World
Korea
Say Goodbye to "Yes"
- And Hello to "YESS"
Korean software company hopes to
bag 20% of the market share with a
new customized office strategy.
B
Baek Jong-jin, CEO of Haansoft
aek Jong-jin, CEO of Haansoft, showed off his
company's newest customized office service,
"YESS," with office software and special consulting service added at the Grand Inter Continental
Hotel in Samsung-dong in March.
Baek said that Haansoft hope to get back the office
market which was taken over by Microsoft through
customized services for different types of businesses.
He also added that a customized service can be done
only with the services of domestic software companies.
"YESS" overcomes the typical old office system problems by
accumulating condensed technical know-how gathered over
the past 19 years. It constitutes a System Integration (SI) service and special consulting service which is customized to each
company's business environment that are based on "Haansoft
Office 2007." In addition, it keeps the same office packages
and license prices while it also contains a new, free consulting
service.
The basic SI expenses are included in the license price and
the office solution and utilized Scenarios are complimentarily
supplied for small sized companies.
He pointed the limitations in the past, saying, "We supplied
the customized office service for public organizations such as
the Supreme Court, the Korean Post and so on because their
practical usage of Hangul Word Processor (HWP) is fairly high.
However, there are few such services for private ownership
companies. YESS is to actively assault these private companies," he added.
Baek emphasized that Haansoft can increase its 18% of the
current market share to more than 20% by this year through
this customized office strategic service. Therefore, it will help
small and medium sized companies' businesses in their search
for active economic growth.
KEJ
How to---
F
ind
a Good
Job in IT
Your heart is racing, your hands are sweaty.
When you speak, your voice sounds high-pitched and alien to you.
Only one situation can make a human being like this
- the dreaded job interview.
I
T is one of Korea's biggest industries - and a job at a major Korean
IT company is so lucrative that
even a couple of years spent working
in certain jobs at big firm can set you
up for life. But as any Korean jobseeker will tell you, competition for the best
jobs is cut-throat.
Many believe that only graduates
of the so-called "SKY" universities Korean "Ivy League"-equivalent
Universities, Seoul National, Korea
University or Yonsei, need apply for
the best jobs. However, experts in the
recruitment business say that there is
a way in, even if you think your
resume does not look as good as the
next person's.
IT Job seeker's Tip #1
If you think that you fit about
50% of the requirements in the
job advert you are looking at,
you might as well apply for the.
More often than not, companies set their goals unrealistically high, and only realize this
when they start to get resumes
in.
Kim Joo-pil, the manager of
Recruitagency, a Korean job agency
who specialize in IT recruitment, says
"Everyone wants to get a great job at
a good company, but it's not easy to
get this chance. So the best thing to
do if you think your resume is not
impressive enough is to make a
career plan - to build up to a bigger
job step-by-step. Think carefully - is
the job and the company that you are
applying for going to be helpful for
your ultimate goal. Is it a step up for
you?"
The consequences of neglecting a
career plan, says Kim, could have
serious negative repercussions on
your future. "Looking for a job without
a clear plan in your mind might mean
you end up changing jobs frequently
in the future, and that is quite harmful
for your career goals."
But many candidates worry about
those all important qualifications more
than anything else. They ask, "How
on earth will a big company even look
twice at my resume if I haven't got the
name of a big university on it?"
Satnam Brar is the Managing
Director of Enterprise Resource
Planning
at
Maxiumus,
an
International IT recruitment agency
based in London. He believes that for
IT companies, bits of paper are not
the be all and end all. He says,
"Directly relevant experience is the
key. Formal qualifications are the
icing on the cake, but the fact that you
have actually done the job before is
the cake itself."
And a lot of experts are now saying
that it is not just insider knowledge
and techy skills that will win you a job.
So-called "soft" or "people" skills are
becoming more and more valuable in
the IT world. Brar says, "The days of
the IT geek locked to a keyboard and
screen are dying fast. Employers are
looking at inter-personal, communication and commercial skills as well as
technical ability."
Kim agrees. "IT projects more often
than not require a lot of collaboration
and teamwork. That means that just
being technically proficient is not
enough for most Human Recourses
managers. You have to be able to
show you are good at being a person,
too. Communication is not less important than job ability," he says.
Read back everything before
you send it, and then ask
someone else to check it spelling mistakes and inaccuracies might make potential
employers bin your application
on the spot. Also, try to avoid
sending attachments if possible, people are very suspicious
of potential viruses sent along
with emails.
Self-belief is also a vital commodity, say the experts. Says Ki, "IT is all
about the unknown - new technology
and new solutions, so you need to
demonstrate that you are a confident
person who is not afraid to try things
they have never done before."
And confidence might mean not
just bravery with computers and team
projects, but also in building relationships outside the constraints of the
office. Brar says, "It's important to be
able to network, both in person and
online, to build relationships with past
and potential clients."
The last point to remember should
Blow 'em away:
How to really make an IT
employer sit up and take
notice of you
Write a targeted covering letter
that is clearly written only for
the company you are applying
for. It should immediately show
that you are writing to apply to
that company for that job, not
writing generally to a whole
host of companies. You probably only have a few seconds to
draw attention to yourself from
amongst hundreds of applicants.
Learn a programming language
be possibly the most important one don't mess up your chance to make a
good impression. Recruiters are inundated with resumes and applications,
so even the tiniest of mistakes in this
process could mean that you never
make it to the interview room.
Says Kim, "You would be surprised
how many candidates make mistakes
with the name of a company, the date
or the spelling of a particular name.
These are all easy mistakes to make
when you are applying for two or
three different jobs at the same time.
However, it creates an ugly first
impression."
And first impressions are everything in getting a good job.
If you are stuck, there is no shame
in asking a professional to help you
out. Kim says, "If you ask a recruitment specialist, they can really help
you out. They have seen thousands of
resumes, both good and bad, and
they are armed with a lot of information about the companies you would
like to work for."
Perhaps there will never be an
easy solution, an easy way to get a
good job in IT. But it is important to
remember that the technology sector
is possibly the fastest-growing industry in the world. If you have both technical skills and belief, there should be
nothing to stop you beating those
interview nerves and getting whatever
job you put your mind to.
TA
Even if you are not planning a job in the software or Internet industry, having
some knowledge of basic programming code could make you a potentially
indispensable employee. Teach yourself Java, C++ or another language.
You can use online tutorials, or buy yourself an inexpensive "how-to" book.
Learn about a different Operating System
The Korean government is actively promoting Linux, while Open Office and
other alternatives to Windows are available. If you end up in an office with a
Mac or Linux computers, you should be able to use these systems, too.
Know how to work with HTML
Every year, the amount of people who need to know how to create, update
and alter web content increases. You might think you the Internet like the
back of your hand, but your knowledge is too shallow until you know its inner
workings.
Read the news
It is not enough to have a wide smile and some technical knowledge in most
interviews - you need to look like you actually take an interest in IT, too.
Knowing about trends and latest IT developments will really make you look
like you know what you are talking about in an interview. In Korea, especially, there are a lot of high-quality magazines (like this one!), newspapers
websites and blogs that will keep you abreast of the latest industry goingson.
Research the company and its competitors
Doing your homework at school might have bored you to tears, but you have
to do your homework when you are looking for a job, too. Research the business you are applying for, read news stories that mention the company and
check their site for news and press releases. Do the same with the competition, too, and in the interview, you will come across as an expert on their
subject.
Tricky interview questions and
how to deal with them.
Satnam Brar, Managing Director of ERP Recruitment at
Maximus Recruitment, tells you how to make sure you don't get
caught out by difficult questions in a job interview
1) Q: Tell me something about yourself
A: This is a classic 'ice-breaker', often used to get an interview started and to get you talking. Map out in advance the
areas you would like to cover, which should include your
qualifications and academic history, career to date,
achievements and a few personal details to give the picture
of a rounded individual. Don't get carried away. This is an
interview, not a chat show, so no matter how fascinating a
person you are, five minutes should be enough.
2) Q: What one thing has given you the greatest sense
of achievement?
A: Here the interviewer is trying to establish what really
motivates you. Your answer, which should be work-related
and relatively recent, should stem from your understanding
of the job specification and the corporate environment it
exists in.
If the role involves a high degree of responsibility for others, think of an achievement in the people management
area. If you will be called upon to overhaul a department or
alter its direction, pick an achievement which demonstrates
change management skills. Show how your abilities and
experience made the difference.
3) Q: What are your strengths and weaknesses?
A: This is meant to test your ability to analyze yourself and
others. Focus on three or four major strengths such as
technical ability or communications skills and show how
they have directly benefited past employers and could benefit the interviewer's organization. Don't be modest. If you
don't tell the interviewer how wonderful you are, no-one
else is going to do it for you.
Weaknesses are a little more tricky. The obvious answer
would be to deny you have any but that would leave most
of us with a credibility problem. One solution is to pick on
something minor that would have little or no impact on the
job under discussion or to dress up a strength as a weakness, as in, "Sometimes I think I drive myself too hard to
get the job done." Job interviewers are not priests or psy-
chiatrists and do not want to hear about any dark nights of
the soul you may be experiencing.
4) Q: Give me five adjectives that would describe you
as a person
A: Keep them positive and relate them back to the job
description. 'Independent', for example, may be fine if you
are going to be working alone out in the field but might create some doubts if you need to operate in a closely-knit
team.
5) Q: What is the most difficult situation you have
faced and how did you resolve it?
A: Pick on something recent and easy to explain and make
sure that you don't infer you were the source of the problem in the first place. Show how you analyzed the problem
quickly and clearly, how you acted decisively and show a
positive outcome.
6) Q: Why are you looking to change jobs?
A: Keep it positive. You are on the move because you relish new challenges, wish to take on more responsibility or
want to develop your skills, not because your present
employer is a skinflint who doesn't recognize your true
worth.
7) Q: Do you have any questions?
A: Retain at least one or two questions for the end of the
interview to demonstrate interest and a lively mind. Make
sure that you maintain a positive image. Tough questioning
about future plans and the company's status are quite legitimate, but too much interest in the length of the lunch
break or the sick-pay scheme may set alarm bells ringing.
Finally... Remember that, no matter how they are phrased,
all the questions posed to you in an interview boil down to
one. That is, "How would you fit into this company and do
the job better than any of the other people we are talking
to?"
Briefing
Posco Drawing
u-Health Care
Attention
L
arge domestic construction companies are preparing
to provide u-health care services to apartmentdwellers in cooperation with hospitals.
As a marketing strategy to sell luxurious apartments
more effectively, large enterprises are trying to introduce uhealth care with a positive attitude.
In particular, Posco E & C, in cooperation with Uracle
and Seoul National University Hospital, has prepared an
action plan to provide the 1,596 apartment units of "The #
First World" with u-health service on a full-scale basis from
January next year.
An official from Posco said, "Following The # First World
located in new Songdo City, which is set to become a typical international business district, we are going to provide
u-health care services to the 4,000 to 5,000 apartment
dwellers among a total of 20,000 apartment units to be built
in the New Songdo City development near Incheon
Airport."
For u-health care services, each apartment is equipped
with a lot of high-tech medical equipment and devices to
check up the on residents' weight, blood pressure, blood
sugar, and so forth. The results of this checkup will be analyzed by the university's medical examination center.
In case of emergency, intensive medical care will follow
automatically. Prior to the Songdo development, Posco is
to deliver u-health care services to the 213 Star Park residents in Jamsil, Seoul in September.
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레이아웃 1

Transcription

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