레이아웃 1

Transcription

레이아웃 1

www.ittimes.co.kr
November 2008 / Vol. 53
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
Daylight Breaks for Gaming and
RFID/USN in Korea's u-society
Gyeonggi Heralds Future
of Korean Tourism &
Game Industry
Hot Issuse p14~
Game Industry p22~
GStar 2008
Government registration No. Seoul-Ra-10914 Tel: (82-2)3459-0664~0665 Fax.:(82-2)515-2719
ITC 2008 p42~
Incheon to be reborn into world's top 10
RFID/USN p54~
FRID/USN Korea 2008
U.S. $9.00 / KOR.￦8,500
11
ISSN 1739-2950
Contents
November 2008 / Vol. 53
Graphic Design _ Lee Do-won
Game Industry
10
Editorial
Never Too Late To Play IT Catch-Up
12
Analysis
Korea's Pubescent Economy Readies for Change
14
16
Hot Issue
President Lee presents plan to weather economic storm
Gaining Confidence Key to Tide Over Economic Crisis
18
Energy
KEPCO Chosen as Best Electric Power Company in Asia
19
u-health
The Benefits of Ubiquitous Healthcare
20
Technical Article
Understanding Programmable Logic Controllers and
Distributed Control Systems
22
25
26
29
30
32
33
8
Game Industry
Online and Offline Games, Friend or Foe in 2008?
Welcoming Address
Interview: Strong Partnership Between Government
and Game Industry
Gaming's best and brightest arrive in Gyeonggi Province
Gyeonggi Tourism: Gyeonggi Province opens future
of Korean tourism
Korea Game Industry Agent- the Top Supporter of
Gaming in Korea
Game Essay: Searching for Gaming's Next Generation
_ November 2008 KOREA IT TIMES
Gyeonggi Tourism
34
36
38
40
NCsoft leads Korean gaming industry's charge abroad
NHN balances the best of gaming's old and new
Nexon to introduce 3 new games at GStar 2008
JCE shows its unique Style of GStar 2008
42
43
44
ITC 2008
ITC 2008 gives a glimpse of the future, today
Welcoming Address
Incheon going all-out to enter ranks of the world's top
10 cities by 2020
Steps to Transform into the IT-Hub of Northeast Asia
Selling Digital Information Display in the Middle
East
46
48
52
Essay
Big brother may already know your next move
54
56
57
58
RFID/USN
Get on board or be left behind -- RFID surges ahead
Welcoming Message
Happy Go Lucky Future for RFID
Government Policy: Public and private sector combine to make RFID and USN grow
Interview: Public and Private Sectors Cooperate to
Reach Wide RFID Adoption
Interview: Korea RFID/USN Center provides backbone for strong industry growth
Asiana IDT aims for a happier U-Life
Groundbreaking RFID company comes to COEX
RFID: Is It a Mirage?
60
62
64
66
67
Incheon IT
RFID/USN
68
70
Events Sketch
Valuable Fair of Electronic Delights
Korean companies rapidly improving robots' potential
72
Feature
The Frankenstein Complex in WestWorld and Our World
75
News in Brief
Asia Pacific Satellite Industry is Flying High over the Sea of
Exchange Rate
76
77
Country Report
Turkey commemorates past, while future shines brightly
Ambassador celebrates the continued development of historical
and economic cooperation
In Commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the
Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Korea and
Tuvalu
80
How to...
Create Your Own Website
84
Contribution
Fung Shui brings harmony to a stressful world
85
86
87
88
Korean version
Contribution
Essay
Editorial
Analysis
78
Chairman & Publisher
Executive Advisor
President-Publisher
Advisor
Vice President
Executive Director
Editor-in-Chief
Editor
Supplement Director
Managing Editor
Editorial Director
Assistant Editor
Industry Editors
Staff Reporters
Freelance Reporters
Photographer
Advertising Manager
Art Director
Designers
Internet Manager
Business Manager
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Administration Manager
Sales & Marketing Manager
Publication Team Manager
Financial Auditor
Financial Secretory
Correspondents
N.America
Europe
Southeast Asia
Far East
China
Oceania
SW Asia
M.East
TA
CGE
LKH
LCM
JKS
KWH
JHS
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YCW
CYR
e-mail: [email protected]
Kim Tae-sub
Han Kon- ju
Chung Youn-boo
Chang Hong-yul
M. Munir Rana
Huh Pyung-youn
Seo Doo-won
Kim Byung-woo
Henry Chun
Monica Chung / monica
Tim Alper
Kim Joo-hyung / jhkim
Chun Go-eun/toclair
Lee Kyong-hwan
Nick Antolini
Lee Chung-moo
Jeon Kyung-sook
Koo Won-hum
Jeon Hae-sun / tolucy
Lee Kyung-min
Yeon Cheol-woong
Ko Ki-wan
Cho Eun-jung
Steven Boroweic
Chun Ye-rin
Matthew Weigand
Shin Sung-won
Jude Kim
Lee Do-won
Cho Hee-sang
Bok Dong-kyu
Kim Chang-ho
Park Mi-jung
Kim Si-hwan
Yoon Jong-jin
Ko Yeon-sang
Choi Eun-kyung
Cho Hye-kyung
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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Never Too Late To
Play IT Catch-Up
Editorial
Korean
n
Versio
7
on p8
T
his magazine is unique
in Korea for several
reasons. Beyond the
obvious - the fact that it
is the only technology
title available in English in this country
- there is a more surprising reason.
Need another clue? Check out our
website.
Yes, on the website, if you have
not already visited, you can download
our free podcast. If you are a Korean
reading this, you might well be asking,
"What is a podcast?"
A podcast is a downloadable mp3
file that is produced by a variety of
media sources, ranging from private
individuals to major media outlets like
the BBC and CNN. In Europe and
America, every major radio station
has a range of shows available on
podcast. What is more, so do newspapers and magazines.
Most of the bigger papers and
magazines also make video podcasts
that you can download and watch on
your PMP, your P2P, and even your
mobile phone.
The point is that "multimedia" is no
longer some fancy word that trendy
business types can drop into conversations in most of the world. It has
10 _ November 2008 KOREA IT TIMES
moved on from being a mot chic to
being full-on reality.
Media is no longer defined by the
stuffy boundaries it encased itself in
back in the previous century. Back
then, a newspaper was a newspaper,
a magazine was a magazine. All the
print media ever needed was a roomful of journalists punching away at
typewriters while photographers
roamed the streets looking for a front
page shot.
Now, things have changed. If your
web site looks cheap and unprofessional, you can forget about making
any real kind of money. Advertising
salespeople have seen the worth of
Internet advertisements go sky high,
while the amount of money companies are prepared to pay for print ads
has plummeted.
Rich, diverse digital contents are
an absolute must. Those titles which
have refused to change with the times
have either dropped out of existence
or are now dying slow deaths.
People no longer want to buy
newspapers and magazines in the
same quantity as before. They have
Naver news at work, why should they
shell out for a 700 Won newspaper on
their way in to the office?
Although the real heavy hitters in
the Korean print media are slowly
starting to incorporate video contents
on their sites, progress here is too
slow. In the West, the media has pro-
gressed, encompassing all manner of
advances: audio podcasts, video podcasts, content for mobile phones,
RSS feeds. Most Koreans do not
understand what these terms even
mean.
Korea markets itself as a "technological wonderland". This is a good
way for it to help raise its international
profile, especially among the consumers of expensive televisions, computer chips and high-range domestic
electronics, this country's most costly
exports.
However, the fact remains that
there are too many pockets of IT that
the rest of the world has been using
for quite some time, but Koreans have
not even broken the seal on.
Too many people in Korean technology are prepared to say "Koreans
like to do things their own way", or
"Korean culture means that people
are not comfortable with this or that
technology". This simply cannot go on
being the case.
Multimedia and cross-platform
technology is still undeveloped in
Korea, yet we are already galloping
ahead with convergence and even
ubiquitous technology well before we
are ready to do so. Korea is getting
too far ahead of itself in its efforts to
stay at the head of the IT money-making race.
We need to go back and fill in those
potholes of IT ignorance in media, and
other aspects of life. Let us take stock
of what is going on around us before
we rush in where angels fear to tread.
You can start by downloading our podcast today. If it is your first time, welcome to the future. TA
코스텍
Analysis
Korea's Pubescent
Economy Readies
for Change
Korean
Version
on p88
P
Online game makers are among the forward-thinking Korean
businesses that are looking towards more global IT markets.
But will others do likewise?
uberty, if you are not
too old to remember it,
was not much fun.
Suddenly, within the
space of a few days,
you probably went from being a
happy, energetic child to being a
moody, spotty teenager who felt that
the whole world was against you.
Looking back on it now, at the time
it was probably a terrible experience,
but a necessary one. The lessons you
learned then may have turned you
into a sensible, responsible adult. The
Korean economy has just hit puberty it feels confused, frustrated, and is
struggling to discover exactly what it
really is.
For sixty years, protectionist economics have ruled Korean financial
policy, as this country has successfully pulled itself out of the global gutter
and into the exclusive "First World"
club.
Protectionism is a direct import
from Korea's closest allies, the United
States, who successfully used this
economic theory to pull themselves
out of the financial quagmire they
called "The Great Depression". At its
core, protectionism is a growth-based
economic principle that effectively
closes the door to foreign imports,
while allowing exports to flow freely
out of the country.
And protectionism has been a golden ticket for Korea. In just over half a
century, Korea has magically transformed itself from a nation of impoverished farmers to a bustling, hi-tech
country that ranks as the 11th biggest
economy in the world.
Its high-tax barriers keep foreign
competitors out of the Korean market,
which provides the perfect growing
conditions of limited competition and a
loyal domestic market.
However, with the exception of a
few of the mighty chaebols, Korean
companies are not doing well enough
abroad. Most of this country's
exportable goods and services are
forced onto the already-saturated
local market.
It is time to change. Protectionism
only allows a national economy to
grow so far. Its limitations are starting
to become all too clear in Korea,
which is feeling the effects of the global recession as badly as any other
country in Asia.
Already, the Free Trade Agreement
(FTA) with the USA has seen certain
tax regulations lifted, and a proposed
EU-Korea FTA will see yet more holes
picked in the mosquito net of state-led
Korean tax buffering.
Companies are starting to realise
that if they rely only on Korean customers to buy their products, they will
never grow beyond a middling size,
and could collapse easily if the economy hits the dire straits that it did back
in the times of the IMF bailout in 1997.
1997 was a disaster for many people in Korea; successful small business owners saw their little empires
crumble as the bottom fell out every
sector of the market. And with Korea's
current model of protectionism, there
is nothing to really stop similar periodic crises from striking repeatedly, with
each one setting back the Korean
economy ten years.
What Korea needs to do now is to
stop talking about globalisation and
start actually doing it. Companies
here have been mollycoddled for too
long. They are allowed to grow in an
environment unpolluted by foreign
competition. When they reach a medium size, they start looking around for
foreign buyers, but discover, for the
main, that nobody is interested in their
product abroad.
Why is that? For a start, it would
help if products were designed with
global, rather than domestic targets in
mind. "Who am I going to export to?"this question should be item one on
the agenda of every wannabe CEO in
the country. For the most part, now it
is just an afterthought.
But even in these harsh economic
times, there are some encouraging
signs that Korean companies are
starting to see the light.
The Samsung Economic Research
Institute says that Korea's economic
growth may fall to just over 3.5% next
year, while government figures from
the Ministry of Knowledge Economy
have confirmed that high street
spending is down some 9% from last
year.
However, even in such bleak times,
the online computer games business
is thriving in Korea. Latest industry figures show that video game exports
from Korea are worth around $900
million. Only this time last year, this
magazine was reporting Korean
online games producers saying that
they "had to go global or face extinction". Now, it seems, they are doing
the former in spades.
Nexon, one of Korea's biggest
online computer game makers, last
month released their "Combat Arms"
title in America, where "MapleStory" is
already enjoying some success.
"KartRider" is another hit game from
Nexon that is starting to infiltrate the
Chinese market.
NHH has seen a 30% boost in
sales in Japan, while the continued
success of titles like NHsoft's
"Lineage" series and JoyMax's
"Silkroad" continue to gain popularity
in the lucrative Greater Asia market.
Indeed, countries like China, The
Philippines and Indonesia represent
gigantic potential markets for Korea.
They are also countries where Korea
has a headstart in trade wars against
Europe and America.
As much as Koreans like to distance themselves from the Chinese,
Oriental tastes in video gaming are
fairly uniform, and the geographical
distance between Seoul-based gaming companies and swarming metropolises like Beijing, Manila, Jakarta and
Shanghai is relatively small.
A lot of Koreans are worried about
the competition offered by bigger,
more powerful computer game companies, the likes of Japan's Sony, and
America's EA, traditionally console
and PC game market leaders, who
look like they are on the verge of
releasing big name online titles.
This summer saw American companies release titles like "Goal Line
Blitz", an online American Football
management simulator, and other
inventive titles are starting to trickle
out, with Japanese companies doing
the same.
However, Korean companies are
still breaking the mould. "Combat
Arms" is totally free to play. Its makers
earn a profit through online player
transactions, which is a massive
coup, and makes the game seem
much more attractive to potential
gamers. Big companies from other
countries are still behind the times
with such ideas.
In addition, although big players
like EA, Sony and their like may well
enter the online gaming fray, this does
not have to spell the death of Korean
online gaming. Being a small, diverse
and inventive company is a massive
advantage in the world of online game
production. While bigger companies
are more resistant to any form of
change in their unwieldy business
models, smaller companies can move
much faster with the times.
By no means should the online
game market be a one-off, either. This
section of the market is leading by
example at the moment, but it does
not have to be Korea's only nonSamsung/LG success story. But
Korea's online game makers are starting to realise the power of thinking
globally. They can see that the
Korean market is not only saturated,
but it is also unstable.
Protectionism must die. Online
games makers have realised this, and
it is time for other IT businesses to follow suit. Increased competition has
made Korean gaming companies
stronger, and the FTAs will force other
businesses here to get their acts
together too, or go under.
Now is the time for Korean economics to go through puberty. It might
mean that new Korean companies
experience a rougher ride thanks to
the increased competition from
abroad, but so be it, if the prize is full
entry into a global market. There is
nothing fun about puberty, but if it
brings about maturity then surely it is
worth going through. TA
KOREA IT TIMES November 2008 _ 13
Hot Issue
P
resident Lee Myungbak prescribes a strong
role for government in
addressing the liquidity
and domestic consumption issues that are slowing the
Korean economy.
Present Lee dismissed claims of an
economic crisis in Korea while presenting the 2009 budget to parliament
on October 27. Korea's economy is
heavily reliant on exports, and there
Lee Myung-bak, President, Republic of Korea
President Lee presents plan
to weather economic storm
have been concerns that the global
economic slowdown would hurt some
of Korea's most productive industries,
as they depend on foreign buying
power to thrive. The current economic
malaise is different from the crisis of
the late 1990's and requires new and
innovative solutions. Lee described
his approach by stating, ``We should
actively cooperate with the international community, supply liquidity
abundantly and invigorate domestic
consumption. If the current crisis
ends, the economic rank of each
nation will change and the status of
Korea will improve.''
Lee believes that the county's deep
foreign exchange reserves make
Korea largely resistant to economic
downturns. The president believes
that the nation's holdings will allow it
to manage the current situation. He
says ``The current account and the
capital account were in red from
January to September due to surging
oil prices and heavy foreign stock selling, but the foreign exchange holdings
decreased just about 8 percent from
US$260 billion to 240 billion,'' Korea
must import much of its oil, and with
the price of crude now falling, Lee is
optimistic that the foreign exchange
situation will improve. The accumulation of the current deficit can largely
be attributed to the spike in the cost of
importing oil. Lee says "Oil and raw
material prices are showing a downward tendency. If such a situation
continues next year, the international
balance of payments will significantly
improve.''
Lee promises that the government
will intervene as needed in both the
private and public sectors.
He plans to expand the government's presence in the financial sector
to offset the effects of the sluggish
global economy. He seeks cooperation from all levels of government to
boost domestic buying power and
restore Korea's characteristically high
rates of growth, ``The government will
drastically expand budget spending
and prepare pre-emptive measures to
revitalize domestic consumption in
preparation for slowing export
growth.'' SB
크로스반도체
Hot Issue
Gaining Confidence Key to
Tide Over Economic Crisis
T
he Korean economy is
facing its biggest challenge since the 19971998 Asian financial crisis as the fallout from
the Wall Street meltdown creeps into
the economy.
Now, the domestic economy is
showing signs of slipping into recession with sluggish domestic demand
and slowing exports.
The national economy expanded
just 0.6 percent between July and
September, the weakest growth in
four years, while exports contracted
1.8 percent during the same period.
The current account deficit reached
$12.6 billion between January and
August.
If the United States slips into a
recession, which refers to two consecutive quarters of negative growth, it
will lead to a global recession, battering the Korean economy, which is
chiefly dependent on exports.
The U.S. government's $700 billion
bailout plan to purchase banks' bad
assets will widen its fiscal deficit and
dampen consumer and business confidence. As Korea is vulnerable to
shock waves from the United States,
it is almost certain that a hard landing
for the US will deal a heavy blow to
the Korean economy, especially in
stock markets, exports and foreign
direct investment.
The nation's strong export growth
was mainly attributable to an increase
in shipments to emerging market
economies. Accordingly, if the U.S.
recession leads to a slowdown in
these economies, it will hurt Korea's
exports and widen the nation's current
account shortfall.
Korea's exports rose by 12.5 percent for the first 20 days of
September, a setback from the 22.1
percent expansion during the
January-August period. The growth
rate stood at 18.7 percent in August
and 36 percent in July.
As a result, the shortfall in the trade
account reached $6.19 billion for the
first 20 days of September, compared
with a $12.3 billion trade deficit
between January and August.
Affected by the fallout from the
global recession creeping into the
Korean economy, a number of economic institutions both at home and
abroad have lowered their GDP
growth forecast for the Korean economy to below 4 percent.
Bank of Korea Governor Lee
Seong-tae recently said that the
Korean economy will not grow beyond
4 percent in the first half of next year
and economic conditions will not
improve much in the latter half due to
the international financial market turmoil and a global economic slowdown.
In its latest world economic outlook
report, the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) anticipated Korea's GDP
growth will drop to 3.5 percent in
2009, a steep fall from its earlier prediction of 4.3 percent expansion.
Morgan Stanley also downgraded
its forecast for Korea's economic
growth for 2009 to 3.8 percent from its
previous prediction of 4.3 percent, citing the global liquidity crunch and lack
of domestic growth drivers.
In the wake of the financial turmoil
triggered by growing jitters over a
global recession, consumer confidence was also severely dampened.
Reflective of such gloomy
prospects, the KOSPI has lost more
than 45 percent of its value so far this
year, while the local currency has fallen about 35 percent against the U.S.
dollar.
The central bank's largest-ever rate
cut on October 27 was designed to
prevent falling consumer confidence
from spilling over into other sectors of
the economy. The BOK slashed its
base rate by 0.75 percentage points
to 4.25 percent.
The central bank's powerful action
reflects its growing concerns over the
possibility that sluggish consumer
spending will lead to a reduction in
corporate investment and job losses.
It means that banks may suffer losses
in consumer and commercial property
loans, which will have negative effects
on the financial markets.
It is almost certain that Korea, just
like many other economies, will be
affected by the problems in the U.S.
Accordingly, the government is
planning to cut taxes, remove regulations, increase fiscal spending and
ease a liquidity shortage to inject
fresh vigor into the ailing economy.
However, such stimulus packages
will not be effective unless Korean
policymakers restore confidence from
both local and foreign investors.
The most important thing to escape
from the financial turmoil where stock
prices plummeted and the won fell to
a 10-year low against the US dollar is
to recover confidence in the Korean
economy in domestic and foreign
investors.
Unless the country restores confidence, upcoming bailout measures,
including additional rate cuts and the
central bank's purchase of bank
bonds, will not stabilize the financial
markets and stimulate the economy.
Korea is the world's 13th largest
economy with foreign reserves of
$239 billion in September, the sixth
largest in the world and the second
largest among OECD member countries.
Corporate debt ratio has dropped
to around 95 percent from 420 percent in 1997, while local lenders' Bank
for International Settlement (BIS) ratio
stood at 10.5 percent, well above the
international average of 8 percent.
Despite the nation's sound fundamentals, the won has been depreciating at a much faster pace than other
major currencies. It has lost about 34
percent of its value against the dollar
since the beginning of this year, compared to Thailand (-13.2 percent) and
Taiwan (-2.6 percent).
Second, the government should
make all-out efforts to make the
nation's current accounts shift into the
black.
Fortunately, this is expected to shift
into the black in October on the back
of falling oil prices. The nation is likely
to post a handsome surplus in
November and December of this year
and the current account surplus is
expected to reach $4 billion in the
fourth quarter.
The turnaround will help calm the
domestic currency, which has been
extremely volatile on concerns over
an acute shortage of dollars here
amid widening shortfalls in the current
account.
The current account deficit reached
$12.59 billion between January and
August, putting additional constraint
on the local currency. In August, the
shortfall reached a record high of $4.7
billion as the goods balance posted
the largest shortfall in 12 years.
Third, the nation needs to exploit
the slowdown of the Chinese economy.
The Chinese government is moving
to launch large infrastructure projects
to boost domestic demand, which can
create numerous golden opportunities
for Korean firms and individuals.
China is also facing a serious economic problem as the US economy
heads toward a recession.
The Chinese economy expanded
by just 9 percent in the third quarter,
the slowest rate since 2003. The
economy grew 10.6 percent in the first
quarter and 10.1 percent in the second quarter.
On a short-term basis, Korea will
suffer from a Chinese slowdown
because Korean firms supply Chinese
factories with important machines and
equipment. However, there will be
good opportunities for Korean companies on a long-term basis. If China
employs a measure to stimulate
domestic demand, Korean exporters
could enjoy benefits.
One piece of good news is that
Korea signed a $30 billion currency
swap agreement with the United
States on October 30. It is expected
to serve as a stepping stone toward
the won's convertibility and boost the
international status of the local currency, helping stabilize the domestic
financial markets and upgrade the
nation's credit rating in the near
future. By Lee Kyoung-min
Energy
KEPCO Chosen as Best Electric
Power Company in Asia
O
n Monday, October
20, the Korea Electric
Power Corporation
(KEPCO), was chosen by US-based
Platts as the best electric power company in Asia for the year 2008. It was
honored to be selected at the awards
presentation at the St. Regis Hotel in
Singapore. This was the second time
it was selected, the first being in 2006.
This is a good opportunity for
KEPCO to get good exposure of its
brand both inside and outside of
Korea, and will be another feather in
its cap when it goes to search for new
overseas markets in the future.
KEPCO is a government-sponsored, integrated electric utility company in Korea. KEPCO is the only
company engaged in power transmission and distribution in the country. In
addition, KEPCO generates approximately 94% of the total electricity produced in Korea through its whollyowned sixth generation subsidiaries,
or GENCOs. KEPCO spun off its
power generation sector and established six GENCOs in 2001 in accordance with the government's restructuring plan for the power industry.
The company's vision is to "spur
the development of electric sources,
operate the electric business rationally, and ultimately ensure the stable
supply and demand of electric power
and contribute to the development of
the national economy," according to
their web site.
KEPCO has already been successful overseas. A Korean consortium
consisting of KEPCO, the Korea
Resources Corporation, LG International and ARMZ Uranium Holding Co.
which is a Russian-owned enterprise,
signed an agreement to develop
Russian uranium mines collaboratively
in September. Lee Yoon-ho, the
From left, Vice President Ha Yeong-bong of LG Corporation, Vice President Yampolskiy of ARMZ,
Minister Lee Yoon-ho of the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy, President Kim SSang-su of
KEPCO, and Kim Shin-jong of Korea Resources Corporation
Minister of Knowledge Economy,
attended the meetings at WTC DON
Hall in Moscow. According to the
agreement, the Korea consortium will
probe and develop the uranium of
ARMZ Uranium Holding Co. as a
strategic partner.
ARMZ Uranium Holding Co. is very
interested in processing the 350 thousand tons of uranium which it holds.
It is willing to sell a stake of the business overseas to get funding for
development. The Korean consortium
has taken them up on the offer, and
will decide the scale and value of the
purchase by negotiation after a
detailed examination of the mine.
The Korean consortium had been
contact with ARMZ since the latter
half of 2007 to participate in the development of the Russian uranium
mines. It had only been able to come
to an agreement, however, two
months ago. They signed an MOU.
Korea expects to get a long-term supply deal from the mine development.
This is important, as Korea is already
the 6th largest consumer of uranium.
Platts, a division of The McGrawHill Companies, is a leading global
provider of energy and metals information. The company has been in
business for almost 100 years. It has
customers in more than 150 countries. It serves information to its clients
about oil, natural gas, electricity,
nuclear power, coal, petrochemical
and metals markets.
Platts' real time news, pricing, analytical services, and conferences help
markets operate with transparency
and efficiency. Traders, risk managers, analysts, and industry leaders
are often said to depend on Platts to
help them make better trading and
investment decisions.
Platts annually chooses the best
company in seven different energy
industries in each continent. It announces its selections annually, after
considering the value of their assets,
sales figures, profits, and the minimal
amount of management activity.
By Chun Go-eun/[email protected]
The Benefits of
Ubiquitous Healthcare
u-health
O
The second in a six part series
By Cha Joo-hak
healthcare technology can pronce a ubiquitous
vide alternative means of delivhealthcare servering care to patients. Ubiquitous
ice is in place,
healthcare infrastructure offers
the system will
convenient mechanisms for
always be 'on';
transmitting medical information
working anytime and anywhere. If
to residents, laypeople, and
the vision of the UHIS (Ubiquihealthcare workers.
tous Healthcare Information
Moreover, ubiquitous healthSystem) is to achieve better
care methods and strategies
health and well-being for the genencourage innovation in patienteral population, the key goals
oriented medical intervention.
must be to enhance the efficiency
They also save resources by
and effectiveness of the system
focusing on prevention and
by making services more accessiplace greater emphasis on selfble, affordable, and accountable.
For this vision to be achieved,
care. Ubiquitous healthcare can
new legislation and policies need
also improve a nation's healthto be implemented. New policies
care infrastructure, financing,
must be conducive to the promoadministration and management.
tion of u-healthcare practices. Cha Joo-hak, the CEO of Kyeongwon U-Globe Ubiquitous
Information can also be made to
Without supporting legislation, all Healthcare Information System (UHIS)
flow more freely, leading to
discussion will only be theoretireduced administrative costs. A
gency services
cal. We will still have a long way to go
more efficient system will lower the
● Improved non-emergency services
before a fully ubiquitous healthcare
costs of medical companies, making
● Decreased waiting time for nonsystem is realized.
the whole system more affordable and
emergency services
effective.
● Greater awareness of services
Potential benefits of u-healthcare
Healthcare consumers will access
among rural and remote residents
● Availability and accessibility of
data from various sources and receive
and caregivers
healthcare knowledge and expertmedical information in real time.
● Timely accessibility of critical inforise
Making information available to
mation in the event of emergencies
● Availability and accessibility of
healthcare consumers will help them
quality healthcare on a more equiThe road ahead
plan their own treatment regimens
table basis to underserved rural
If these benefits are going to be
and consult with other patients. This
and urban areas
realized, a gradual shift from the tradiwill enhance their trust and comfort in
● Comprehensive availability of ubiqtional healthcare delivery system to
the system. It also provides a more
uitous clinical services, regardless
ubiquitous forms of healthcare is necdirect link between patients and proof time, specialty, and geographical
essary. Thus, the evolution of ubiquifessionals, allowing providers to
location
tous healthcare concepts, infrastrucimprove their service based on the
● Availability of ubiquitous healthcare
ture,
technologies,
applications,
interwishes of consumers.
services for new and alternative
faces,
and
strategies
all
contribute
to
All of this will create a climate
(non-invasive) medical procedures
the
paradigm
shift
from
tethered
to
where
health care providers should
● Savings for ubiquitous healthcare
ubiquitous wellness.
choose ubiquitous healthcare. A new
service providers and patients in
Ubiquitous healthcare concepts
system will allow our healthcare
procedural, travel, and claim proand strategies are vital for healthcare
providers to work more effectively at
cessing costs
reform. In other words, ubiquitous
providing quality care to patients.
● Reduced use of traditional emerKOREA IT TIMES November 2008 _ 19
Understanding
Programmable
Logic Controllers
and Distributed
Control Systems
Technical Article
This is the first in a three-part
series on programmable logic controllers by Armand L. Rogado, Senior
Electrical Engineer for KEPCO/
KOPEC - Ed.
I. Executive Summary
The purpose of this discussion is to
define the difference and to understand the specific application of programmable logic controllers(PLC) vs.
distributed control systems(DCS). For
the manufacturers in the process
industries, the procedure for selecting
the best automation technology is
challenging. It is imperative to understand the weaknesses and strengths
of PLC vs. DCS due to advanced
technologies and microprocessors
presently available in the market.
Finding the right automation technology is vital to minimize total cost investment.
II. Programmable Logic Controller
(PLC)
A PLC is a standard unit with no
dedicated application. The unit has to
be connected to the various plant
Armand L. Rogado, Senior Electrical Engineer
for KEPCO / KOPEC
input and output devices. The controller then must be programmed with
the tasks that the system must perform; this is achieved by a set of software instructions. The software con-
tains sequences that are initiated by
inputs from the plant, which then
prompt the outputs to change the
plant status.
The programmable controller can
consequently be applied to an extensive range of diverse applications.
Once configured as part of the system, the controller will be able to handle tasks.
III. Features
The main difference from other
computers is that PLCs are armored
for severe conditions(dust, moisture,
heat, cold, etc) and have the facility
for extensive input/output (I/O)
arrangements. These connect the
PLC to sensors and actuators. PLCs
read limit switches, analog process
variables(such as temperature and
pressure), and the positions of complex positioning systems. Some even
use machine vision. On the actuator
side, PLCs operate electric motors,
pneumatic or hydraulic cylinders,
magnetic relays or solenoids, or analog outputs. The input/output arrangements may be built into a simple PLC,
or the PLC may have external I/O
modules attached to a computer network that plugs into the PLC.
PLCs were invented as replacements for automated systems that
would use hundreds or thousands of
relays, cam timers, and drum
sequencers. Often, a single PLC can
be programmed to replace thousands
of relays. Programmable controllers
were initially adopted by the automotive manufacturing industry, where
software revision replaced the rewiring of hard-wired control panels
when production models changed.
Many of the earliest PLCs
expressed all decision making logic in
simple ladder logic which appeared
similar to electrical schematic diagrams. The electricians were able to
trace out circuit problems with
schematic diagrams using ladder
logic. This program notation was chosen to reduce training demands for
the existing technicians. Other early
PLCs used a form of instruction list
programming, based on a stackbased logic solver.
The functionality of the PLC has
evolved over the years to include
sequential relay control, motion control, process control, distributed control systems and networking. The data
handling, storage, processing power
and communication capabilities of
some modern PLCs are approximately equivalent to desktop computers.
PLC-like programming combined with
remote I/O hardware, allow a generalpurpose desktop computer to overlap
some PLCs in certain applications.
Under the IEC 61131-3 standard,
PLCs can be programmed using standard programming languages. A
graphical programming notation called
Sequential Function Charts is available on certain programmable controllers.
IV. PLC compared with other control systems
PLCs are well-adapted to a range
of automation tasks. These are typically industrial processes in manufacturing where the cost of developing
and maintaining the automation system is high relative to the total cost of
the automation, and where changes
to the system would be expected during its operational life. PLCs contain
input and output devices compatible
with industrial pilot devices and controls; little electrical design is required,
and the design problem centers on
expressing the desired sequence of
operations in ladder logic (or function
chart) notation. PLC applications are
typically highly customized systems
so the cost of a packaged PLC is low
compared to the cost of a specific
custom-built controller design. On the
other hand, in the case of mass-produced goods, customized control systems are cost-effective due to the
lower cost of the components, which
can be optimally chosen instead of a
"generic" solution, and where the nonrecurring engineering charges are
spread across thousands of places.
For high volume or very simple
fixed automation tasks, different techniques are used. For example, a con-
sumer dishwasher would be controlled by an electromechanical cam
timer costing only a few dollars in production quantities.
A microcontroller-based design
would be appropriate where hundreds
or thousands of units will be produced
and so the development cost (design
of power supplies and input/output
hardware) can be spread over many
sales, and where the end-user would
not need to alter the control.
Automotive applications are an example; millions of units are built each
year, and very few end-users alter the
programming of these controllers.
However, some specialty vehicles
such as transit buses economically
use PLCs instead of custom-designed
controls, because the volumes are
low and the development cost would
be exhorbitant.
Very complex process control,
such as that which is used in the
chemical industry, may require algorithms and performance beyond the
capability of even high-performance
PLCs. Very high-speed or precision
controls may also require customized
solutions. Aircraft flight controls are
one example.
PLCs may include logic for singlevariable feedback analog control loop,
a "proportional, integral, derivative" or
"PID controller." A PID loop could be
used to control the temperature of a
manufacturing process, for example.
Historically PLCs were configured
with only a few analog control loops;
where processes required hundreds
or thousands of loops, a distributed
control system (DCS) would instead
be used. However, as PLCs have
become more powerful, the boundary
between DCS and PLC applications
has become less clear-cut.
Online and
Offline Games,
Friend or Foe
in 2008?
Game Industry
GStar 2008 fills needed role in
gaming industry
E
very game should be
fun, whether it is online
or offline. That is what
games are all about.
Unfortunately, however, it is not so for South Korea, a battlefield of Internet games. Apart from
being fun, voices are heard here and
there that Korea, the icon of online
games, is suffering through a great
recession both at home and abroad.
Domestically, South Korea has found
no way out from a sharp slowdown in
the game industry. Abroad Korea has
been surrounded by roaring giants
like Japan, USA and China. That
means that the pie for the pioneer of
online games is shrinking quickly.
Korea now stands at an intersection
that shows no way out and no parking
signs.
Korean online games had fundamental limits on their ability to grow.
While online games have dominated
the Korean territory, they have not
been welcomed in overseas markets
where video and console games are
prevailing. The reason why Korea
(Left) Screen shot of 'Aion', new game of NCsoft
(Below) Team play mode of 'Love Beat'
became an online gamer's paradise is
that the whole nation is linked through
broadband networks. The high speed
and the stability of the networks
helped Korea become known as "The
land of the Online Game." The world
seemed to have fallen into colonies of
Korean online games. Chinese
gamers were crazy about "Lineage,"
made by Kim Taek-jin, a Korean legend of online games. Legend Kim
became a billionaire.
Now, however, the legend seems
to be close to an end. Markets are
plummeting amid attacks from China.
China is no longer a market for Korea,
but has become a lion demanding a
large portion of the pie. South-east
Asian countries, once markets for
Korean online games, have now
become players competing against
Korea. The domestic market, a major
revenue source for online game companies, has been saturated as its
growth rate of the market has been on
a downslide. To make matters worse,
Chinese and other Asian games have
been exported to Korea.
According to a report on the gaming industry, the total domestic market
for the industry was five trillion Won
last year, a drop of 30.9 percent from
the previous year. To analyze it by
genre, the online sector has taken 2.2
trillion Won, reaching 43.5 percent of
the total. And the total revenue of PC
game rooms that serve online games
occupied 2 trillion Won. This means
that online game related industries
have an overwhelming share of 84
percent of the entire game industry in
Korea. The market share for console
and video games that are blossoming
in Japan and USA was so small that it
could be neglected. The mobile
games sector, which grew by 23 percent in 2006, only increased by 5.4
percent last year.
Exports also declined while imports
sharply increased. The total amount
of exports reached 781 million dollars
in 2007, up 16.2 percent from 2006.
Imports from overseas reached 390
million dollars in 2007, a sharp
increase of 87.7 percent from 2006.
Overseas online games exported to
Welcoming Address
Game Industry
Korea doubled in 2007.
Let's draw a comparison using
world game market statistics. The
total amount of the world market
amounts to 92.2 billion dollars. Of that
amount, about 45 billion dollars is
video games. Arcade games reach
32.6 billion dollars while the online
games that rule the Korean market
total only 6.9 billion dollars. The structure of market shares of each game
genre is starkly different from Korea.
This means that there is no place for
Korean online game makers in the
global market.
If Korean games have fundamental
limits on their ability to grow, are they
destined to fail in the global markets?
The answer is no. A new horizon is on
its way. A change is coming via "a
wave of convergence". As the inter-
Character of 'Free Style Football' (JCEntertainment)
relation between technology and communication began to deepen, the convergence appeared in many fields.
Television and internet converged
into one. Internet protocol TV is
one example. Wired Internet can
send information to wireless internet. Uploads and downloads between
mobile and to fixed devices enable
players to provide convergent services for customers. In this trend, games
can be core services. Wireless online
games will become possible if they
can lower the costs for service. You
can connect your mobile devices with
the online games you want to play.
With 4th generation broadband technology that provides 1 Giga bps
speed, online games can be a core
service and change the structure of
the game markets in the world.
What matters is that game industries can wait and survive until a new
horizon is in sight. Some probably
can, some probably cannot. In order
to have them survive, small and medium-sized game exhibitions are
required.
Exhibitions can provide opportunities to learn about new trends in gaming and gather information on global
products. For this reason, GStar
game show is drawing special attention. 150 domestic and foreign enterprises and over 3000 buyers and
media will meet on the show floor to
join the feast of gaming stars. As its
slogan explains, GStar 2008 will help
the visitors to
explore
the
ocean of the
most innovative online
games and
allow them to
Log in their
D r e a m .
Organizers of
the show said
that the show in
November would be held to
help game businesses. It will
provide booths for participants
at lower prices. During the
Welcoming Address
Character of 'Love Beat' (NCsoft)
show, it will hold a world E-sports
competition to entertain the visitors.
To make it one of the best Korean
game exhibitions, it will focus on
online games so that foreign buyers
can pay a visit to the show.
Foreigners can get information on
Korean online game trends and consult with domestic companies. This is
to show the characteristics of Korean
online games, the best of the world.
The Korean Game Industry Agency,
host of the show, will create an environment where all information related
to online games is accessible to
everyone. GStar will be held from
November 13 -16 at KINTEX, Ilsan.
By allowing people to interact more
with fun games through exhibitions
like GStar 2008, negative perceptions
can flip around to set a whole new
idea on gaming. It is not only the consumers that influence the gaming
market, but also the quality of the
game itself that penetrates the global
gaming industry. As long as we are
heading towards visual generations
who use visual-aids on a daily basis,
entertaining games will serve multiple
purposes as casual conversation topics, stress relievers and socializing
tools.
Yu In-chon, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism
I heartily welcome people from the gaming industry and
game lovers from in and out of the country who have
come to take part in GStar 2008.
The cultural industry is coming into the spotlight as a
core industry for the future. It is a new growth engine welcomed as a green, low-carbon emission industry. The
game industry can be called a favorite of IT, CT technological and cultural creativity.
Korea's game industry has been recording double-digit
growth rates every year. Online and mobile games in particular occupy the top position as leaders of the overseas
game markets as well as domestic markets.
In addition, games have already become an important
cultural code in our society. We are now opening a new
chapter. It is game culture that brings our lives together.
This is a time when we should make utmost efforts to
make a "game power Korea'', using people's affection
toward a strong game culture as a driving force.
At this moment, Korea is holding G Star 2008, a worldwide international game exhibition. It is very meaningful for
us to sit together with officials from the gaming industry
across the world. The nation is preparing an opportunity to
exchange various cultures and show diverse aspects of
the nation's gaming industry to visitors.
I hope this event will be a good chance to expand the
base of the domestic gaming industry. I hope the exhibition will activate world markets and diversify productive
new sectors.
I want to say words of encouragement for officials related to domestic and foreign gaming industries who are participating in the international event and for all concerned
people who have contributed to this successful exhibition.
Kim Moon-soo, Governor of Gyeonggi Province
"World of Wonder and Fantasy, GStar
2008!"
"Jump to World's Largest Exhibition Uniting the Game
Industry with Gyeonggi Province"
I am very happy that GStar 2008 is being held at the
Korea International Exhibition Center (KINTEX) in
Gyeonggi Province for the second consecutive year. The
exhibition has become a world renowned exhibition since
attracting over 150,000 people from 38 countries in 2007.
There is a consensus that the gaming industry is a high
value-added next generation growth engine. GStar 2008 is
composed of a diverse array of events, such as international game conferences, e-sports contests and export
consultation sessions. I hope that we will introduce various
new domestic and international game industries to the
world markets. I would also like to make this exhibition an
opportunity for gamers and users to enjoy the best games
in our industry today.
The holding of a game industry job fair in Gyeonggi
Province is expected to provide an opportunity to solve
youth unemployment to stimulate the economy by being
the host of this large-scale event.
Gyeonggi Province will co-host the Gyeonggi
International Travel Mart (GITM) with Gyeonggi Tourism
Organization (GTO). In addition to the game festival, visitors will be able to enjoy various events at Goyang City.
Finally, I want to thank all involved officials, game companies and users. I hope that with all our work, GStar will
develop into the world's top gaming exhibition.
O
Game Industry
Interview
nline PC and mobile
games, and especially so-called casual
games, were expected to push the South
Korean gaming market to more than
$1.7 billion by 2009 according to the
market research firm Pearl Research.
South Korea's availability of PCs -including the prevalence of home
computers, high-speed Internet, and
cyber cafes -- was expected to foster
the increase. But that was assuming
that the effect of software piracy or
rising game-development costs in the
Korean game market were kept to a
minimum.
Further studies show that South
Korea has a sophisticated information
technology (IT) infrastructure with
80% of households connected to the
Internet. South Korea has one of the
highest adoption rates for purchasing
virtual items and using micro-transactions. Approximately 67% of those in
the 20-30 age group purchased online
paid content. Of those who purchased digital content, 91% purchased music while 39% purchased
community and avatar items from
online services. A common strategy
in Korea is the operation of large
game portals that provide a wide
selection of games, including massively-multiplayer online role-playing
games (MMORPGs), casual, and web
board games all accessed from one
convenient site. Top game portals
such as CJ Internet's Netmarble,
NHN's Hangame, and Neowiz's
Pmang can attract 500,000 to 1 million unique visitors each day. More
than 12 million Korean adults visit
game portals every month, according
to estimates by Pearl Research.
While South Korea has a robust
games market, critical challenges
include intense domestic competition;
prevalence of derivative titles; challenges in expanding overseas to the
US and China; and rising development costs.
Government in the Gaming
Industry
Here, the divided role of different
government sectors shows a beneficial side. One of the sectors that has
been giving the gaming industry passionate support is the Ministry of
Culture, Sports, and Tourism (MCST).
There is an old Korean saying that "a
deeply rooted tree does not sway in
the wind," noted Minister Yu In-chon
of the MCST. He continued by saying; "As the saying goes, the MCST
plans to continuously plant and nurture trees with strong roots of creativity and culture to share with the global
community."
The expansion of tax breaks for the
gaming industry, an activation of foreign investments via export consultation, and concentrated support in
enterprises which show potential are
only a few ways the Ministry of
Culture, Sports, and Tourism has
been involving itself in the gaming
industry. The MCST also supports
game companies that are based in
cultural centers. As most parents
believe their role is to support their
children in needed areas and keep
making opportunities for their children
to use, the MCST plays its role as a
supporter of gaming industry of South
Korea by promoting and improving
policies, educating potential experts,
and expanding the potential investment funds. Areas in the gaming
industry that the MCST hopes to
improve begin with policies that cope
with new issues in the gaming industry - such as policies regarding a
change of user environment, enlistment of KOSDAQ, illegal servers,
hacking, and deliberation systems for
online games. Finding the ways to
collaborate policies and regulations
between countries is another mission
of the MCST.
Yu In-chon, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism
Strong Partnership
Between Government
and Game Industry
Ministry committed to nurturing role.
Future strategy and the gaming
industry
"The MCST is in progress to develop the structure of the game industry
by organizing the best environment
for game development, creating a
global publisher and expert studio
structure plan, and fostering collaboration between big firms and smaller
companies," the Minister Yu said.
Multi-platform games, WiBro and
IPTV-utilizing futuristic games, and
functional games are also on the
MCST's target list to improve on.
Game related research, development
and training, therefore, must be provided to create competitive game content and strengthen Korean game
companies in the global market.
"Creation of an international communication code for e-sports is also
something that we should keep in
mind to lead the dynamic gaming culture," said Yu.
World trends
While leading companies previously relied on market flow and a reduced
role of government in business, they
now insist on government policy
assistance. In Taiwan, the Digital
Content
Industry
Promoting
Organization (DCIPO) was established in May 2002 to nurture digital
content industries such as online
games, PC games, mobile games,
and arcade games. In Japan, the
Digital Content Association of Japan
(DCAJ) was set up to promote the
production of digital content, distribution, and expansion of businesses.
DCAJ conducts digital content publications, research, and forums. In
2006, the Online Game Forum was
organized to announce Game
Industry Strategy. France has been
building up manpower and improving
technology in the visual content area
at its Centre National de la cinematographie (CNC), while Digital
Media Culture Sports (DMCS) in
England has recently chosen the culture content industry as a creative
industry and started a program called
Skillset to build up manpower.
Likewise, the National Film Board of
Canada (NFBC) has also recognized
cultural content as the next growth
engine of the country and is support-
ing various areas including manpower
and production funds.
On top of following the world's policy direction, the Korean government
is working hard to create a healthy
game culture. Recent accomplishments involved the establishment of a
local Game Addiction Rehabilitation
Center.
GStar Wave
Minister Yu said; "We expect GStar
to expand the domestic gaming industry and help us to engage in business
on a global scale. Export consultation
and investment consultation on the
show floor will help our industries to
bear fruit. Over 100 foreign top buyers will visit the exhibition and have
1,000 meetings with domestic companies. GStar's impact on businesses is
already being highly recognized both
in this country and worldwide. The
improvement of exhibition scale by
displaying various content and brand
new products is greatly expected, and
converged platform exhibition is also
on the hot spot of people's expectations. Companies that are both directly or indirectly related to gaming
industries like animation, publishing,
and security solutions are sought in
order to come together at the GStar
floor to expand the IT industry." He
went on to conclude; "Last but not
least, we believe that GStar will have
a positive influence upon the people's
current perception of games. GStar
already has become an exhibition
where over 15,000 participants come
from different backgrounds with a
common interest. Here, they shall
experience and interact with various
gaming contents and re-evaluate
games."
In spite of gaming's side effects,
healthy gaming content has so much
to offer in our lives. As long as government bodies like MCST walk in
tight step with the development of
gaming industries, policies and regulations will be there to ensure a safe
entertainment.
Game Industry
By Hwang Seong-tae,
Director of Culture & Tourism Bureau, Gyeonggi Province
Gaming's best and brightest
arrive in Gyeonggi Province
창송에이스
A
s Korea's gaming
industry grew at home
and began to attract
attention from abroad,
Gyeonggi Province
took notice. The province already has
an attractive mix of features that make
it an ideal place for gamers. It is conveniently located close to Seoul and
features a large and dynamic population. Its business culture is diverse,
featuring IT, CT, NT and BT companies within an excellent residential
atmosphere. The area is also home to
universities which provide educated
and ambitious human resources. It is
no surprise that Gyeonggi Province is
considered Korea's perfect place for
the gaming industry.
The province is pushing ahead with
plans to establish infrastructure, to
secure R&D foundation and to cultivate human resources. In order to
bring its investment and business
plans to life, Gyeonggi is reflecting the
central government's policies
designed to foster cultural industries,
while letting its regional particularity
shine through.
Out of the more than 260 companies taking part in Gyeonggi
Province's cultural industries, 28% of
them are video game producers. They
are a diverse group, as 25 are arcade
game companies, 5 are PC game
companies, 21 are online game companies and 16 are mobile game companies. Game-related schools, such
as Kyungwon University, Chungkang
College of Cultural Industries and
Korea Animation High School are
educating the industry's next generation of leaders.
GStar, the nation's largest game
festival, will be held at Korea
International Exhibition Center in
Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. This
year, the international event will be
organized by Korea Game Industry
Agency and Gyeonggi Digital
Contents Agency under the guidance
of the Ministry of Culture, Sports &
Tourism and the government of
Gyeonggi Province.
The province has taken a keen
interest in the game industry and has
conducted research on the development of GStar and sought ways to
improve the popular event. The
province has taken part in preparation
for the event to make it a productive
and successful venture. We hope
GStar will be both entertaining and
informative for visitors.
GStar 2008 will provide assorted
services and facilities for participating
businesses and visitors. GStar 2008
will prepare export consultation ses-
sions, an academy zone in which
domestic and foreign colleges will participate and a job fair for people looking for work in the gaming industry.
Gyeonggi International Travel Mart,
one of the biggest events of the
province, will kick off during the same
period and visitors will be able to
enjoy both events with one ticket.
They will be provided with an impressive and enjoyable experience.
This year, GStar is winning favorable reviews from Korea's gaming
elite, including NC Soft, NHN, Nexon,
Neowiz Games, CJ, Internet, JC
Entertainment and T3 Entertainment,
all of whom will be participating in the
event. In addition, SK Telecom and
COM2US will bring a component for
mobile games to GStar. Various esports events will please visitors who
come to enjoy games.
The slogan of GStar 2008 is ``Log
in your dream.'' In the past, only gaming fanatics participated in the event,
but this year, we tried to provide a
stage for everyone by improving the
festival's contents. All visitors regardless of their gender or age will be able
to enjoy what the festival has to offer.
I hope that all visitors will enjoy their
time at GStar 2008. Everyone
involved has worked to make the festival something truly special.
Gyeonggi Tourism
Gyeonggi Province opens
future of Korean tourism
A
Lim Byoung-soo, CEO of Gyeonggi Tourism
Organization
s Korea looks for ways
to boost its economy
and international profile, tourism is being
highlighted as a way of
accomplishing both these goals. The
country features a variety of attractions, but the biggest challenge for the
tourism industry is making them
known to globe-trotting travelers.
Gyeonggi Tourism Organization is
preparing for the nation's biggest
tourism exhibition, the 6th annual
Gyeonggi International Travel Mart. It
will be held from Nov. 13 to 16 at KINTEX in Goyang City, Gyeonggi
Province.
CEO of Gyeonggi Tourism
Organization, Lim Byoung-soo
explains, "For successful hosting of
the tourism fair comprising inbound,
outbound and internal tourism, we
invited distinguished domestic and
foreign guests from all walks of life.
We are making all-out efforts to have
the event run smoothly and be successful."
He continues, "About 150,000
domestic and foreign guests are
expected to visit the international travel fair this time, following 103,166 visitors in 2008."
The
Gyeonggi
Tourism
Organization is now busy preparing
for a variety of contents, including
tourism information, experience and
business, to herald the province's
tourist potential and attract visitors.
"Through cooperative projects with
tourism-related institutions, we plan to
establish a foundation to create profit
structure and sell tourism products by
region through business exchanges
between local governments and travel
agencies," Lim said in an interview
with Korea IT Times.
"Based on such efforts and growth,
I hope the 2012 Gyeonggi
International Travel Mart will become
the Asia's biggest tourism industry
exhibition," said the top official of a
tourism organization.
Various events of Gyeonggi
International Travel Mart
The 6th Gyeonggi International
Travel Mart will consist of various
exhibitions, special events and side
attractions. Among the exhibition
events are halls representing 31 cities
from Korea and abroad, tourism souvenir shops, and tourism products for
temple and home stays, Lim said.
"By holding a food fair during the
tourism event, titled World Street
Food Festival, Gyeonggi Tourism
Organization is planning to provide
visitors with the chance to enjoy the
province's local food and exotic foods
of foreign countries," he said.
"In the noodle zone, particularly,
special noodle foods of Korea, China,
Japan and Italy will be introduced.
Meanwhile, a total of 14 countries in
from Asia, Europe, Africa and
America will show off their foods in
the Street Food Zone," said Lim.
Special events at Gyeonggi
tourism exhibition
To elevate the morale of high
school students majoring in tourism
and provide them with some hands-on
training, it will also hold the "tourism
service competition."
"This event is expected to greatly
contribute to the development of the
region's tourism industry by expanding employment opportunities for students majoring in tourism," he said.
"GITF amateur B-boy battle
Gyeonggi 2008" will be held to foster
young and talented street dancers
and publicize Korean tourism through
B-boys who once raised the boom of
"hallyu (Korean wave)," he said.
The event is designed to actively
foster B-boys in the metropolitan area
and cultivate youths' ability through
systematic supports, Lim explained.
The Theme Experience Hall will
offer various experiences to visitors
including survival games, rock-climbing and four-wheel-drive motor vehicles.
Leisure activities are highly important factors for tourism, Lim said, "We
will operate the theme experience hall
to provide domestic and foreign visitors with information related to leisure
& sports tourism and chances to
directly experience various leisure
activities."
At the theme experience hall, visitors can experience leisure sports,
camping, light plane and yacht boats,
as well as Korea's traditional folklore.
As the side events of the 6th
Gyeonggi International Travel Mart,
there will be Korean and foreign folklore performances and a photo exhibi-
Gyeonggi Governor, Kim Moon-soo taste-tests food with top talent, Choi Bul-am at the "World Noodle Festival'
tion of work by world-famous photographers.
Introduction of exhibition halls
About 300 institutions from 30
countries are scheduled to have
booths at the exhibition. The event will
be divided into a system of halls,
including tourism PR hall, travel information hall, tourism goods sales hall,
knowledge exchange hall, PR hall,
theme experience hall and international mega event PR hall.
"In particular, visitors can enjoy
events such as Korea's Yeosu EXPO,
China's Shanghai EXPO and South
Africa's World Cup at the international
mega event PR hall, the first of its
kind," Lim said.
"As the international game exhibition, G-Star 2008 is to be held along
with the 6th Gyeonggi International
Travel Mart, visitors can enjoy the
tourism fair and the game exhibition
simultaneously." he said.
In line with this, the organizers of
the two international events plan to
sell a ticket that will provide visitors
with entrance to both events.
"In a nutshell, the 6th Gyeonggi
International Travel Mart will become
to find information on visiting
Gyeonggi Province and a chance to
directly present the opportunities for
tourism to visitors, and business
opportunities for those working in the
tourism industry" he said.
Korea part of a growing industry
To upgrade the Gyeonggi
International Travel Mart to the
biggest tourism exhibition in Asia,
Gyeonggi Province and Gyeonggi
Tourism Organization are making
concerted efforts to make the event a
tourism fair equipped with both publicity and revenue generation.
"To this end, we plan to develop
the World Street Food Festival into a
fair in the Gyeonggi International
Travel Mart in a bid to generate profits. At the same time, we will seek
synergy by preparing institutional
cooperation with such world-famous
exhibitions as China International
Travel Mart (CITM) and JATA world
tourism fair of Japan," he said.
The world tourism market has
already grown in scale to see 700 million visitors and $600 billion in income
generated in 2000. In 2010, this market is estimated to see one billion visitors and $760 billion in income generated.
As the tour market grows, Korea
hopes to attract more than 10 million
foreign visitors. Moreover, owing to
the introduction of a five-day working
week, Korean people have started to
have more spare time. This change in
lifestyle has opened a whole new
chapter for the tourism industry.
"Under these conditions, the need
to see local governments' active
responses to tourism has grown. As a
gateway to the North Pacific Ocean,
Gyeonggi Province is a center of East
Asian tourism and has a lot to offer in
the way of sightseeing. With this
background, Gyeonggi Province
established a public tourism enterprise for the first time as a domestic
local autonomous entity," he said.
Lim added, "Created from this
background, Gyeonggi Tourism
Organization will continue to actively
develop the potential of Gyeonggi
Province to effectively cope with the
changes in the domestic and foreign
tourism industry."
Game Industry
Game Essay
Korea Game Industry
Agent- the Top Supporter
of Gaming in Korea
Searching for Gaming's Next Generation
KOGIA promises GStar 2008 to be the brightest star of all
T
Choi Kyu-nam, President of KOGIA
he computer game
industry in Korea has
grown rapidly in every
year of its existence. As
for the domestic market,
a growth curve faltered for a while in
2006, but after that time, it has steadly
increased. Especially as far as
exports are concerned, it has shown
double-digit growth reaching 500 million dollars of trade balance.
For last nine years, the
Korea Game Industry Agent
(KOGIA) has contributed to
export promotion, creativity,
human resources, and policy
development. In addition,
KOGIA will maintain its enthusiastic efforts to make the
gaming industry a cornerstone
of Korea's economy and
reach the lofty goal of being in
the world's top three.
The President of KOGIA,
Choy Kyu-nam says: "Gaming
features interactive contents
with incomparably strong
absorption. As gaming attains
more influence and creates
more ripple effects, it is
required for games to have
certain functions, good and
funny ones. We, KOGIA have
developed many functional
games tacking social issues.
We have designed games on
a wide variety of topics that go
beyond what is normally
expected from video games. '
Choi continues: "The gaming
industry has grown as a core cultural
industry. By leading an international
e-sports symposium, we gathered all
e-sports leaders in one place to lay
the foundation for Korea to lead the
world's e-sports industry. By doing
this, we will set a strong example to
the rest of the field and try to elevate
the international status of Korea and
the Korean game industry."
He continues: "Moreover, we also
try to help domestic companies
advance into markets abroad. We
hosted exports consultation with representatives from China, Vietnam,
America, and Japan. We will also
maintain those efforts in Italy, France
and other European countries."
With all these efforts, Choi sees a
bright future for gaming in Korea,
especially when one considers year's
gaming exhibition, GStar 2008.
Then, what are the bumps in
GStar's road to prosperity? Choi
points out some dark sides of Korean
gaming exhibitions. "In Korea, online
game oriented users are aggregated,
but major global game companies
mainly focus on video games.
Therefore, the Korean market lacks
charm to major foreign companies,
which is the main reason why global
game companies hesitate to participate in GStar."
However, Choi did not miss this
dark cloud's silver lining. He says;
"Even though GStar is still lacking
somewhat, there is a global trend
breaking down walls between different
platforms. On the other hand, Internet
infrastructure in Europe and America
spreads very quickly, faster than you
think. Therefore, as online games
converge with other platforms, the
competitiveness of Gstar will be outstanding. As you know, GStar has
already specialized online games."
By Jeon Hae-sun/[email protected]
D
Kim Kwang-sam(aka Byul-baram), Chairman of
Korea Game Developers Association(KGDA).
uring its short history,
the computer game
industry has made
incredible progress. It
can be difficult to
appreciate just how far it has come.
The first games can be called traditional games, and often use sports as
their subject matter. Computer technology has been altered, creating a
multitude of new game methods and
game rules. All gaming has since been
moved to a virtual world on a screen.
As graphic and sound technologies
have developed, computers can now
store much more data and process it
quicker. The contents of computer
games are now much more varied
and creative. As the realms of visual
and audio arts developed, computer
games incorporated cultural contents
and are now mentioned in the same
context as cinema, cartoons and animation.
(Games, however, basically originated in "playing'' and the characteristics of such playing are based on twoway behaviors, which are players'
choices and results, so they can be
considered to have different roots
from cultural contents of other forms
which are generally used in a oneway direction.)
As we pursue a way to play games
with smarter and less predictable
matches, more games will be players
vs players instead of players vs computer. Games that used to feature two
players simply sitting side by side now
need a form that enables strangers to
play against each other. Network
technologies set off a revolution in the
mid-1990s by allowing players in
many locations to all play against
each other.
From such an extreme direction of
network gaming, a "community virtual
world game,'' or a so-called virtual
society was created. It is called a
"Massive Multiplayer Online Game''
(MMOG) where a huge number of
players join to form a game world.
In this way, games have found a
way to allow hundreds or thousands
of characters to all act and talk
through their own player and form a
virtual world that would have been
impossible in old-generation games.
In other words, games have developed to execute various social situations which can happen in the real
world.
These extreme developments of
games were made at the end of the
20th Century. They have since influenced society in various ways. They
have brought revolutionary changes,
in that they have changed the basic
concept of computer games, and in
the past decade have created a mainstream gaming market.
So what will come after MMOG?
In a sense, the development of
games has gone in the direction of
slowly but surely increasing the number of players. It finally led to MMOG,
where a large number of players all
play at the same time via network connections. Some think that MMOG is
the end of the development of games.
But will it really end here? Have
games really reached the end of their
development after a short history of
30 or 40 years?
We think not.
MMOG certainly has succeeded in
creating an attractive form for game
play. We game developers believe that
MMOG, or "virtual reality,'' is not the
end of all possible development. There
will be more astounding progress that
will take the industry further than we
could ever imagine.
The nation's gaming industry
secured its position in the early markets of MMOG and has continuously
sought to develop next-generation
games that will dominate the gaming
industry in the future.
We have held tacit discussions
about this for the past few years when
the topics of technologies and the
developmental direction of online
games comes up at the Korea Game
Conference(KGC). Several alternatives, such as community-based casual games which people can approach
more easily or "Light Platform'' games
have been suggested. Many are still
searching for an entirely new development. We will begin concrete discussions on the latest developments, or
fifth-generation games, more openly
at KGC 2008. The new direction may
or may not be fundamentally rooted in
MMOG or network online games.
The KGC's newly planned technology workshop will strengthen the volume and contents of the event.
The KGC will refashion itself as a
more future-oriented game conference while maintaining the existing
online-oriented direction by strengthening discussion of new next-generation games.
If you are interested in online and
next-generation games, pay close
attention to KGC. It may be the
source of the fifth generation.
Game Industry
NCsoft leads Korean
gaming industry's
charge abroad
N
Csoft is leading a
charge. After establishing itself as one of
the strongest forces in
the Korean gaming
industry, the company is forcefully
taking its talent abroad. The spearhead for the charge is the company's
latest game, Aion: Tower of Eternity.
NCsoft CEO Kim Taek-jin has long
been at the center of the progress
made by gaming in Korea. While he is
proud of what the industry has accomplished in a competitive market, he
feels that there is still much room for
growth. He is determined to expand
the Korean industry's reach and bring
it the world wide success and recognition it deserves. According to Kim,
"The success in exports of Korean online games is only a half success.
Now, it is time to see Korean games
find success not only in the Asian
countries, but also in America and
Europe." The large markets of Europe
and North American are yet to be
penetrated by Korean firms.
The competition for NCsoft will be
stiff, but Kim has faith that Korea's
outstanding technology will allow
them to win out. He explains, "These
days, Korean game publishers have
to compete with global game companies which invest billions of won in
just one game, such as EA and
Blizzard. However, with respect to PC
based on-line games, the technology
of Korea is still the best."
Kim announced that NCsoft will
start beta tests of Aion, the company's
newest, highly anticipated game. It
has invested 23 billion won the new
project and it is already being hailed
as a masterpiece.
Following the success of NCsoft's
renowned game Lineage, Kim
explains his company's creative
process and their passionate
approach to every aspect of design.
"We have gone through a thorough
post-verification of our new game, in
major game markets such as
America, Europe, China and Japan.
We are trying not to go the way of
Lineage, which is popular only in Asia.
We have put our blood into every
detail of the game's characters, all the
way to the symbolic patterns."
'Aion', newly released game of NCsoft
Kim Taek-jin, CEO of NCsoft
Aion is a massive multiplayer
online role-playing game that combines PvP and PvE in a fantasy
dream setting. It features flight as well
as aerial combat in a shattered fantasy landscape. The game is inspired
by multiple themes and has a distinctly unique atmosphere which can be
described as ethereal, or dream-like.
Environments depicted in screenshots
and videos display soft, vibrant colors
and light bloom. Aion creates a visual
world that players will feel they can
step into and appreciate its majesty.
Characters are strong and imposing,
while depicted in rich detail with vivid
colors. The experience of the game is
one that affects all a player's senses
and draws them into its fantastical, yet
eerily realistic setting.
A three pronged battle
The background story of Aion is a
tale of betrayal and vengeance. In the
beginning of the world of Aion, a powerful race called the Balaur was created by the god Aion to roam the world
of Atreiain in service of their god.
Their own will led them to rebel
against their creator. Aion then created another race, the Daevas to fight
for control of his initial offspring. Even
though they were individually less
powerful then the Balaur, Aion pro-
grammed them with a sense of loyalty
and worship towards him so they
would obey him in all matters.
The Daevas fought the Balaur and
expelled them from the world Atreia
into a different dimensional plane. For
a time there was peace. But the
Daevas, though all loyal to the god
Aion, had different views regarding the
Balaur which ultimately led to them to
split into two different Factions. One
part of the Daevas wanted to end the
eternal war with the Balaur and try to
make peace, while the other side
wanted to fight until the end.
Now, a three-sided war is waging
between different factions, with the
main focus for each being the control
of the Tower of Eternity. Nobody
knows what happened to the god Aion
after the tower was destroyed, but
both factions know they have to prevent their part of the Tower of Eternity
from being destroyed in order to
ensure their own survival.
The players take the role of leading
characters from each faction, starting
out as lowly soldiers, eventually building their power and potential, becoming more and more powerful and rising in the ranks of their race's military.
Active game play
The end game of Aion will revolve
around battles within the Abyss (PvP
Zone). Found in the Abyss are huge,
spooky castles where large scale battles will take place. The game currently does not allow factions to fight internally and certain items like high end
armors and weapons can be purchased with points, giving players a
greater sense of involvement and
ownership.
A distinctive feature of this game is
the ability to fly. This will be a limited
active skill, through which the character will be able to perform various
exclusive skills. It will also be used to
find higher elevation areas or materials that are not accessible through
walking. Later the game will be
released with items to upgrade flight
time.
Game Industry
NHN
balances the best
of gaming's old and new
T
here is an old saying,
"You don't know what
you've got until it's
gone." It is hard to
appreciate how special
something is until after you've lost it.
Even with so many games being
available these days, gamers tend to
pick a few and stick with them for a
long time. Tetris is that kind of game.
As a steadily loved console game,
Tetris has had a faithful following
since it was born in 1985. Tetris is still
loved by many and some gamers
even consider it to be the cleverest
game of all time. As online games
have become popular, Tetris has
changed its form from a console
game to an online game to adjust to
changes in the gaming climate.
On one fateful day, online Tetris
suddenly disappeared from the
Internet. The company that held the
rights to Tetris didn't renew its contract and the service expired. Many
Tetris fanatics then moved on from
their old favorite to new games.
Despite the disappearance, there
were still many people who longed for
online Tetris. Even though there are
other ways to enjoy Tetris as a mobile
or console game, many gamers
missed the unique amusement of online Tetris.
At last, gamers can again play
Gamers rejoice at classic game's
online return
Online Tetris revives in the website of Hangame.
Tetris on the Internet thanks to the
efforts of NHN, who recently made an
agreement with TTC to provide online Tetris. Many users are overjoyed
at the thought of having their beloved
game back. NHN will celebrate this
new beginning at GStar 2008.
Visitors to GStar 2008 can enjoy
Hangame Tetris firsthand and participate in the game battle event. Also,
they can
can enjoy
enjoy the
the soundtrack
soundtrack providprovidthey
ed by
by singers
singers Shin
Shin Hye-sung
Hye-sung (a
(a memmemed
ber of
of idol
idol group,
group, Shin-hwa),
Shin-hwa), Taru,
Taru,
ber
and Yozoh.
Yozoh. By
By enjoying
enjoying both,
both, visitors
visitors
and
to GStar
GStar will
will be
be able
able to
to catch
catch two
two
to
pigeons with
with one
one bean.
bean.
pigeons
Tetris will
will be
be back
back better
better than
than ever.
ever.
Tetris
In the
the new
new Hangame
Hangame Tetris,
Tetris, NHN
NHN has
has
In
adopted diverse
diverse functions
functions such
such as
as TTadopted
spin, Super
Super Rotation
Rotation System
System (SRS),
(SRS),
spin,
back to
to back
back and
and six
six next
next boxes.
boxes. SRS
SRS
back
is an
an official
official game
game rule
rule that
that TTC
TTC has
has
is
adopted, itit allows
allows gamers
gamers more
more flexiflexiadopted,
bility in
in their
their control.
control. In
In the
the last
last version
version
bility
of online
online Tetris,
Tetris, none
none of
of these
these moves
moves
of
were possible.
possible.
were
When gamers
gamers play
play Hangame
Hangame
When
Tetris, they
they will
will notice
notice that
that the
the new
Tetris,
version of their
their old
old favorite
favorite is
is different
different
version
in many
many ways.
ways. There
There are
are now
now single
single
in
and multi
multi modes
modes of
of game
game play.
play. NHN
NHN
and
also considered
considered Korean gamers'
gamers' love
also
of speed
speed and
and designed
designed the
the game
game to
toobe
of
quicker and more challenging. Specifically, gamers
can anticipate the location
of the Tetrimino (Tetris
block) by using the 'Ghost
function.'
At GStar 2008, visitors
can experience an unknown
masterpiece, Continent of
the Ninth(C9). C9 is a full
3D action MMORPG game
with life-like 3D graphics. It
features abundant RPG
contents, diverse craftsmen
and guild house systems.
Gamers can grasp the mental state and habits of their
match players and share
know-how with teammates.
In addition to its excellent
graphics, the producers of
C9 have focused on the
game play in an attempt to
maximize
enjoyment.
Gamers will enjoy its trap
system, destruction system,
and some doors which open
only after gamers carry out
a certain mission. The general producer says, "We all know that
a fun movie doesn't have to have fantastic special effects and it is the
same for online games. If the game
isn't fun, the graphics are nothing but
a pretty picture."
As a global game leader, NHN has
never lost sight of the big picture.
NHN has always kept its eyes on the
world abroad and has stepped up its
efforts to expand to new regions. NHN
has already moved on to Japan,
America and China. As a big player in
the online game industry, NHN is
expanding its market share in those
countries.
NHN Japan is a separate local affiliate of NHN, which operates the most
popular online game portal in Japan,
as well as a mobile game community
site. It established innovative business models by providing services tailored to Japanese cultural specifics.
Now Hangame Japan has grown into
Japan's leading online game portal
with 27.8 million subscribers and 145
thousand peak concurrent users, providing around 170 online games from
various genres such as action, racing,
RPG, FPS, and MMORPG.
On the other hand, NHN USA is a
wholly owned subsidiary of NHN
Corporation and serves as the flagship vehicle for NHN Corporation's
online game and game community initiatives in the United States and other
English-speaking countries.
NHN USA has launched ijji.com,
the first online multi-player game portal in the U.S. It boasts a portfolio of
over 50 games, ranging from web
board games to console-quality online
games. Since it opened in July 2006,
ijji.com has gotten over 6.55 million
subscribers and 26,000 peak concurrent users as of August 2008. Looking
forward, ijji.com will strain to improve
its locally specific service, and continuously introduce a variety of games
designed to suit the tastes of U.S.
gamers.
The Chinese market also features
a strong presence for NHN. In June
2004, NHN entered into a strategic
partnership with Sea Rainbow
Holdings Corporation, a publicly listed
investment holdings company and
pioneer in the Chinese online gaming
space. They now jointly operate the
Ourgame business.
These days Ourgame has around
240 games, including various web
board games, casual games such as
'Mafia Game' and RPGs like the 'SGC
Online' series and 'Stars Garden'.
Following the successful publication
of the popular Korean MMORPG 'R2',
Ourgame will strengthen its lineup by
introducing a new fighting genre with
'The World of JingWu'.
Even with all this progress, NHN
still has a long way to go to become
the best online game publisher in the
world. By reinventing beloved classics
like Tetris and bringing promising new
games to the table, they are sure to
find a place in the heart of gamers all
over the globe.
Nexon to introduce 3 new
games at GStar 2008
Game Industry
N
Mabinogi Heroes
exon is at the top of
Korea's online game
industry, and will use
GStar 2008 to demonstrate how they plan
to stay there. The country's top-class
online game provider will introduce
three new games at GStar 2008
which will be held at KINTEX in
Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province on
Nov. 13-16.
Valve Company with devCAT's technology, realizing a top-class sense of
striking visuals.
"In particular, it offers an interactive
physical environment by making it
possible to use monsters or neighboring objects, providing different action
plays that gamers could not experience in existing online games," he
said.
Nexon plans to introduce two versions of Mabinogi Heroes - one for
gamers aged 18 or older and another
for gamers aged 15-17 within this
year.
Mabinogi offers a multitude of skills
and a high level of variety among
players and environments. The game
engine features hand-painted textures
stylized with edge detection outlining,
which enhance the anime-like appear-
panels. Meanwhile, Dragon Nest is an
action MORPG that features graphics
at a level and speed similar to those
seen in console games.
Spreading across the world
Nexon, a global company with
some 300 million customers, is offering about 20 games to 60 countries,
including China, Japan, North
America, Latin America and Europe,
the spokesman said.
Income from its overseas operation
accounts for about 50 percent of the
company's total sales, which stand at
300 billion won. Its RPG, "Maple
Story" is particularly widely played,
with some 89 million members in 58
countries.
In a strategic business tie-up with
Valve of the United States, it acquired
Dragon Nest
Some 140 game developers are
expected to participate in the nation's
biggest gaming exhibition. Nexon
plans to provide visitors with a chance
to enjoy a demonstration of its three
newly developed games: Trash
Buster, Mabinogi Heroes, and Dragon
Nest ,a Nexon spokesman said.
Trash Buster is a 3D absorption
action game. In it, gamers can enjoy
action play by absorbing objects that
appear in front of them by using a
cleaner, says the company's
spokesman. Gamers will find a
uniquely amusing experience through
the game's fresh graphics.
Mabinogi Heroes is a new game
developed by Nexon's devCAT studio.
It is an action RPG showing a new
style that is wildly different from the
existing Mabinogi. The game has
regenerated the "source engine" of
ance of the characters.
The game world is constantly growing through the release of important
works that introduce new areas to
explore, additional features such as
pets and new skills, and the advancement of storylines.
The user interface is familiarly simple and designed to be similar to
Microsoft Windows' task bar, allowing
the player to easily access most game
the copyright of "Counter-Strike
Online" in four Asian countries, including Taiwan. The online game gained
popularity with some 50,000 simultaneous connectors to the game in
Korea and 25,000 connectors in
Taiwan.
"Combat Arms" of Nexon, a FPS
game recently introduced into the
North American market, also attracted
1 million members and 20,000 simul-
taneous connectors just three months
after launching. It ranked second on
the
famous
download
site,
"Fileplanet," securing a firm position in
the North American market.
Paid service model setting the
trend
Along with developing new games,
the way that Nexon does business is
also evolving. In particular, the "paid
service model of parts within a game"
is attracting attention from global
game providers as an advanced business model.
In line with this, the AFP recently
reported that the kind of free computer game play that is all the rage in
South Korea is taking hold in a U.S.
market dominated by video games
sold on packaged disks or by online
subscriptions.
The Seoul-based "free-to-play"
computer game titan Nexon blasted
into the U.S. videogame arena with
"Combat Arms", an online first-person
shooter title that makes its cash from
optional "micro-transactions" by players.
"Combat Arms had a great beta
run, with players of all levels loving
the fast-action FPS game play and ingame community features for ranking
and challenging other players," said
Nexon America spokesman Min Kim.
The game makes its money from
players that buy animated helmets,
outfits, and other virtual items to customize in-game characters.
To keep the playing field even,
players earn experience or advanced
weaponry by skill, instead of being
able to simply pay for power. "People
can't buy bigger guns to get a tremendous advantage," Kim said while
demonstrating the game for AFP in
San Francisco earlier this year.
U.S. videogame powerhouse
Electronic Arts (EA) has started
investing in free play and is putting
the finishing touches on a "Battlefield
Heroes" war game supported by ingame transactions instead of up-front
purchase prices, AFP reported.
Game Industry
JCE shows its unique Style of
GStar 2008
G
Star 2008 will be one
of the finest exhibitions that the Korean
gaming industry has
to offer. JCE will
be arriving with some of the event's
most promising material. They will
be showing Free Style Football and
Free Style Second Street, both of
which are innovative sports
games.
Free Style Football is an
online football game with a
new twist. Its biggest feature is
the ability of players to see the
game from a first-person point
of view. Gamers will be able to
feel like Ronaldhino as they
dribble and spin around defenders.
Free Style Second Street recorded
exports of US$35 million to China and
Taiwan. The MOD center which
developed Free Style Second Street
was designed by JCE to meet the
demands of the market. A team mode
has been created to reflect the unique
method of game play which should
create a more interactive and enjoyable gaming experience.
JCE broke the conventional wisdom that sports games do not succeed in Korea. JCE
will later introduce
Free Style Football
and Free Style
Second Street to
build on the momentum created by
the successful
online basketball game.
JCE expands
into overseas markets
Free Style is being played in
advancing into foreign countries.
This kind of sensitivity is a core concept of their campaign to build a global brand with Free Style.
Free Style Football, new game of JCE
nations across the world, including
China, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines as well as Korea. As of 2007,
cumulative revenue surpassed 100
billion Won. With players in the tens of
millions, it has become a true global
game
A major source of this expansion
has been the emerging markets of
Southeast Asia. The game has found
responsive markets in Thailand,
Singapore and Malaysia. Through its
partner, Asia Soft, Free Style Second
Street was released there early this
year and has created a boom. With
the swift expansion of infrastructure
and an increase in the number of
Internet users in the region, the market has grown considerably. As a
result, the gaming industry has been
thrust into the spotlight.
JCE has provided customized services for each location. They have considered the uniqueness of the network
atmosphere as well as the cultures of
each nation, instead of recklessly
JCE occupies an enviable place
in an active market
Free Style must compete with
all the sports games on the market. There are games being
produced all over the world,
and JCE needs to be mindful
of games from both in Korea
and abroad. Only with this
approach can it strengthen its
global capacity.
Each development center
of JCE is making new innovations based on their originality and
planning power. In addition, there is a
separate MOD center which is developing creative and unique games
while keeping in touch with shifting
market demands. JCE will continuously focus on making various high-quality
creative games. The company also will
expand its presence in both the overseas and domestic markets by putting
to use its diverse knowledge gained
from ten years of experience.
The nation's leader shares insight
for growth strategy
Gaming companies need to constantly invest in developing new
games. A gaming company's competitive power is determined by the number of new, exciting games it can
offer. Domestic game companies
should consider developing high-quality differentiated games as the first
condition of competitive power.
Through this, they should lay the
foundation for success in global markets.
새롬씨앤씨
ITC 2008 gives a glimpse
of the future, today
ITC 2008
I
TC 2008: Incheon International Information Technology
Communication Exhibition' is
a window showing what the
future will be like in the information and communication fields. The
exhibition has played significant roles
to bridge the gap between high techs
and common people who have failed
to keep up with the evolution of technology.
The 7th show, under a slogan of
"Future For Today," will mark the
beginning of a new chapter. The show
is to be held at the Incheon
International Convention Center in
Songdo, Incheon Metropolitan City,
west of Seoul, the capital of South
Korea. The convention center, or
Songdo Conventia, was designed to
attract international conventions to
Incheon and is well known for its
world-class facilities and systems.
Incheon had no convention centers of
this kind until now, so in previous
years, the show had to remain a
small, regional event.
'ITC 2008' will be held for three
days beginning November 13 under
the sponsorships of The Ministry of
Knowledge Economy, Incheon City,
KOTRA and the Incheon IT Industry
Promotion Agency.
This year's show is huge in terms
of volume and quality. For the past six
years, the show failed to draw attention from all across the nation due to
the lack of a big convention center
and a big budget. This year however,
with the full support of Incheon City,
will welcome almost all of the domestic ITC companies, big and small. The
organizers anticipate that it will boost
regional business in the ITC and draw
business counterparts from abroad.
They hope that the combination of
Songdo and the ITC convention will
change the image of Incheon from a
coastal city to a high tech city.
Incheon City plans to help the show
grow to become a world-famous ITC
event.
With the help of KOTRA, the ITC
show will become a place where companies from Korea and abroad meet
to talk about importing and exporting
devices and technologies. KOTRA is
an organization that helps business
circles get brand-new information on
goods and companies, and that connects them on a business basis. It has
a global network and the manpower to
do so. KOTRA is participating in this
show for the first time since 2002.
Songdo is one of the show's main
attractions. Songdo is a masterplanned international city. The design
of the city is totally focused on environmentally and energy friendly concepts that are in harmony with the
natural landscape. Songdo is not like
a domestic city; it is more Western in
its appearance and composure. The
2008 show will also herald Songdo to
the world.
The show will exhibit new technologies and devices that define what life
will be like in the future. RFID/USN,
intelligent robots, smart home, mobile,
and ubiquitous systems will be at the
show. ITC will show visitors how the
ubiquitous society where everything is
connected with computerized systems
will soon arrive.
In the booths at RFID/USN, you
can see the world of RFID/USN-connected life and society. RFID stands
for Radio Frequency Identification. It
is a small and simple chip that signals
embedded information from goods
and services. When RFID is attached
to a product, buyers and sellers can
get information on it through a computerized network. Imagine that you
do not have to pay at a cashier, but
simply pass through and the payment
will be made electronically, because
the sensor at the cashier can automatically read the information from
Welcoming Address
by Ahn Sang-soo,
Mayor of Incheon Metropolitan City
the goods you bought. The reader will
also scan the credit card in your wallet, and take money from your
account. USN is a system that senses
information and connects it with
banks. When USN is connected with
your mobile phone, it will let you know
when payments are due and how
much money was taken from your
account when you bought groceries.
The smart home section deserves
your visit. A computerized home will
be a dream come true. It will be interesting to see how a voice-sensor system turns on the TV and opens doors.
TVs and refrigerators will be different
from the ones we are used to. On TV
monitors, you can check emails, communicate with your friends, and enjoy
online banking services. There will be
a refrigerator that senses what you
need to buy and what spoiled foods
need to be thrown away. The system
that connects home and workplace will
be at the show too. Lights will be
turned off by your voice. New mobile
phones and devices will seduce you to
buy one. New designs and functions
will make you say "Wow." Intelligent
robots will make your children cry out
wanting one. A robot will bark like a
dog and read some fairy tales to your
children. And it will clean the floor of
your living room while you are out.
In the wonderful show, more than
200 companies, including 50 from
abroad, have already bought 300
booth tickets to show their business
models. The host plans to make it bigger next year by inviting 400 companies, including 100 foreign firms.
KOTRA will help the regional companies in lack of information on overseas
buyers find joint-venture partners.
I extend great thanks to distinguished
guests participating in the 7th ITC
(Incheon International Information
Technology Communication) 2008.
ITC 2008, the seventh of its kind, is
Incheon's representative IT exhibition
where visitors can witness the rapid
development of the IT industry in
Incheon and glimpse Incheon's dynamic
future.
ITC 2008 is a festival where Incheon
introduces new technologies developed
by the passion and ingenuity of IT
entrepreneurs. Visitors can experience
first-hand the future of IT.
In particular, foreign buyers will come
from over 100 companies representing
20 countries from across Asia and
around the world. Places such as Japan and China, North America, Europe,
Latin America, Central Asia and the CIS regions, will all participate in ITC
2008 to confirm the quality of Incheon's IT products. Representatives will
engage in consultations for various business deals, making it an important
international event.
Incheon City is emerging as a hub of new power engines to lead the
growth of the Korean Peninsula in the 21st Century. Incheon is a dynamic
city that is attracting attention from people at home and abroad.
Focusing on the economic free zones, Incheon is changing into a state-ofthe-art international city by organically connecting such advanced industries
as IT, BT and R&D with financing, tourism and business, and offering globallevel medical, educational and cultural services.
Based on this unlimited possibility of development, we plan to suggest the
future development vision of the top-class city Incheon by hosting World City
EXPO 2009 and the 2014 Asian Games and show Incheon's potential as an
international city representing the Republic of Korea.
I am very glad that Incheon will host the ITC 2008 exhibition where we can
seek new direction for development under these circumstances.
I sincerely hope ITC 2008 will provide participating enterprises with great
opportunities and offer valuable space for Incheon citizens to experience
advanced information and communication.
Also, I firmly believe that ITC 2008 will be a valuable place for foreign institutions and buyers to recognize Incheon IT companies' superiority and herald
their own countries' IT industries.
Finally, I extend great thanks once again to domestic and foreign businessmen and other people concerned for their efforts to make ITC 2008 successful.
ITC 2008
Interview Highlight
Incheon going all-out to enter ranks
of the world's top 10 cities by 2020
Times,
Ahn
said,
"Through these projects,
Incheon will become an
international, environment-friendly city, education -centered and
safe city."
The projects will help
present
Incheon's
indigenous image, and
establish the city as a
base for global business
people. They will reflect
the city's capacity for
creative culture and arts,
beautiful
scenery,
nature, human-oriented
traffic culture, global
manpower,
lifelong
learning, leisure, stability, sharing and participation.
"Like such global
cities as New York,
London, Paris and
Zurich, Incheon City will
have historical tradition,
harmonious developAhn Sang-soo cycling at the grand march to pray for the success of ment, advanced traffic,
the Global Fair & Festival 2009 in Incheon, Korea
environmental, educational and cultural systems, and international
ncheon Metropolitan City has
competitiveness," he said.
been making a strong push
Incheon to be reborn as a tourism
behind 10 projects they hope
city
will bring Incheon into the
Incheon Tourism Organization and
ranks of the world's top 10
the Organizing Committee of Global
cities by 2020, a top official of the city
Fair Festival 2009 Incheon signed a
said.
business agreement for mutual coop"Incheon is equipped with a world
eration on Aug. 6 to attract foreign
famous international airport and hartourists, especially Chinese tourists.
bor. It will be reborn as a world class
Under the pact, the two bodies will
city through 10 ambitious projects,"
invite Chinese opinion leaders, joursaid Incheon Metropolitan City Mayor
nalists and local tourism representaAhn Sang-soo.
tives to the event to announce Visit
In an interview with Korea IT
I
Incheon 2009 Korea, which will be
held in Incheon on Jan. 1, 2009.
"For successful hosting of the Visit
Incheon 2009 Korea and Global Fair
Festival 2009 Incheon, Incheon City
and Incheon Tourism Organization
will also develop 60 tourism products
in the port city for Chinese tourists,"
Mayor Ahn said.
The Organizing Committee of
Global Fair Festival 2009 Incheon
also concluded a business agreement
with JTB of Japan, the biggest travel
agency in Asia on Aug. 28.
"Under the agreement, JTB will
take responsibility for hosting Wind
Instrument Music, a program of cultural events for citizens participating in
the Global Fair Festival and extensively develop tourism products for
the international event," Ahn said.
The mayor said, "Incheon is an
ocean tourism city possessing about
150 large and small beautiful islands
and a number of cultural and tourism
resources ranging from the prehistoric
age to modern times."
"Through the globalization of
Incheon City, we are going all-out to
make the city the world's top-tier
future-oriented, economically vibrant
and lively city," he said.
Global Fair Festival 2009 Incheon
Incheon City has been making full
preparations to successfully host the
Global Fair Festival 2009 Incheon in
August next year.
"For the international event
designed to herald the value of
Incheon all over the world, the city will
complete base work on a main event
hall, manufacture exhibition contents
and make other preparations before
the end of this year," said the mayor.
"Global Fair Festival 2009 Incheon
will be held in Songdo for 80 days
from Aug. 7 next year to Oct. 25, offering pleasure and impression to
domestic and foreign visitors with
advanced technology," he said.
Related to this, Incheon City is now
preparing for 74 projects consisting of
34 exhibitions, 18 conferences and 22
events.
The 34 fairs will include a city-planning exhibition, fairs introducing stateof-the-art technologies, a global cultural street, and a global environmentrelated arts exhibition.
Among the 18 conferences are the
Asia-Pacific city summit meeting, the
Global Knowledge Forum, an investment fair and a global environmental
forum.
"Incheon City is also preparing for
22 events, opening & closing ceremonies, a multimedia show, weekly
events, the Harvest Moon Festival and
Incheon global wine festival," he said.
Groundbreaking ceremony for
Incheon Tower
Incheon City held a groundbreaking ceremony for the 151-story
Incheon Tower on June 20, heralding
the Korean city's jump toward world
class city status.
The Incheon City and Portman
Consortium, led by Atlanta-based
global real estate developer, Portman
Holdings, earlier signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for joint
development of a land of 1.92 million
pyong (6.34 million square meters) in
the No. 6 and 8 blocks of the Songdo
district in the Incheon Free Economic
Zone (IFEZ).
"The multi-phased $11 billion project includes construction of a twintowered 151-story skyscraper, the
highest in Northeast Asia. With the
project, Incheon City will become a
complex city with a new conception,
consisting of cultural, ocean and
leisure facilities plus commercial and
residential structures," Ahn said.
The project is part of Korea's
efforts to transform 1,500 acres of
reclaimed land into an unrivaled busi-
ness hub for Northeast Asia.
"The proposed 151-story building,
which would be 610 meters tall, would
be the second-highest tower in the
world, after the 160-story Burj Tower
in Dubai, which is currently under construction. The Incheon Tower will be
two times higher than the nation's current tallest building, Tower Palace,
which is 264 meters in height," he
said.
Three sky bridges will be established between the twin towers to link
the two buildings. The Incheon Tower
will also house hotels, offices, convention centers and shopping malls.
"With inclusion of the 151-story
twin tower in the IFEZ, Incheon will be
transformed into a world-class business city on par with Hong Kong,
Singapore, Shanghai and Dubai,''
Mayor Ahn said.
Ahn also said the twin tower will
become the landmark that symbolizes
Korea's future growth potential.
Successful completion of Incheon
Free Economic Zone
"With the successful completion of
Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ),
Incheon City will be upgraded from a
manufacturing-centered city to a high
value added-oriented city based on
high value added industries and
advanced technology," said Ahn.
Boosted by Incheon City's rapid
development, Korea will become a
center of the Asian economy where
new business value is creating, developing and spreading, he said.
"Centering on the IFEZ, exchanges
between countries and cities will be
activated and Korea will become a
center of economic integration in Asia,
including Japan and China. In particular, the nation's costs for unification of
the Korean peninsula, if realized, will
be reduced sharply if Pyeongyang
expands its manufacturing base in
Gaeseong Industrial Estate and its
exchanges with IFEZ," he said.
IFEZ is now developing into a global business city as the center of various international business, interna-
tional trade, and exchanges of knowledge information and culture, he said.
"IFEZ will lead the future of Asia by
creating synergy with Gaeseong
Industrial Estate of North Korea and
make a great leap forward as a center
of global trade with its air network linking Incheon International Airport to the
world, the continental network linking
Eurasia, and the ocean network linking Incheon Port to major global
ports," said the mayor.
Incheon to host 2014 Asian Games
Under the active support of 2.7 million Incheon citizens and the city's allout efforts, Incheon City succeeded in
attracting the 2014 Asian Games,
defeating its main rival India, which
boasts a population of 1 billion people.
"Incheon City's hosting of the international sports event will help the city
upgrade its status in the international
arena in the 21st Century and arrange
the foundation for peaceful unification
of South and North Korea through
South-North cooperation on the development of joint economic and tourism
special zones, greatly contributing to
peace in Asia and the world," said
Ahn.
Incheon will host the Asian Games,
which is located in the center of
Northeast Asia near China, Japan,
Russia and North Korea, and will
grow into a logistics and economic
center of Northeast Asia, he said.
At the same time, the city boasts
advanced traffic systems, including
the global-level Incheon International
Airport, Incheon Port, a number of
expressways, regional roads, subways and railroads.
"Along with this, South Korea is
equipped with a perfect safety system, boasting of the lowest crime rate
among OECD member countries,"
Ahn said.
"In preparation for the 2014 Asian
Games, Incheon City, which operates
14 general hospitals equipped with
advanced medical treatment facilities,
also plans to expand necessary facilities in the future," he added.
ITC 2008
Interview Highlight
Steps to Transform
into the IT-Hub of
Northeast Asia
M
IITPA Launches Campaign to Lead Globalized World.
elting pot - a collection of varied ingredients (people of different
cultures,
races, and religions)
combined to form a multi-ethnic society -- is a signature description of the
United States. This combination of
cultures is where the idea of globalization was born. The globalizing
world, however, will need time to
grow, with only a few melting pots
around the world. Likewise, Information Technology Leader is the symbol
of Korea, yet that alone does not contribute much to globalization.
The faster Northeast Asia develops
melting pot branches, the faster the
global market will grow. In that sense,
Incheon, Korea is working with brand
new ingredients like International
Business Logistics Hub, ports, an
international airport, International Free
Economic Zone and Robot Land to
become a brand new concept of melting pot. Here, various growth engines
will be produced in societies that welcome diverse ethnicities. President
Eugene Jun of Incheon Information
Technology Industry Promotion
Agency (IITPA) said, "Incheon is in
the process of becoming the Korea's
key promoter in global business and
IITPA serves the roles from bridge to
booster between the IT industries and
in IT infrastructure at home and
abroad."
Eugene Jun, President of Incheon Information Technology
Industry Promotion Agency (IITPA)
Promoting Incheon
For an agency that has devoted
itself to promoting Incheon as an ITHub in Northeast Asia, securing world
class IT company structure and
preparing core position to stabilize the
local IT industry were only the begin-
ning of this journey. Since its establishment in 2002, IITPA has been
hosting Incheon International
Information Technology Communication (ITC) every year and has made
the exhibition the cornerstone of
Incheon's IT development. "As
Incheon's representative IT exhibition,
ITC 2008 celebrates its 7th anniversary under the theme of "Experiencing
Tomorrow, Today!" ITC2008 will run
for three days starting Thursday,
November 13th, announced President
Jun.
Expectations in Songdo Conventia
What makes this year stand out is
the location. For the first time in
seven years, the exhibition will be
held in Songdo Conventia (the
Incheon International Convention
Center), the very first center that was
built in the International Free
Economy Zone. "ITC 2008 is a
dynamic venue where visitors can
have a glimpse of the future by viewing the latest IT technologies. It is a
place to obtain new knowledge, a
place where youths can lay the foundation of their dreams of becoming
the future scientists of Incheon, and a
place where we can witness Korea's
IT prowess," President Jun introduced.
ITC 2008 is also a forum for the
exchange of promotional, marketing
and business ideas. Throughout the
exhibition, Incheon-based, blue-chip
IT companies will have the opportunity to boost their brand power and
grow as Incheon's representative
enterprises.
IITPA doesn't forget to reward the
hard work of IT companies. "During
ITC 2008, the 5th Incheon IT
Technology Award will be presented
to companies which have developed
outstanding new technologies. This
award is meant to recognize the
efforts of Incheon's IT leaders who
nurtured the market with new products. Additionally, the award will
inspire the IT industry to continue the
advancement of technology through
new ideas," said Jun. A number of
small and medium sized companies
are expected to be rewarded this year
at ITC 2008.
ITC 2008 will see the participation
of major buyers from more than ten
nations. IT agencies from more than
five nations will facilitate discussions
on international business and exports.
"We expect the ITC 2008 to be the
global exhibition along with the
upcoming 'Global Fair and Festival
2009 Incheon, Korea," said President
Jun.
IITPA is also looking to promote
and invest in blue ocean initiatives for
Incheon. These include the 2014
Asian Games, u-IT Cluster Support
Center, and the Incheon Robotland to
increase the synergy of the exhibition
and strengthening the brand of the
city.
Blue Ocean Initiatives
Global Fair & Festival 2009
Incheon, Korea is designed to share
the accomplishments and developments of Incheon. Since it is Incheon's vision to become a global economic hub by the year 2020, Incheon
will exhibit developments in the
Incheon Free Economic Zone as well
as urban redevelopment plans of old
downtown areas. "Global Fair &
Festival will present Incheon as a
model future city equipped with urban
competitiveness, cutting edge technology, and energy efficient, environmentally friendly facilities," said Jun.
Beginning on August 7, 2009 and running until October 25, 2009, Global
Fair & Festival Incheon will share the
vision and direction of future cities.
"50.1 % of our citizens live in urban
areas and they face never-ending
environmental issues, overcrowding
population and overflowing transportation all in a limited space. This is
not a problem that only Korea is facing. The Global Fair & Festival will
provide a venue for global institutions
to seek solutions for urban issues and
work to create a better future for our
globe," added President Jun. Lastly,
Jun predicts that Global Fair and
Festival will mark a turning point for
foreign investors. President Jun said,
"The Global Fair & Festival will present Incheon's development models
while putting the entire city on exhibition." <http://english.incheonfair.org>
will keep updating the information on
the website <http://english.incheonfair.org/index.asp> in four different
languages: English, Russian, Chinese, and Korean.
The Federation of International
Robot-soccer Association (FIRA
Robot World Cup) and Robot Land
are the other publicity pavilion IITPA
is counting on to bring a synergy
effect. From August 16 - 20, 2009,
Incheon will host FIRA Robot World
Cup along with Robotics Academic
Contest. Competitive robot players
from thirty countries with 300 relating
researchers and professors will participate in this event. Those who come
to Incheon to participate will also be
able to attend Global Fair & Festival
since the Robot World Cup will be
held shortly after the festival.
IITPA is not only an event coordinator, but has been also serving as a
top consultant for Incheon companies
to reach out to the global market. By
participating in global exhibitions and
conferences like CES, IFA, CeBIT,
and GITEX, IITPA served as an
evangelist of the Incheon IT company's strong products. Due to the help
of IITPA's professional consulting, 50
companies participated this year and
brought total of $ 870,000,000 in profit.
As a valuable part of Incheon's
development project, IITPA has been
serving a multi-role of booster, consultant, facilitator, event coordinator,
representative, and u-Incheon innovator. The city of Incheon is becoming
more prestigious every day due to its
innovative IT industries.
All these unique and innovative
ingredients are to melt in the pot of
Incheon to create a multi-purpose luxury town that can be the heart of the
Korean and global economies. Keep
posted on ITC 2008 and other upcoming events in the next few years to witness the growth of the IT industry's
leaders.
ITC 2008
Selling Digital
Information Display
in the Middle East
E
Ahn Deok-geun, the president of Elivision at Berlin IFA 2008
livision, based in
Korea, makes visual
advertisement boards
using Digital Information Displays (DIDs).
These are the billboards of the
Information Technology age. Also
called Digital Boards, or Digital Photo
Frames, they first developed a small 7
inch Digital Photo Frame version last
March. The company has since developed the ability to produce a 70 inch
board as well, which is more effective
as a billboard than a photograph
would be.
When asked about the primary use
of DID technology, Deokgeun Ahn,
president of Elivision, said: "DID is a
useful system to give information to
many people at once in franchise
offices, government and public
offices, and so on." He went on to
say: "They can use it to inform others
about news, events, or schedule
changes. They can also show photographs, music, and video."
Anywhere networked billboards
DID technology can be installed
anywhere and hooked up to a wired
or wireless network. Or, it can be
installed solo, with only the information it needs to display locally stored
contents. The operating system is an
open-source Linux system to cut
costs. A large network of boards can
be controlled from a single location
using its integrated networking capability.
President Ahn also spoke about his
company's cooperation with local universities. "We have agreed to industrial-academic cooperation with Inha
Technical College and developed
local academic talent together."
The president also spoke about the
company's new exposure since they
came up with the display technology.
"As we branched out into the LCD
industry, we have participated in
many exhibitions such as one in
Chundo, the IT exhibition in Incheon,
the Digital Exposition of Korea, and at
CEBIT2008 in Hanover, Germany.
We also took part in the World IT
Show, in order to explore the northern
European market. Finally, we participated in GITEX in Dubai earlier this
year which resulted in a 3 million dollar deal for us."
Sealing the deal
The big deal was with a promotional LCD company which provides services to the new Abu Dhabi airport.
Elivision was able to set up an export
agreement to the Middle East with the
company.
The company expects to participate in many other opportunities such
as IT expositions in Switzerland and
Spain, and CES 2009 in Las Vegas.
The company expects good things in
2009 similar to their success in Dubai
this year.
유일실업
Essay
Big brother
may already
know your
next move
J
ohn Anderton relies on
technology that can see
crimes before they happen. He is a police officer
of the future who doesn't
catch criminals who have broken the
law, he chases those who haven't yet
committed a crime, but have plans to.
Anderton is really a fictional character
from the popular movie Minority
Report, but his method of crime fighting is actually closer to reality than
one may expect.
Advances in surveillance technology may make this kind of dream a
reality. And it could be a dream or a
nightmare, depending on who you
ask.
Object and motion recognition
technology is improving, giving the
security sector powers that were
unbelievable just a few years ago.
The emerging research follows the
idea that people's mannerisms- the
look on their face, the way they movecan reveal a lot about what they plan
to do.
Researchers at the Human Factors
Division are involved in a venture
called Future Attributable Screening
Technology (FAST), which is developing technology that notices brief facial
movements that are so slight they
can't be seen by the naked eye. If
someone's expressions are determined to be hostile, they could be
detained by police.
Along with measuring facial
expressions, high-tech sensors could
do a detailed check-up on you while
you wait in line to a board a plane.
Similar to how RFID technology can
remotely access information from only
a couple of meters away, these sensors could measure the temperature
of someone's skin, the way that their
blood is flowing, whether or not they
are sweating, and their heart and
breathing rates.
Tests have shown the system to be
about 80% accurate, which sounds
impressive until we realize that a success rate like that would still have one
innocent out of every five accused.
Supporters of this technology
argue that FAST would be hugely
beneficial, as it could allow criminals
to be easily spotted without much fuss
or investigation. They say it makes
telling the good guys from the bad
guys less complicated, as it removes
variables like race, age and gender.
Behavior is all that matters. It is supposed to only measure emotional
behavior that can't be controlled. If
you're up to no good, the sensors will
know whether you want them to or
not.
At least that is what FAST's designers are hoping for. Human emotions
are a tough thing to judge. It's challenging to be exactly sure how someone is feeling, and criminals are often
trained to conceal their emotions.
Also, signals which seem to reveal
hostile intent change with context.
Someone who is running late or had a
bad day at the office may show the
same signs of distress as someone
with sinister intentions. Clearly not
everyone handles situations in the
same way and there must be some
differences in how people react physically.
That is alarming to those who
defend civic rights. FAST, they say,
gives government undue power to
physically examine people and invade
their privacy. As the technology isn't
completely reliable, it would almost
certainly lead to innocent people
being detained, questioned and otherwise harassed for crimes they didn't
commit.
It also brings about the legal grey
area of apprehending someone for
something they haven't done yet, but
were planning to do. There is the
chance that this type of technology
may open the door to a government
with too much power over its citizens.
At the end of Minority Report, the
program is scrapped and all criminals
imprisoned under it are released. It
ended up that more harm than good
was being done, as accusing people
of crimes tended to just start a new
cycle of conflict and violence.
Whatever the future of FAST, it could
be one more reason to smile and look
happy, as no one wants to be mistaken for someone with evil up their
sleeve.
By SB/[email protected]
프리텍
Get on board or be
left behind -- RFID
surges ahead
RFID/USN
R
FID/USN Korea 2008
International
Exhibition is just
around the corner.
On November 5,
2008, about 450 booths with 160
exhibitors will host 35,000 expected
visitors at Atlantic Hall, COEX, Seoul.
Here, RFID/USN is to be exhibited
under five key areas: u-IT
Convergence Service, Public
Administration Service, Advanced
RFID/USN Technology and Products,
Overseas RFID/USN Technology &
Products, and Future Technology
RFID/USN. Although RFID entrepreneurs in Korea have been facing a
Sisyphean challenge for the last couple of years, exhibition items to be
displayed this year will be just as
impressive as last year. With a little
mercy from Zeus, a huge rock can be
rolled over a steep hill and its effect
will reach the global market. At this
point though, all Korean RFID entrepreneurs can do is keep it rolling. On
top of previous common RFID/USN
displays like RFID in medical, transportation, and agriculture, LF, HF,
UHF band reader, wireless sensors,
Genuine Product Confirmation
Service, and National Defense will
show the expansion of RFID/USN
applications. Since beef has been a
highly controversial political issue in
Korea for nearly a year, RFID technology application to strengthen the
Genuine Product Confirmation
Service is considered to be on a hot
spot at the exhibition. The China
Pavilion and the Japan Pavilion will
join the exhibition along with the other
foreign corporation pavilion and seek
to collaborate to enter the global market as a team. At the COEX
Conference Center, approximately
1000 people from all over the world
will gather to share ideas on
RFID/USN with many world leading
policy makers, CEOs, and IT professionals. The conference will introduce
the newest technologies, market
trends, and standardization, cases for
RFID/USN, the core of the ubiquitous
business. While Korea is getting
ready to host the world's next u-IT
leaders, how is the RFID/USN trend
shifting in the world?
dangerous or deficient, its producers
can figure out its exact location and
have it recalled before it reaches consumers. As more people shop online,
they can track the location of their
purchases, creating a more pleasant
experience for consumers.
The next growth engine
The power of RFID is becoming
obvious to all. The industry is expected to expand substantially in the next
few years. RFID has been highlighted
as a new growth sector and there are
great expectations for its progress. It
is on track to make a huge leap in
size, from about $5 billion in 2007 to
over $25 billion in 2017. Growth of
7.3% has been reported in this year
alone, from a total market value of
$4.93 billion in 2007 to $5.29 billion in
2008.
This impressive growth is taking
place in spite of the completion of the
world's largest RFID project, the $6
billion China national ID card program. The cards were completed
ahead of the Beijing Olympics, but
this has not taken the wind out of
RFID's sails as the industry steams
forward. The program's success
bodes well for RFID as it moves
ahead.
China and the U.S form the two
largest markets for RFID. These two
massive economies rely on RFID
across their societies. RFID finds use
in a variety of industries, as its ability
to receive and transmit information
can be used to facilitate a wide array
of tasks in many sectors. RFID is now
being used in 105 countries around
the world. Those who haven't yet gotten on board will do so soon, or risk
being left standing on the platform
while the train speeds out of the station.
The growth of the industry can be
attributed by many factors. In particular, there is now strong demand for
the ability to immediately locate goods
and people. This is driven by concern
for security, safety, cost and customer
satisfaction. If a product is found to be
The need to know, now- Real Time
Locating
Real Time Locating Systems is a
booming market. The threats of
events like natural disasters are
becoming more common, and many
companies are seeking ways to more
effectively deal with the fallout of such
tragedies. If an employer needs to
bring staff together at a moment's
notice, their exact whereabouts can
be gauged in an instant. Ubiquitous
Sensor Networks (USN) are systems
where large numbers of active RFID
tags with sensors are radio networked
in buildings, forests, rivers, hospitals
and other locations are a part of RFID
integration into ubiquitous society.
As time goes on and RFID
becomes a firmer part of ubiquitous
society, the costs associated with it
will decrease. Declining costs are
proving to be an advantage for RFID
in an era where industries based on
commodities are seeing costs of operations go through the roof. After being
hugely expensive for a long time, the
costs of RFID use and implementation
are going down. Tags and systems
are both becoming more desirable
due to their lower costs. At present, a
large portion of the money spent on
RFID is on the system, which includes
the reader, network, installation and
software. In 2007, 63.9% of the
amount spent on active RFID was on
the system instead of the tags. As the
number of tags per application
increases, this changes so that by
2017 the amount spent on the system
will be 57.3%.
Lower costs boost growth
The main emphasis of RFID use
and supply has radically changed
course. The business is booming in
just about every sector other than the
supply of pallet and case tagging to
retailer and military mandates, where
there are two problems. Disproportionately high prices have been established by suppliers for the tags, readers and chips. Despite the hefty costs,
they still cannot be relied upon to work
properly in cases involving glass,
metal or anything wet. That sums up
most of what is sold in grocery stores,
making integration into that section
especially difficult.
This is part of a matrix of factors
that will see prices associated with
RFID fall at a steady pace. There are
now over 100 companies involved in
active RFID, and as governments
search for the next growth engine to
boost their economies, many are cutting large checks to RFID researchers
to study low cost active RFID, meaning more ways of improving the technology will be discovered. The decline
in price will accelerate as new technologies come into play such as new
micro batteries and printed logic. This
increase in affordability will give RFID
a burst of speed while on the home
stretch towards ubiquity.
A particularly valuable sector with
RFID is Active RFID. This type of
RFID refers to an arrangement where
a battery drives the tag. Active RFID
is growing at a rate that is high even
for this rapid growth industry. It is
beginning to take up an increasingly
large portion of the industry.
One bump in RFID's road to prominence is the present lack of standardization. There are not binding, agreedupon standards for the specifics of
frequency and other characteristics.
A sense of uniformity has not yet
been reached. While there remain
kinks in the plan, present and future
forecasts say that RFID is poised to
make good on its promise as the next
new growth engine.
Chun Go-eun/toclair@ittimes
SB/[email protected]
RFID/USN
Welcoming Message
RFID/USN Korea 2008 International Exhibition & Conference
By Kim Shin-bae, Chairman of RFID/USN Korea Association
I would like to thank you
all for coming to this year's
event.
Development and adoption of u-IT technologies
will become hugely important and will have a significant impact on the quality
of life of Korean people
and advancement of the
country in the 21st
Century intelligence-based
society. RFID/USN is at
the core of our ongoing
efforts to create a more
convenient, safe, productive and creative ubiquitous society using u-technologies.
RIFD/USN technologies and services have been widely
adopted in the public-sector in projects like roads, transportation, healthcare, weather and environment as well as
across various industries such as distribution, logistics,
electronics, medicine, food, petro-chemical, shipbuilding
and automobiles.
Further, they provide enhanced entertainment, convenience and reliability for the general public in their daily lives.
These technologies and services will become core factors
in sharpening local economy's competitiveness all across
the world.
The Korean government announced in September that it
would foster 22 industries from 6 sectors, which were suggested by a group of business, academic and research
experts as new growth engines expected to lead the Korean
economy into the future. In particular, the RFID/USN industry is expected to make significant contributions to the global economy as the "new IT" area by helping countries
around the world grow and reinforce technological capabilities. It will also play a core role in promoting the emerging
"green IT" initiative.
Marking its fourth anniversary this year, the "RFID/USN
Korea 2008 International Exhibition & Conference" will help
the local RFID/USN industry lay the foundation for strong
competitiveness in the global market. Being the world's
largest RFID/USN industry exhibition, it will include a variety
of events held on the sidelines of the main exhibition and
conference.
Please join us at the "RFID/USN Korea 2008
International Exhibition & Conference," and enjoy this great
opportunity to have a hands-on experience in the ubiquitous
technologies of today and tomorrow.
Daylight Breaks for RFID/USN
By Namgung Min, director general for electronics & IT industries of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy
"I awoke one morning
and found myself famous."
These are words of the
renowned poet George
Gordon Byron. While written many years ago, they
are most appropriate for
the pioneers of today's
cutting-edge RFID/USN
technology. Those in this
industry are working to
wake up one morning and
find themselves at the
center of the latest new
growth engine.
RFID is expected to succeed the mobile phone, PDP, and
LCD industries in becoming tomorrow's mega-industry.
According to the IDTechEx, an industry research institute,
the global RFID market is expected to quadruple in size from
$5.3 billion this year to $20.4 billion by 2014.
These realities drive Korea to secure core technologies
which will be instrumental in further driving the economy.
On Sept. 22, the New Growth Engine Planning Corps
announced the selection of 22 new growth industries which
Korea will pursue. Included among them was RFID/USN.
The Government has drafted a clear plan on how to grow
this industry, and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy is
now working vigorously with industry players and consumers to craft policies which will best encourage innovation and progress.
As we work together to reach new heights in this field,
the alluring possibilities behind a fully-developed RFID/USN
industry will soon break to become a reality.
N
o technology exists in
a vacuum, or in any
kind of isolation. For
any technology to be
worth considering
these days, it must be ubiquitous. We
are entering an era where technologies must be able to seamlessly interact across networks and market sectors. In order for RFID to meet its
potential as a new growth engine, it
must have this kind of integration into today's ubiquitous
world. RFID is currently
being employed in various ways, and this
variance can only
increase.
There is a movement within the
post and courier
industries to have
each individual
item carry an
RFID tag. If this
materializes, over
one trillion items
will be sent and
received with tags
each year, which
would result in mail
being the second largest
application for RFID, following behind the retail supply industry.
The system presently in place
relies on barcodes, meaning that
human staff is needed at each
stop to manually scan each item into
the system. This opens the door to
inevitable human error and slows the
path mail takes from point A to point
B. A large scale shift to RFID would
usher in a more efficient system with
a slimmer likelihood of error. When
perfected, Real-time information
automation, impossible with the existing system, will become reality.
The medical profession is embracing ubiquitous technology, leading to
the often heard u-health buzzword.
RFID in healthcare and pharmaceuticals is an especially delicate matter,
as health is a business of saving lives.
Any contribution to that end must be
welcomed. RFID is poised to bring
healthcare and pharmaceuticals into
the wonderland of technology thanks
to the new tagging of drugs, real time
location of staff and patients and automated error prevention. The market
for RFID tags
reduce their costs and improve their
service to customers. Suppliers are
now being ordered fit their projects to
this new standard. Retail suppliers
are following suit, simply due to the
need to conform to RFID in order to
survive in a world where ubiquitous
technology is inescapable.
The benefits of RFID have not
been lost on governments. In a campaign of national registration similar to China's ID card program,
Korea is considering featuring RFID capabilities in all
Korean
passports.
America is in the
same boat. The
technologically
a d v a n c e d
American military
is also an important source for
the RFID market.
In the military,
concepts like
identification and
security are cruRFID Market Expansion in
cial, so RFID is a
welcome addition to
Seven Key Areas of the
the military's activiUbiquitous Society
ties. Korea's ubiquitous society in the near
future predicts a huge
RFID market in the military
section.
Currently, drivers on the highway are frequently asked to pay tolls
of a dollar or two while driving. These
and systems in healthcare will rise
stations can create bottle-necks as
rapidly from $120.9 million in 2008 to
drivers rout through their pockets for
$2.03 billion in 2018. While making
the right amount of change. RFID can
healthcare more effective, RFID can
speed this process up and benefit
be expected to help more patients be
labor productivity, as people will need
cared for at lower costs.
to spend less time on the way to work.
Wal-Mart has grown to dominate
The future of RFID is expected to
the world's retail industry through its
be bright, full of growth and improveastoundingly efficient distribution sysment. As long as it focuses on becomtem. Competitors have since been
ing part of today's ubiquitous society,
scrambling to find a leg up, or simply
those lofty dreams will certainly come
to keep pace with the competition.
true.
SB/[email protected]
RFID will become an essential part of
Chun Go-eun/[email protected]
how retailers do business. Many
retailers believe that tagging incoming
pallets and cases will substantially
Happy Go
Lucky Future
for RFID
Public and private sector
combine to make RFID
and USN grow
RFID/USN
T
Conveyor belt experiment
he
Ministry
of
Knowledge Economy
has finalized its masterplan to boost the
RFID/USN industry,
which is often considered "A New
Engine for the Economic Growth."
RFID and USN stand for Radio
Frequency Identification and
Ubiquitous Sensor Network, respectively. The two technologies are
essential for the upcoming ubiquitous
society that connects every corner of
a nation with wired and wireless computer and sensor networks. Experts in
this field would say that the conquerors of RFID and USN would
become 21st Century's Genghis
Khan. That is why advanced countries
like Japan and USA have been pouring their R/D resources into RFID and
USN.
To this end, the Ministry has also
raised its anchor to sail over the troubled ocean of competition against
Japan and USA. It will make it a priority to stimulate the private sector and
develop technologies related to RFID
and USN through competition. The
Ministry will support market players by
providing industrial areas for them to
open factories and labs. And it will
also help small and medium-sized
businesses work together by providing advice on technology to those who
have difficulty in commercialization.
The many uses of RFID
According to its analysis, RFID will
be used in various fields. Some say
that we can not do without it in the
near future. RFID is a small electronic
tag that carries information about an
item. When an item has an RFID chip
inside it, we can get all information
about it anytime, anywhere. In logistics, RFID will bring forth a revolution
by cutting costs. USN is a sensor network system that reads every RFID
chip at any time, in any location.
Those who want it can get that information from a remote area by the
linked sensor-networks.
The need for RFID and USN will
see no limit. The Ministry concluded
Government Policy
that all aspects of our lives would
need RFID and USN. Logistics, food,
manufacturing, security, environment,
health, livestock, home, office, credit,
bank, school will all be beneficiaries of
the two magic techs. When all these
fields get RFID chips attached to
them, all information will flow like a
stream. As an example, when you buy
food with RFID chips on it, you do not
have to stop at a cashier to pay for it.
You just scan the USN reader, which
will catch the price and take money
from your bank account automatically
through the network.
In the security field, it will herald its
power. When all cars have RFID
chips, USN will know when cars come
in and out. It can detect suspicious
cars that do not have registered RFID
chips. In health, if an Alzheimer's
patient has a belt with an RFID chip in
it, he can be found easily when he
gets lost. Because he passes a USN
reader at a certain point, the reader
gets the information on his location
and transmits it to police. In the manufacturing field, auto makers can make
a dream car that is linked with all USN
networks with RFID chips in it so that
it can give and take all information
that the driver needs. On the car, drivers can buy goods and pay for them
online. The information about the
goods can be transmitted through
USN via RFID chips.
The expanding market
The market for RFID and USN will
grow at a dramatic speed. The
Ministry forecasted that the market
would expand to 146 billion dollars by
2017. The growth of the market leads
to stiffer competition. USA, Japan and
China have ushered in a new war that
is invisible. In the USA, the Defense
Ministry leads the projects from a
strategic point of view.
US Defense Ministry has decided
to invest 300 million dollars on it. The
government also has encouraged private firms, like Wal-Mart and
McCarran, to increase their investments in RFID and USN.
Japan is one of the countries
whose government is leading it into
the field. Its government has finalized
"e-Japan II Plan." The blueprint is to
make Japan a country of RFID and
USN connection. The EU has been
implementing some exhibition programs in logistics, delivery, and manufacturing to spread RFID and UNS
initiatives. The EU will invest 200 million Euros in Information Society
Technology(IST). China has been trying hard not to fall behind in the race.
The Chinese government has started
an initiative called "11-5 Plan". It
demonstrates how much the government is involved in the development
of the system. China, a physically
huge country, is desperate for RFID
and USN. It plans to adopt the system
and apply it to trade, railroad and
postal service.
Korea works to stay in the race
In Korea, despite the expectation
that the domestic markets for RFID
and USN will grow by 58 percent and
by 23 percent respectively, not
enough investment has been made to
keep pace with the advanced countries. That is mainly because the
domestic market is too small. The
average revenue for RFID and USN
merely reached 1.8 billion Won, or
about 1.5 million dollars. In order to
improve the situation, the Ministry has
decided to take initiative.
The Ministry sees that RFID and
USN will give birth to a lot of market
players in such fields as chips, modules, readers, controllers, sensors and
middleware, network security programs, system integration, software
and services. The government will
help market players take root in the
fertile soil. For this purpose, the
Ministry unveiled its ambitious plan to
make Korea one of the top three
countries in RFID and USN. This goal
is included in "The 2018 Plan." The
plan is divided into two parts on a
year-by-year basis. By 2013, the
Ministry will enact aggressive policies
to help Korean players take 14 per-
cent of the global market. It will also
incubate 30 medium-sized companies
with average revenue of 30 billion
Won, creating 44 thousand jobs. By
the end of 2018, Korean players hope
to have 30 percent of the world market. 250 companies with average revenue of 30 billion Won will recruit 120
thousand workers.
In order to create a favorable environment for market players, the government will put into action three
major market supply policies. The
government will adopt RFID for maintenance of all office goods and properties across the nation. All local government should introduce the system
so that market players can take part in
the project and make money. The
Defense Ministry will attach RFID
chips on ammunition supplies and airforces parts. In the postal area, it will
be recommended that almost all
parcels and letters have RFID chips
on them by 2011.
To create more markets, the government will give incentives to those
who incorporate RFID and USN into
their system. Tax cuts will be one of
those incentives. Legal services and
manpower will be also given to small
companies who lack money to spend
on legal conflicts and knowledge on
RFID and USN. If a small company
wants to export its product, it can get
help from the government's legal team
on the possible legal conflicts that
may come while working in overseas
markets.
It will also assist those who try to
co-work with colleges, research centers and companies to enlist new
property rights on RFID and USN.
Japan and USA are crazy at property
rights. The more property rights they
can secure, the more pie they get. An
official who wished to remain anonymous said that the RFID chip is like a
tiny seed that plants sunflowers with a
lot of seeds. "USN will be the sun for
the seeds," said the official.
By Chun Go-eun/toclair@ittimes
Public and Private
Sectors Cooperate
to Reach Wide RFID
Adoption
RFID/USN
Progress has been made, but implementation
has been slow
The Korea IT Times had a special
interview with Kim Shin-Bae, chairman of RFID/USN Korea Association.
He is CEO of SK Telecom. -ED
1. What characterizes and makes
this year's RFID/USN KOREA 2008
different from the previous ones.
The RFID/USN Korea 2008 is
aimed at promoting harmony of the
so-called B2C, which refers to a combination of experts-centered B2B and
individual consumers. Marking its
fourth anniversary this year, this event
sets the stage for the world's largest
and best international exhibition, inviting about 30,000 visitors from around
30 countries. A major global conference will also be held, attracting some
1,000 participants from about 20
countries across the world.
The exhibition will comprise of a
total of 360 booths setup for some
180 businesses and organizations,
where visitors can experience ITindustry converged RFID/USN-based
application services across a variety
of areas such as distribution, logistics,
manufacturing, construction, transportation, food and defense.
This year's conference invites
Kim Shin-bae, Chairman of RFID/USN Korea Association
Interview
some 70 experts from Korea and
other countries including the United
States, China and Japan. Under a
single theme, both adopters and suppliers will share their views through
presentations of best practice cases
and discussions.
2. RFID/USN Association's key project and expected outcomes in
context of the government's
RFID/USN new growth engine policy
Traditional industries such as automobiles and construction serve as
major pillars of a country's economy.
Yet, their contributions to added values have declined facing fierce competition and a weak economy across
the globe. To address this challenge,
the government has set its policy
direction towards reinforcing competitiveness and creating more added
value by converging these industries
and information technology, or IT.
In this context, the RFID/USN
association will also propose a variety
of policies and mobilize resources in
the private sector so that the public
sector led by the government can
develop large national projects involving RFID/USN and thereby, promote
investments and the wide adoption of
the technology.
Private-sector organizations will
SKY dual, dongle reader of Ceyon Technology
also lead efforts to promote wide
adoption of RFID/USN, which they
believe will help businesses increase
productivity and reinforce competitiveness. They also plan to invest in training of skilled workforce by introducing
an RFID/USN expert course and a
certificate program.
Through cooperation between the
government and the private sector,
adoption of RFID/USN will pick up
steam in both the public and private
sector, leading to expansion of the
market and helping the RFID/USN
industry advance to a higher level of
competitiveness and an established
position in the global market
3. Current situation and challenges
facing Korean businesses' expansion into overseas markets
Local RFID/USN businesses are
seeking to expand into overseas markets such as Japan, China, Southeast
Asia and the Middle East. While the
level of their RFID/USN technology
offers great potential of almost unlimited applications, the adoption of the
technology has been slow across the
world, with tangible outcomes yet to
be produced. Both advanced and
developing countries, however, realize the potential of RFID/USN technology as a major future growth engine
for their economies. In line with
this realization, the size of
the market has been
increasing.
The association
has proposed joint
pilot
projects
between Korean
and Chinese or
Japanese businesses in an effort to provide support for local businesses' expansion into
overseas markets. A joint
project between Korea and
China is already underway. The
association also provides sup-
port for local firms wishing to participate in overseas industry shows held
in the United States, Japan and
China, as well as offer other support
programs such as local marketing and
tours to businesses using RFID/USN
technology. In addition, it also plans to
dispatch a team of market experts to
explore new sales channels in overseas markets such as Southeast Asia
and the Middle East.
It is crucial to sharpen competitive
edge by developing technologies and
differentiated service models and
increase marketing capabilities, combined with strong government support
policies, when it comes to ensuring
successful overseas expansion of the
local RFID/USN industry
4. What are the most pressing
issues in realizing wide adoption of
RFID/USN?
The RFID/USN technology began
to draw attention in 2003, and has
been growing steadily since then.
Backed by government-led pilot projects and R&D initiatives, we have
seen significant achievements in technology development. Yet, the adoption pace has been slow, and the
exponential growth of the market is
not seen in near future.
To address this problem, multifaceted efforts should be made to
boost demand in the private sector,
and the government-led efforts to
generate demand will also serve as
catalyst for wide adoption of the technology. In other words, we believe
that the most pressing task is that the
government and the private sector
make concerted efforts to explore
demand and expand the size of the
market.
RFID/USN
Interview
Korea RFID/USN Center
provides backbone for
strong industry growth
Sang-chul says that
the center has
stayed true to the
purpose it was
founded on, and
"aims to establish a
worldwide u-IT cluster in which related
research, production
and service will be
available after coordinating the interests
of domestic and
international companies."
To this end, the
center has been
invigorating related
industries
and
improving technological competitiveness by organizing
an RFID/USN joint
supporting service. It
provides services for
RFID/USN and an
MEMS FAB by supShin Sang-chul, President of Korea RFID/USN Center
porting the massproduction of variThe role of the Korea RFID/USN
ous MEMS sensors.
center
One of the center's outstanding
The center is a step toward realizfeatures is the RFID/USN Engineering
ing the nation's goal of becoming a uLab, which Shin says "has been
IT hub in Northeast Asia. It is a joint
equipped with state-of-the-art technoleffort to provide support for Radio
ogy to provide services in five areas:
Frequency Identification (RFID) and
RFID/USN design and prototype
Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN)
assembly, standard test, performance
companies. Korea RFID/USN Centest and reliability test. As of
ter(www.ruc.or.kr) president Shin
November, more than 200 member
companies are actively using them."
MEMS FAB
Coordination with government
The center's various projects have
been established with the support of
the Korean government. The center
now works in a balanced, cooperative
relationship with the government.
"MEMB FAB is preparing to launch a
mass-production system from 2009
after building various MEMS sensors
that detect sensations such as temperature, humidity and acceleration. It
plans to expand its capacity to produce 3,000 8-inch wafers each month
in 2010."
Shin details the center's back
ground and how the government has
assisted it in working towards its
goals. "As a part of the former Ministry
of Information and Communication's
u-IT839 strategy, the center was
launched as u-IT Cluster Center in
2006 to activate the RFID/USN and
MEMS sensor industries.
"In May 2008, supported by the
ministry and Incheon City, the center
completed joint infrastructure at
Songdo u-IT Cluster in the Incheon
Free Economic Zone to provide onestop service for RFID/USN and service for the mass-production of MEMS
sensors. The center was annexed to
the Korea Institute for Electronic
Commerce (KIEC) under the Ministry
of Knowledge Economy and changed
its name to Korea RFID/USN Center."
Despite changes in government,
the center's vision has remained the
A helping hand for RFID
The center is trying to strengthen
its domestic and international capacity
in order to be a useful partner for
companies working in RFID.
Shin explains the crucial function
provided by the center. He says that
"Internally, it is important to provide
construction, test and certificate-related services. The center also encourages companies to utilize the RFID/
USN functions by estimating the ROI
in advance thereby optimizing services and minimizing costs before applying the system for actual consumers.
For this, of course, the center needs
the cooperation of related ministries
and organizations in the RFID/USN
business and is doing its best to win
their support.
"Externally, the center held seminars and technological consultation
sessions for RFID/USN companies.
They led tours of provincial regions
from September to November to
spread information among provinces
and facilitate the introduction of RFID/
USN. This program is winning favorable reactions from everyone
same. "After the new government took
power, the NIA was transferred to the
Ministry of Public Administration and
Security. The center has been working in line with the Ministry of
Knowledge Economy according to its
founding purpose."
RFID/ USN Engineering Lab - Anechoic Chamber Room
involved. The center will make more
efforts to assist companies that are
facing troubles in establishing their
own RFID/USN models by providing
them with technological support and
information.
"In addition, if the center can support R&D activities, it can form a consortium with related firms and become
an ideal model. Then the companies
can utilize the facilities of the center to
conduct business, apply results of
business to the actual environment
and expand a value-added technological foundation."
If the center establishes an organic
cooperative system and a joint technological marketing model while providing additional support so that related companies can concentrate on
technological development and business management, they will overcome the current hardships and be
able to lay a foundation for a prosperous RFID/USN field.
Spreading the word of RFID
Shin feels that the industry's time to
move forward is now. He says "The
time has now come to activate the
RFID/USN industry and improve corporate competitive edge. Since it was
launched in 2006, the center has concentrated on setting up and stabilizing
infrastructure. The RFID/USN Korea
2008 exhibition is a good opportunity
to demonstrate how the center is
ready to accomplish this."
He thinks that RFID/USN Korea
2008 is a great opportunity to spread
the industry's message. The center
will be busy at the exhibition and will
"introduce existing services and promote the industry's exciting new features. We will also detail the services
that the center provides, to invigorate
the RFID/USN industry. We will
broadly inform various corporate support parts, such as tour RFID/USN
seminars and technological consultation sessions which began in
September and will continue until
November."
The center also will make a corporate display room with resident companies of the u-IT Cluster and member firms of the center in the PR booth
of the Korea RFID/USN Center and
will exhibit various new products of
related businesses. In this way, the
center plans to prepare a stage to display the marketing activities of companies.
Shin hopes to bring together the
industry's various parts as a powerful
whole. "There are companies that
have been interested in the RFID/USN
business but have hesitated to invest
due to a number of limitations, or
those that have had trouble joining
RFID/USN markets earlier and felt
technological difficulties. I hope these
companies and many others to take
part in this international event."
A
RFID/USN
siana IDT's slogan is
"Making U-Life Better."
In an effort to realize
this slogan, Asiana IDT
recently completed the
construction of its R&D Center in
Song-do. With this new expansion,
Asiana IDT will step forward to develop new ubiquitous technology and
expand its R&D field.
Asiana IDT has top specialists not
only in its specified field, RFID/USN
and u-City, but also in every other IT
business area. In addition, it has
employed and cultivated distinguished
minds with diverse areas of expertise.
With these great resources, Asiana
IDT has reached an annual growth
rate of 34% for the last 5 years. Also,
it has built Enterprise Resource
Plannings (ERPs), unified its IT
sources, and fostered its partner companies with mutually beneficial policies.
Asiana IDT is growing into a competitive global enterprise with its local
subsidiary in China, Kum-ho Yun-gun
Ltd. Also, to maintain its competitiveness in the R&D field, Asiana IDT has
established a quality management
system and an RFID/USN institute to
concentrate on the development of
new technology.
In an exclusive interview with
Korea IT Times, President Kim said:
"Recently, we developed a new RFID
reader, the AIR-R1100 series. As use
of RFID readers diversifies, they need
to be applied with specialized tech-
R&D Center of Asiana IDT in Song-do
Asiana IDT aims for
a happier U-Life
The ceremony for the completion of RFID/USN Center in July
ence. Our new AIR-R1100
series
is
perfectly
equipped with all these
good features. Therefore,
it is not at all surprising
that we applied this product to the manufacturing
process of all the plants of
Kum-ho Tire, our affiliate."
The metal tag of AIRR1100 attached to the
metallic equipment is a
high quality product of its
own. It is optimized based
on the reader and recognized perfectly at all times.
In addition, with U-link, the
middleware designed and
produced by Asiana IDT,
the tag is perfectly connected with the system in
the field. Accordingly, it
Asiana Airlines starts an RFID baggage management system
drastically increases productivity. Behind this
excellent technology,
nologies according to the job. By
Asiana IDT is trying to advance to the
doing so, it will display the effect
production line and product managecaused by the investment of cusment of domestic heavy industries.
tomers. Especially for metallic equipPresident Kim says, "The technoloment and automated work fields, sengy that traces and guides air baggage
sors should be connected with the
with UHF (Ultra High Frequency)
signal processing and should be able
RFID is the best in Korea. Korea's
to cope with reader-crowded conditechnology in that field is leading the
tions where there is a lot of interferworld. Surprisingly, Star Alliance, the
union of the world's top airlines, is
benchmarking Gimpo airport."
Kim adds, "Even though the price
of RFID inlays is gradually going
down, the price is falling in inverse
proportion to the amount of production. Therefore, the stabilization point
of the RFID tag price will be when
domestic airlines choose an RFID
baggage management system or the
world's airlines unite and use the tag
system."
Then, are there any dark sides to
our RFID business? President Kim
points out some hardships of the
RFID business in Korea.
The domestic market for RFID systems is still growing and demands for
the tags are limited for now. However,
these days, government-driven businesses like innovative IT networks are
on the increase, and enterprises
respond affirmatively to the Return of
Investment (ROI) of RFID by stages.
Therefore, the RFID business
should be equipped with technology
and solutions to advance to both
domestic and foreign markets through
continuous building and technological
developments.
RFID/USN
Groundbreaking RFID company
comes to COEX
Analysis
Ceyon Technology brings bright history to RFID event in Seoul
D
Pocket Reader Juno-7 of Ceyon Technology
ealing with the ups
and downs of emerging technology is
always challenging,
but Ceyon Technology
has managed to play a special role in
RFID in Korea. Ceyon, a solid RFID
hardware system company, will participate in the RFID/USN Korea 2008 to
be held at COEX, Southern Seoul
from November 5 to 7. At the exhibition, Ceyon will exhibit its new UHF
RFID reader, which features 18 channels and a dual dongle reader. The
main theme of the exhibition will be
the national case studies of Ceyon.
To be specific, Ceyon will show applications of case studies using a 900
MHz pocket reader and a fixed reader
for the authentication and distribution
process.
This year, visitors at RFID/USN
Korea 2008 will see Ceyon's 'SKY
dual'. It is a follow-up to the UHF dongle reader which was released in
2006. It has become smaller in size
but now has stronger functions with a
bill access card for transportation and
the ability to recognize 13.56MHz.
Since its establishment in 2001,
Ceyon Technology has provided the
optimum RFID solution for perfect
customer satisfaction. It has worked
to develop an integrated system that
is compatible with an ubiquitous environment. Ceyon has a long list of
achievements and has proven itself
as a qualified RFID/USN company.
red pepper powder produced in
Goesan. Ssangyong Information &
Communications formed a consortium
related to 'Gochujamjari' and Ceyon is
responsible for the production and
distribution management of red pepper powder using an RFID system.
Workers of Ceyon attach RFID tags at
the production stage and manage histories thoroughly and systematically.
'Gochujamjari' now has a convenient
system for customers, who can directly check production histories and distribution processes using RFID at
kiosks.
Ceyon's history
Since its inception, Ceyon has kept
busy by providing effective RFID solutions. From 2003 to 2006, Ceyon provided RFID factory automation services for Hynix Semiconductor and LG
Philips LCD. In 2005, it constructed
an RFID factory automation system
for Samsung Electronics and BOE
Hydis LCD in China. From 2006 until
now, it has maintained Taihan Electric
Wire's RFID factory automation system, built the RFID monitoring system
for GM Daewoo parts logistics, and
built the RFID system for
AmorePacific. Ceyon has carried out
such RFID projects successfully and
its customer companies are enjoying
great benefits, including cost reduction through RFID data management.
Furthermore, Ceyon has received
two orders regarding the spread of uIT agricultural products. The first is the
u-IT based history tracking management system for 'Gochujamjari' in
Goesan, Chungbuk, and the other is
the establishment of RFID infrastructure for the development of high quality rice in Haenam, Jeonnam.
'Gochujamjari' is the name of the
Government support is needed for
success
CEO of Ceyon Technology, Sohn
Young-jeon says, "The Korean government has established diverse support and sponsored the domestic RFID
market since 2004. That has made it
possible for domestic RFID technologies to improve. In addition, the support of government strengthens the
technological and industrial competitiveness of Korea abroad. However, it
did not activate the RFID system or
diffuse it through private industries."
He continues: "Some businesses
which have focused on the development of RFID technology now face
difficulties. That is because the government's policies have changed
course. Even though the policies have
not yet materialized, there is still a
belief that RFID system can be
applied widely in various fields.
Therefore, the government should
continuously provide support until
RFID is fully established. To be specific, the government has to immediately carry out the support confirmed
at the minister's meeting last year."
RFID:
Is It a Mirage?
T
By Kwon Young-bin, Professor of Computer Science and
Engineering at Chung-Ang University.
o someone lost in a
desert, a vision of a
refreshing pool of water
surrounded by lush vegetation can appear on
the distant horizon. The lost souls
quickly become overjoyed and run
recklessly toward their savior with
glee and relief. In an economy thirsty
for new engines of growth, some new
brands of technology can play tricks
on the mind, seeming like a savior but
ending up being a mere mirage.
RFID was predicted to be a startling new source of growth in a struggling sector. It was said that a wonderful future store would be developed where customers didn't need to
stand in queues, but could let
machines check out their purchases
for them. The government pounced
on the potential of this technology and
hastily adopted it into its research and
development schemes.
It now seems that considering
RFID a strong new engine of growth
was similar to counting chickens
before they are hatched. Despite
promises, it has not delivered on
expectations. The initial reports turned
out to be false - the technology was
not new.
The idea was that the technology
would be able to detect an object
within a 3 meter radius around the frequency of a 900 MHz band.
Customers would be able to stand in
front of machines and have them
invisibly probe their purchases and
send them on their way. No wait; no
hassle. As Gladys Knight once asked,
"Can It All Be So Simple?" The
answer now seems to be a lukewarm
'maybe'.
Industry experts are now debating
whether or not RFID technology will in
fact be valuable as a new growth
engine. New technology needs government assistance to get off the
ground, and before putting funds
towards development, investors need
assurance that RFID will be able to
fulfill its promise.
As for now, there are significant
wrinkles that need to be ironed out.
Manufacturers say that the price of
tags is prohibitively high. Store owners are also uneasy about introducing
the RFID system, since RFID chips
are still not able to reliably detect certain objects and wouldn't work perfectly. At the same time, there is a problem of privacy violation, as there is a
chance that shady store clerks could
take advantage of the system and
overcharge customers.
Considering all these factors, the
introduction of RFID will likely be
delayed. Experts anticipate that RFID
will be used restrictively on a limited
variety of products. However, everyone should take a look at the reality of
the situation: the government's pilot
projects are mainly about system integration businesses, meaning smaller
enterprises will struggle to make a
profit because of competition from the
bigger players.
In order to sustain growth, private
demand must be created, but the
expected introduction time has been
delayed every year, which has limited
the ability of firms to create excitement around the new technology. The
government has again included intentions to include RFID in its plans for
new growth engine development. An
infusion of money is obviously welcome by those working with RFID, but
there remain problems with the technology that will need more than
money to be solved. Even with new
capital, there is still skepticism, as
many wonder if the introduction time
can actually be advanced. Moreover,
in this climate of economic crisis, are
companies willing to invest huge
sums of money to install RFID in
stores? Technology that is rejected by
the market never matures the market.
We need to decide if RFID is the
refreshment we have all been looking
for, or if it is just another mirage.
Events Sketch
D i s p l a y
K o r e a
@
I M I D
2 0 0 8
Valuable Fair of Electronic Delights
A
(Left) Samsung's huge electronics booth / (Right Up) Colorful spagetti lamps of Saes Getters capture visitors' curiousity
(Right Down) Opening Ceremony of KEGF
holy trinity of technology fairs, IMID 2008,
KES
2008,
and
ISEDEX 2008 made a
distinctive mark together this year as the Korea Electronics
Grand Fair (KEGF) 2008. The grand
fair showed a comprehensive list of
every product one could possibly
desire. There were a number of cutting-edge products that surely provided inspiration for all attendees.
As the slogan "See the Future
Technology Today" suggested, the
Korea Electronics Grand Fair not only
served its purpose as a talent show,
but it also identified clear areas that
needed to be improved. Chief
Technology Officer of LG Electronics
Paik Woo-hyun said, "Many foreigners
came to participate in the forums we
held at KEGF and led us to believe
that the Korean display industry is
surely the center of the industry.
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma
display panels (PDPs), and digital
projectors seem to be on a roll and
will continue to stay on top in the
future. Now that the video quality of
LCDs has developed enough, it is
about time for us to start thinking in
terms of energy savings, thickness
and cost reduction. As far as a 3D
Display without Special Glasses
(Natural 3D Scene Display) is concerned, it is a good suggestion for an
area to be improved."
KEGF 2008 allowed attendees to
predict the future based on the current
magic of innovation, and provided a
time for everyone to celebrate accomplishments and discuss obstacles
together.
KES booths occupied three big halls
out of five total at KINTEX. The elabo-
ment Korea Inc. (SCEK), for
example, used a tour bus
instead of an open booth to
display their PS3 and PSP
products. Saes Getter, another small company, got the best
bang for their attention-seeking
buck.
Assistant to the
President's Office Zhou Ping of
Saes Getters said, "Those colorful spaghetti lamps are there
to capture the visitor's curiosity. What we are actually promoting is mercury dispensers
for LCD displays and OLEDs."
This company's strategy
may be a good tip for some
companies next year who are
seeking to include a wow factor of the caliber of LG's pile
of 50 inch flat screen TVs.
LG at IMID exhibited a
large scale of LCD panel displays. LG showed AMOLED,
a display that is ultra-slim and
flexible due to its self-lightemitting system. In addition,
LG exhibited new panels
which have high scanning
rates of 240Hz.
The staff of KEGF 2008
suggested that the themes for
next year's expo were green
and emotions. In line with
ETRI's installation of an environmentally friendly experimental car covered with stickers saying "Stop CO2 and
Save the Earth," solar cells
were the hot spot in the grand
fair. Samsung Electronics and
LG Electronics held a marketing race with the energy-saving theme of "A TV to Use for
10 Years, Electrical Bills
(Up) LG Electronics' impressive booth
Should be Considered Too,' to
(Down) Green Technology was a hot issue at KEGF 2008
competitively unveil TVs that
put forth higher definition while
rate booths of Samsung and LG
reducing power consumption and
Electronics were the center of visitors'
standby power by 50-60 percent
attentions. In order for small sized
against other home appliances. "A
booths to shine, foreign companies
notable aspect is that green technoloused creative ways to promote their
gy products have surfaced all over this
products. SONY Computer Entertainyear," said a Samsung Electronics offi-
cial. "These products will be commercialized next year, while digital products boasting low-energy consumption
including LED backlights, 3D displays
and OLED displays, will be the general
trend from 2010," the official forecast.
Environmentally friendly products
that conserve up to 60 percent more
energy and emotional products that
reflect the moods of consumers are
forecast to take the limelight in home
appliances and the IT industry next
year.
Visitors paused at each booth from
MP3s to cameras, UMPCs to printers
to mobile phones, and trapped themselves with the happy concerns like
"Which one do I like the most?" Other
times, they felt privileged and amazed
to find brand new products like the
YEPP Q1 mp3 player, the Haptic 2
mobile handset, and the VM-MX25E
camcorder debuting at KEGF. Every
visitor probably experienced a feeling
related to what Chief Technology
Officer of LG Electronics, Paik Woohyun said after a tour: "I want them
all." Like children fidget in a candy
shop with sparkling eyes and indecisive hands, most visitors at the KEGF
floor didn't just walk around sedately.
They spent quite a long time at each
booth learning about what each of
them had to offer.
President Paul Drzaic of the SID
said; "I appreciate this opportunity to
be invited to the IMID and give the
keynote speech. This forum is an
important part of the industry, and I
am glad to be a part of it. We are
always interested in supporting any
country with such a strong display
industry. It is important for companies
to collaborate with others that compliment each other's strengths. For
example, Merck is very strong in liquid
crystal techniques, while companies
like 3M are highly recognized for their
multi-layer films. Working together,
we can stand strong in the global display market, and that is why conferences like this are essential for the
further growth of the industry."
Events Sketch
Korean companies rapidly
improving robots' potential
Robot World's opening
ceremony provides glimpse into bright future
(Up) Hubo 2 directs opening ceremony with a female host
(Down) Robots dance in rhythem to the Korean hot pop song, "Tell Me"
T
ServiBoy helps VIPs to prepare for tape cutting ceremony
he spectrum of robots'
abilities is like a wide
rainbow made up of
countless vibrant colors.
This rainbow is stretching its way to a pot of gold, as exciting
new robots are constantly being
developed. Even people who are
knowledgeable about robots wouldn't
expect to see robots dancing in
rhythm to the hot Korean pop song
"Tell Me." This is just the scene that
greeted attendees at the opening ceremony of Robot World 2008 at COEX
on October 16. The robot industry has
been chosen as one of the new
growth engines by the government
and is expected to develop at a rapid
pace, starting from this year.
Prominent players in the industry
arrived at COEX eager to absorb the
new developments offered by the
industry.
The robot's stunning display did not
disappoint. The opening ceremony
featured humans and robots working
together in harmony. It featured a
variety of well-known robots, including
the 'Hubo 2' of KAIST. It has become
lighter and swifter than 'Hubo 1' and
conducted the ceremony with ease.
Taking the baton from 'Hubo 2', was
the Maru-M of KIST, who bestowed
bouquets on Lee Youn-ho, the president of MKE. Maru-M is programmed
to recognize and pick up objects, and
set down the colorful arrangements
without trouble. Participants were
stunned by the robots' seemingly
magical abilities.
The robot industry is working to
bring together its varied parts, and is
making large gatherings of industry
elite an important part of this. Robot
World was the third robotics exhibition
held this year. It was composed of
three main events - iRIS 2008
(International Robot Industry Show),
IRC 2008 (International Robot
Contest), KRC 2008 (Korea Robot
Conference). During iRIS 2008, over
90 companies participated and
showed their products. During IRC
2008, 1,300 selected teams matched
their skills against each other in the
International Robot Contest. Also,
approximately 2,400 international
experts from 31 countries participated
and presented their theses, compared to 750
pieces at KRC 2008.
During iRIS 2008, a
wide array of wonderful
humanoid
robots
appeared in front of amazed attendees. 'Maru' of KIST puzzled participants by moving its hands freely while
walking. 'KIBO' and 'H-Robot' of
Center for Intelligent Robotics of MKE
are also remarkable examples of the
innovative things being done in this
new growth industry.
Most robots are designed to make
people's lives easier, and this side of
the industry was also on full display.
Robot companies are working
towards a future where robots can
perform tasks and exhibit characteristics normally thought of as the exclusive domain of humans. Soon
enough, robots will be able to follow
verbal instructions and have an opinion on what they are told to do.
Chonnam University's robot laboratory showed a flower-like consumer
electronic robot which reacts to the
approach of light and sound with
humidification and cleanliness.
Pohang Institute of Intelligent
Robotics discussed the possibility of a
medical service robot that can measure temperature and blood pressure.
dASAROBOT
and
Redone
Technology came out with office
cleaning robots. KITECH has developed a one-seater electronic car that
can drive without human direction.
Attendees left the ceremony with
visions of colorful robots dancing in
their heads.
W
Feature
hen androids
reach the point of
becoming fully
interactive and
humanlike
in
every way, will people accept them
into their day-to-day lives? Imagine a
time long ago, when masses of people hesitated to embrace the slightest
hints of technological development. In
the early 1900s, at the dawn of the
age of the electric toaster, there may
even have been a few skeptics or
unstable types who thought their
toaster might at any point 'decide' it
no longer wished to do their bidding,
after slaving for hours to warm their
bread without getting so much as a
thank you.
People are quick to transfer human
emotional responses to the machines
they interact with much in the same
way a dog may bark at a bag floating
in the wind or its own ever-elusive tail.
Who hasn't yelled at their car thinking
it provided it with some motivation to
start? "C'mon! One more time!
Please?!?! $#%&# START!" Curse
words are especially helpful in such
matters. However, when the machine
starts to look and act human, people
tend to get a little uneasy, especially
when they forget that they are actually
dealing with machines.
Back in 1973, a film aptly illustrated
our fascination with and continued
fear of a modern day Frankenstein
scenario. In WestWorld, a company
creates a dream vacation land called
Delos where customers willing to pay
the lofty price tag of US$1000 per day
get the chance to live out their wildest
fantasies in a carefully crafted environment which caters to their every
whim. Delos is split into three areas
based around different historical
themes: the American Wild West of
the late 1800s, Ancient Rome and
Medieval Europe. The park is chock
full of highly sophisticated androids
that are programmed to grant the
requests of visitors, which generally
involve sex or violence. Thus, in
Medieval World, a guest practices
The Frankenstein
Complex in
WestWorld and
Our World
vacation. Martin is reluctant to interact
in the world at first, seemingly nervous and taken aback by the true to life
qualities of the androids; the only
noticeable difference between real
human counterparts is an imperfection in the hands, possibly a lack of
fingerprints. Eventually he duels it out
with the Gunslinger, engages in a barroom brawl, spends a night with an
android lass and starts to get comfortable with the fantastic surroundings.
Eventually, minor problems with
the androids start to snowball and the
technicians lose control over them. A
robotic snake strikes Blane, the
Knight in MedievalWorld kills the
guest that he was programmed to
lose to, and the Gunslinger hunts
down Martin and Blane, who had
been successful in numerous duels
against him throughout their stay.
The sentiment seems to be that it
is right to be skeptical of highly
advanced technology, especially if it
seems harmless. If robots or androids
become exceptionally intelligent and
able to think for themselves, then
there is the possibility that they will
want to do things that conflict with
human interests or that they could 'fall
into the wrong hands' and be used for
destructive purposes.
At no point in WestWorld do we
witness the other common fear that
robots will replace humans in the
workplace. Machines definitely work
Androids turn from entertainers to killers in WestWorld
chivalry by fighting an evil knight for
the love of the queen.
In WestWorld, sexual desire can be
fulfilled via a trip to the old saloon with
an in-house brothel. However, the
iconic character, and key feature of
WestWorld is the Gunslinger, an
android programmed to initiate and
then lose gun duels. The two main
protagonists Martin and Blane, the latter of whom is making a return to the
theme park, venture to WestWorld for
Korea's EveR-1 bridges the gap, bringing true to
closer to reality
harder, longer and with much more
consistency than humans. Robot and
potentially android maintenance
would be relatively low once the technology is perfected, while the physical
and psychological toll of constant
stress and fear of unemployment is
generally much harder to fix in human
beings. Behind the scenes, there are
numerous technicians, scientists and
supervisors who calculate and quantify everything that happens in the
theme park. The androids are meant
to allow deep desires that are socially
unacceptable to be fulfilled in a controlled environment with no human
loss.
Korea already has numerous
androids under its belt in the form of
EveR-1, EveR-2 and Alex Hubo, the
now famous humanoid Albert Einstein
look alike. These androids can to a
certain degree successfully mimic
human speech, hold relatively simple
conversations and make a variety of
facial expressions. Alex Hubo even
has the capacity to walk. However, at
this stage they don't appear to be truly
interactive after a few staged conversations that any second year EFL student should be able to stumble
through. Don't imagine that you'll be
having political discussions with your
pet android anytime soon. Complex
discussions with robots are years if
not decades away as programming
the endless possibilities for combined
speech patterns is an
enormous task, which fails
to recognize the true key
to mimicking humans: creativity. At this point, the
closest thing to creativity
would be a glitch of some
sort, as so many great
inventions of humans and
nature alike begin with
mistakes that are then
guided into strokes of
genius.
Thus, at this point in
time, androids are still in
life androids their infancy, that toddler
stage in which they are
mostly seen as entertaining, somewhat innocent and cute. Short of
planting a bomb inside one, it would
be hard to imagine them as threatening. The question remains whether
there will be a real market for a live-in
android or true love interest, a topic
explored in the Korean science fiction
film Natural City. Acceptance levels
will likely vary from culture to culture,
with Japan and South Korea as
potential leaders. Japan specifically
already seems to have a steadily
growing blow up doll market, the latest of which include robotic parts. It's
not a far jump to talking and walking
android housewives.
Just how soon will robots become
a part of our daily lives? According to
the International Federation of
Robotics, about two million personal
robots were in use worldwide in 2004,
and another seven million will be by
2008. Here in South Korea, it is common knowledge that the Ministry of
Information and Communication plans
and hopes to put a robot in every
home there by 2013. The Japanese
Robot Association predicts that by
2025, the personal robot industry will
be worth in excess of 50 billion USD
per year globally, compared with
about 5 billion USD today.
Western countries, with all the fear
of terrorist attacks and other assorted
paranoia brewing in the unconscious
minds of citizens and ever-present in
the media, are unlikely places for
robots at any time in the near future.
Since people often do not feel they
can trust each other, even supposedly
close friends, how can they be
expected to trust something that looks
and acts like a human, but is knowingly programmed and has the potential
to be tampered with or mishandled at
any step before or after delivery?
Movies like WestWorld and its successors reflect such fears, but the fear
is of Frankenstein himself, the monster's creator, more than the actual
monster.
By Nick Antolini
News in brief
A
World
Korea
Asia Pacific
Satellite Industry is
Flying High over the
Sea of Exchange Rate
APSI contracted to export its satellite phone
화이어텍
domestic satellite company
has recently
been on the
lips of many
people. The company is gaining foreign currency through
the expansion of exports in
this severe economic crisis.
This hero is Asia Pacific
Satellite Industry (APSI), a
satellite-related ground equipment producer. The company
has recently sold over
200,000 satellite phones, raising its contract amount up to
72 million dollars (app. 86.4
billion won). By this contract,
APSI has guaranteed a
steady stream of exports for
the next four years.
APSI is anticipating huge
exchange profits, except from
the sale of satellite phones,
since it plans to get the SBLC
(Stand-by Letter of Credit)
from about 50% of customers,
SG-2520 & SO-2510,
satellite phones of Asia Pacific Satellite Industry
leading to a total of 6,130,000
dollars (app. 7300 million
and effort toward this goal. APSI has
won).
already constructed the L-Band
The company will soon be the comantenna, satellite modem channel, a
mon carrier of satellite mobile commuground network access switchboard
nication, which will be APSI's secondand an accounting application system.
ary source of growth. Since the beginFurthermore, APSI will also build Cning of this year, APSI has been
Band satellite earth station and a
determined to become a common carsatellite network station, which will
rier and has invested a lot of money
mean investing an additional
12.8 billion won from 2009 to
2013.
In addition, APSI is in the
process of merging with
Kornic Systems, a publicly listed company. On October 13,
in a shareholders' meeting,
the bill concerning the merger
was approved. The synergy
from the merger of two substantial companies is anticipated to be enormous. This
will assist not only the
increase of all sales, but also
the entrance into the satellite
assembling and robot manufacturing businesses, their
common interests in the near
future.
Ryoo Jang-soo, the CEO of
Asia Pacific Satellite Industry
says, "Our company established a foundation which led
to small growth. Now we are
taking steps to prepare for the
next five years, considering
this five years as our critical
period for huge growth. We
will utilize our advanced technologies
of communication and machinery to
advance into new business areas, the
satellite assembling business and
robot manufacturing business. These
new businesses will assure us status
as a new growth engine."
Country Report
The following article was contributed by Park Sa-ick, Honorary Consul General of
Turkey in Busan and the Chairman & CEO of KyungBoo on the occasion of the
Turkey National Day on Oct. 29. - ED.
Turkey commemorates past,
while future shines brightly
T
urkey sits at a warm,
colorful
crossroad
between East and West.
Straddling the continents of Europe and
Asia, Turkey is a land brimming with
cultural history and natural beauty.
With an illustrious past, it is now a
progressive land rich with opportunity.
Turkey is currently celebrating the
85th anniversary of its independence,
and has much to celebrate on this
special day.
Turkey's brightest days are still to
come. The dynamic country is currently preparing to join the European
Union. The hope is that it will gain
membership and have access to the
lucrative markets of Europe. Turkey is
also a gateway for the countries of
Central Asia. High oil prices have
brought new wealth to the countries
that rose from the ashes of the Soviet
Union. Turkey has recently become
the 17th largest market for Korean
exports, and it is expected to become
even larger. Turkey's growth and
opportunity cannot be denied.
Turkish soldiers fought bravely in
the Korean War, so Turkey and Korea
have a long history of working together through difficult times.
Meanwhile, the people of
1
Turkey are highly impressed
with how Korea has developed in the time since they
fought together. Turkish leaders have
visited Korea to learn more about its
way of doing business and how it was
able to grow so significantly in such a
short time. They plan to follow in
Korea's successful economic footsteps.
The Honorary Consulate General
of Turkey will now take a leading role
in promoting economic exchanges
between the two countries and will
make an effort to spread the message
of the strength of cooperation.
2
A Memorial service for Turkish war veterans at UN Memorial Park
(1) Diplomatic relation between Korea and Turkey
(2) Park Sa-ick, Honorary Consul of Turkey with Turkish children
..
MESSAGE BY DENIZ OZMEN, AMBASSADOR OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY TO
THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA ON THE OCCASION OF THE 85TH ANNIVERSARY OF
THE FOUNDATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY
Ambassador celebrates the continued
development of historical and economic
cooperation
T
urkey is celebrating the
85th anniversary of her
foundation which took
place on October 29,
1923, in the aftermath of
the War of Independence under the
leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,
the founder of the Republic of Turkey.
Since then, my country has been
pursuing a foreign policy based on the
words expressed by the leader of the
modern Turkey, Ataturk: "Peace at
home, peace in the world". With its
secular and democratic system,
robust free market economy and
social tradition of reconciling modernity with cultural identity, the primary
objective of Turkish foreign policy has
been to ensure and nurture security,
stability, peace and prosperity in its
region and beyond.
In order to fulfill this objective,
Turkey adopted a proactive and multidimensional foreign policy. Turkey
has a unique geo-strategic position,
lying at the strategic "crossroads"
where the two continents, Europe and
Asia meet. This position has been a
source for close historical and cultural
ties across a vast landscape and
functioned as a crucial bridge for dialogue and interaction between cultures at the heart of Eurasia.
On this foreign policy background,
Turkey was elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations
Security Council for the term 20092010, at the elections held on October
17, 2008, by obtaining 151 votes from
the 192-member General Assembly,
which stands as one of the highest
number of votes received in a three
way contested election, with 80% of
the votes cast in favor of Turkey.
The Election of Turkey to the United
Nations Security Council at this critical
juncture, when global peace and security is faced with a growing number of
challenges, represents the confidence
entrusted in our country.
Within this context, Turkey attaches great importance to her relations
with the Republic Korea. Turkey recognized the Republic of Korea in 1949
and our participation in the 1950-53
Korean War placed our bilateral relations on a very strong foundation.
Turkey was among the first countries
to establish diplomatic relations with
Korea in 1957. The sacrifices of the
Turkish soldiers, who made a very
long journey to Korea and shed their
blood for this country, are still fresh in
the memories of the Korean people.
The warm friendship existing
between the peoples of our countries
and the state of close cooperation in
international organizations contribute
postively to the development of our
relations in many fields.
Economic and trade relations con-
stitute an essential feature of these
close relations. Bilateral trade is one
of the most dynamic aspects of these
economic ties. In 2007, Turkey's
imports from and exports to the
Republic of Korea were 4.3 billion
USD and 152.2 million USD, respectively. In view of the disparity between
Turkey's imports from and exports to
Korea, Turkey looks forward a more
balanced trade relationship with
Korea and an acceleration of Korean
investments in Turkey. This will certainly pave the way for greater mutually beneficial economic cooperation
between the two countries.
Leading Korean companies such
as Hyundai, LG and KT&G have
investments in Turkey. Thanks to her
unique geo-strategic position and
dynamic population, efficient banking
sector, technologically developed
telecommunications system, welltrained work force, high quality managerial power, competitive industrial
sector, rich mineral resources, Turkey
has an important potential and favorable investment climate for Korean
companies.
Tourism is another potential field in
which the two countries could further
cooperate. The number of Korean
tourists visiting Turkey has been constantly increasing over the last
decade. We believe that more than
130,000 Korean tourists will visit
Turkey in 2008.
I would like to conclude by
expressing my best wishes for the
prosperity and well-being of the
friendly people of Korea and further
cementing the close relations
between our two nations.
Country Report
The following message was contributed to The Korea IT Times by Seung Ho Kim, Honorary Consul
General of the Tuvalu in Seoul and chairman of Boryung Group on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of
the establishment of diplomatic relations between Tuvalu and Korea.-ED.
these days, due to climate change,
the water level of the sea is steadily
rising and threatening to submerge
the island. Therefore, more help and
attention are needed, and I hope that
Korea, as a key member of the international community, takes leadership
in supporting them.
Finally, I would like to express my
hope that more exchanges and warm
relations between the two countries
will be made. Surely my responsibility
will be heavier.
Opening Ceremony of Honorary ConsulateGeneral of Tuvalu in the Republic of Korea
Tuvulu's warmth comes to Korea
Visit Tuvalu and you will find an
oasis of natural beauty, glimmering in
In December 2007, Apisai Ielemia, Prime Minister of Tuvalu, visited Kim Seung-ho, Chairman & CEO of Boryung Group.
In Commemoration of the 30th
Anniversary of the Establishment of
Diplomatic Relations between
Korea and Tuvalu
I
A Congratulatory Message from Kim Seung-ho, Honorary Consul
General of Tuvalu in Seoul
warmly welcome the 30th
anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations
with Tuvalu. The ties between
Tuvalu and I began with my
medicinal support to the country in the
early 1990s, when I acted as chair of
the WSMI (World Self-Medication
Industry).
At that time, I was not familiar with
Tuvalu, but as time went on and I
learned more about the country, I
came to know that the people of
Tuvalu are kind and genuine just like
Koreans.
According to my life-long belief "For
a Better and Healthier Society," I have
done my best to contribute to the
healthy life of the people of Tuvalu,
and my efforts are still being made on
an ongoing basis. In return for my
efforts, Tuvalu appointed me honorary
consul general in Seoul in 1994, and
the honorary consulate general in
Korea has been established in my
office building. Thanks to the warm
relations between us, we have regular
meetings for close cooperation
between our two countries. Recently,
the Vice Minister of Health of Tuvalu
visited Korea and signed an MOU for
medicine support.
Tuvalu is a beautiful paradise, but
the South Pacific Ocean. Its population of approximately 11,000 is spread
evenly across its 260,000 square kilometers. As a member British
Commonwealth of Nations, the tropical island nation established diplomatic relations with Korea in 1978, and
made a fishery agreement in 1980. It
has since enjoyed some export activity to Korea, but not enough to set up
a diplomatic channel such as an
embassy or consulate. Officials in
both countries are now working to
bring the two countries closer in cooperative harmony.
In order to expand exchange,
Tuvalu needs a home base to spread
Boryung group building
its ties with Korea. To realize the
dream of "a global village living all
together," it has decided to install an
honorary consulate general in the
office building of Boryung group, and
Kim Seong-ho, chairman of Boryung
group, has taken charge of honorary
consul general. Many diplomats,
politicians, and businessmen participated in the opening ceremony of the
honorary consulate general to
express their congratulations on the
establishment of the diplomatic ties
with the small and beautiful island.
Since taking office, Chairman Kim
has been playing a key role in bridging the two countries. Fiji is another
picturesque island, and is not only
one of Tuvalu's neighbors, but also a
diplomatic window that gives Tuvalu a
view to the rest of the world. In
January 1995, Fiji's Minister of
Finance and Ambassador to Korea
visited Chairman Kim and discussed
ways to expand relations with its
neighboring countries in the South
Pacific. In response to these visits,
Chairmen Kim visited both Tuvalu and
Fiji in July of the same year, and met
both the Ministers of Health and
Foreign Affairs while strengthening
economic and diplomatic ties.
Also in August and
September of the same
year, both a high-ranking
official of Fiji's Ministry of
Health and the Speaker
of Tuvalu's Parliament
visited Chairman Kim. In
September, 1996 the Vice
Minister of Health of
Tuvalu and his delegation
visited Chairman Kim and
discussed mutual interests of the two countries.
between the two countries. Since then, Chairman Kim has been playing the role of a civilian
diplomat, through continuous exchanges between
the two countries.
How to...
Create Your
Own Website
Don't have a website yet? Don't panic, as our simple guide
takes you through the basics of how to set up your own
site without breaking a sweat.
Think about keywords. These are the words that people search for when
they are trying to find something on the web. The more times a keyword
appears on your web page, the more likely it will turn up high on a
search engine list, thus enabling people to find it. If you are selling
Korean paintings, for example, make sure you use the words "Korean
painting" and "Korean art" a lot on your web page.
E
ntrepreneurs' life stories have the power to
captivate just about
anyone. Whether you
are reading of how
Rockefeller built his gigantic fortune,
how Richard Branson built the Virgin
empire, or even how controversial
Russian
billionaire
Roman
Abramovich rose from a lowly orphanage in a backwater town to command
a business empire worth some $14
billion, all these stories are nothing
short of breathtaking.
However, since last century, the
traditional tale of rags to riches has
taken a new, digital twist. You could
argue that, in the whole of human history, nothing has quite changed the
way we accumulate wealth quite so
dramatically as the Internet. In the
space of the last few years, we have
seen Bill Gates and Steve Jobs break
through and become IT multibillionaires, but they are being hotly pursued by a whole gang of newly-minted Internet businesspeople that have
struck gold on the net almost as dramatically as Pa Clampett from the
American TV Show, "The Beverly
Hillbillies".
Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Sergey
Brin, Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, the list
goes on. Through YouTube, Google
and Amazon.com, sites which have
sprung up as if from nowhere to
become integral parts of the lives of
millions of people all across the planet, these regular people have come
from relative obscurity to attain uberwealth, all thanks to the wonders of
the net.
If their cases illustrate anything, it
is that while Rockefeller and
Abramovich operated in an era where
oil represented a rich field that could
make them almost unlimited money,
future riches lie inside servers and
computer chips.
The net commands a huge, global
audience. Already, Internet advertisement has surpassed print media in
terms of advertising revenue, and
some television stations are already
feeling the pinch, as the bigger websites start to attract more prestigious
advertisers
than
them.
Pricewaterhouse Coopers, an international auditing firm, reported this year
that Internet advertising revenues
were up on last year by over 18%,
despite the slowing global economy.
The one conclusion to draw from
all this is that if you want to get
money, you need to get yourself
online.
"Being online" can take on several
different forms, but one thing is for
sure - if you really want to promote
yourself, you need to get a website. In
the modern age, that can take on a lot
of different forms. Some successful
bloggers have managed to make
money by building popular blog sites
that incorporate advertising.
Sites like Blogger.com allow users
to add programs like Google's
Adsense, a tool that adds relevant
advertisements to your website to promote sponsored web contents. For
example, if your blog is about Korean
baseball, Google will pick up on the
keywords "Korea" and "baseball", and
can allow advertisers to have related
links to their sites on your blog. When
people click on these links, this can
transform into revenue for you.
In Korea, big companies have even
been known to get in touch with the
makers of successful blogs to offer to
pay to add their advertising banners
to these sites.
However, if you have a business,
or you are serious about promoting
yourself online, many believe that you
now need to think beyond the obvious
limitations of a blog. A commercial
service that uses a blog's web
address (URL) is unlikely to get much
attention from most serious customers
and investors.
The owners of many cottage industries and small businesses have
already quickly cottoned on to the fact
that the web represents a gigantic
potential channel for sales and promotion. If people can get your website
as an early hit on Google or Naver,
you could be in line to earn a lot of
money, but doing so requires a little
time and effort.
The idea of building your own website fills most people with a sense of
dread. The thought of understanding
what HTML or Javascript even are, let
alone having to plough through lines
of code written in those languages,
How to...
If you are planning to publish a lot of new
content on your site, think about setting up
an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed.
This can enable news-gathering sites to pick
up on news from your site easily, and can
also let people subscribe to news from your
site. However, if you want people to take
your RSS feed seriously, you need to be
aware that this will require you to regularly
upload new contents.
can seem as daunting a task as being
asked to decode Egyptian hieroglyphs
as history homework.
However, Internet experts say life
does not have to be so hard. In fact, a
whole host of digital tools can help
you to set up your own site without
breaking too much of a sweat.
Kevin Nulty, who runs the willvideoforfood.com website, makes videos
about building your own site which he
posts on the net. He says that with an
investment of around $15 a month, he
has sites that earn him up to $50 in
monthly revenue. He says that he
does not think that making a site has
to be a struggle. "I use the Yahoo site
builder tool that comes bundled with
the Yahoo web hosting package that I
sign up to. It's a little like using
PowerPoint," he says, in one of his
videos.
Indeed, site building tools like
Yahoo's are fairly common on the net.
The most established software in
common use is probably Adobe's
Dreamweaver, which also allows
users to create contents without having to use HTML, the web's most
widely-used programming code.
However, a licensed copy of the latest
copy of Dreamweaver will set you
back a cool $399, which means that
unless you are planning to take up
Web Design as a serious profession,
you may want to make do with free or
shared software solutions.
Popular free tools that do not
involve having to know or learn HTML
include KompoZer, a SourceForge
project, which means that it was
designed as part of the Open Source
movement. This can be downloaded
and modified freely. Bluefish is another free web editor, and web specialists say it works well for Mac and
Linux users.
Lee Yu-mi, a former Graphic
Designer at LG Electronics and also
an expert in Web Design, says that
making your own website does not
have to be as complicated as its
sounds. She explains, "There are a lot
of templates you can use to make the
basic frames of your site, and if you
are not too fussy about what it looks
like, you really don't need much
knowledge of graphics at all."
However, Lee thinks that although
design does not have to be a consideration, if you want people to keep
coming back to your site, you are
going to have to offer them something
new every time. "People get fed up
with seeing the same design and layout every time they come to your site.
A simple frame with easily changeable contents is the best solution. Just
look at how Google do this, if you
want examples. During the Olympics,
When deciding
whether to use a
local web host and a
more international
domain name, i.e. if
you have to choose
between ".com" or
".co.kr" - do not be
too hasty in making
your mind up. Of
course ".com" has a
more global sound,
but if you are focusing on a largely
Korean market for
your product or services, a local name
shows potential customers where your
target market is.
the Google logo was changed every
day to depict a different sport," she
says.
The most important thing in any
website, though, is usability. If web
surfers get frustrated with your site,
you can be sure they will click on the
red cross at the top right hand corner
of the screen in a mere instant.
Lee notes, "If your site is userfriendly, that is far more important
than whether it has fancy graphics in
it or not. If it takes too long to load,
people won't be back to visit again."
Dos and Don'ts
Do
Link to other people's sites and try
to get other people to create links to
your sites. The whole notion of "surfing the web" is based on people clicking on links and banners.
Minimise the amount of text you
use on a page, and maximise other
visual contents. Having funky designs
and interesting pictures on a website
looks good. Chunky paragraphs of
unnecessary text look bad. Less text
is definitely more in the modern age.
Make sure that, at all costs, your
page does not take too long to download. Flashy graphics and amazing
artwork is all very nice, but the
patience of the average Internet user
is incredibly short. Try to avoid using
graphics that require users to download Flash players or install Active X
commands, as not everybody can be
bothered to do so.
Try to consider multiple platforms,
if possible. In the future, we might be
using all sorts of devices (television
sets, mobile phones, and so on) to
access the net. If possible, try to
design for a variety of different user
platforms to stop accessibility from
becoming an issue.
Don't
Link to your competitors, or make a
website domain that is too similar to
that of a competitor. You might end up
promoting their goods more than your
own.
Hire a web designer without some
careful pre-planning. Most designers
are great at designing, but probably
have little experience in programming
and vice versa. If you are really looking to dazzle your customers in the
era of Web 2.0, you may need a separate programmer and web designer.
People are rarely able to do both well
enough to please customers who only
respond to a richer Internet experience. Ask to see a portfolio before
you sign on the dotted line.
Forget to check your site. If a page
is crashing, failing to load, or loading
incompletely, it will cause great
embarrassment if you are the last one
to find out about it.
Build Your Own Website: A Step-By-Step Guide
Step 1 Choose a name for your site
Choosing a domain name, or a URL, for your site is possibly the trickiest part of
the whole process. You will need a name that will seem both interesting and
professional if you want to draw in the maximum number of visitors to your site.
Unfortunately, as you will notice, many of the funkiest and most innovative
names have already been taken. ".com" is by far and away the most attractive
suffix to have on the end of your site's name, but most web hosts will ask for
more money for ".com" and ".org" suffixes, while ".info" and ".net" are often
cheaper options.
Check to see if a domain name already exists by typing it into your browser. If
you do not get a hit, you could be safe to use that name.
Step 2 Get Web Hosting
We are only at step two, and already the jargon has begun. But never fear,
Hosting is not a complicated notion. It just means that your page needs a place
to live on the Internet. You can register a site at a whole plethora of places that
offer web hosting, but the bad news is that it is going to cost you.
The amount you pay could be anywhere from $6 to $20, but it is worth shopping around first. Stephen Cope, of www.build-your-website.co.uk, advises
users, "The object is not to choose the cheapest, or the one with the most features, but the one that best suits your needs."
In Korea, the big three web hosts are Cafe24.com, ktdom.com and Gabia.com,
though there are a lot of other options to choose from. Popular non-Korean
web hosts include GoDaddy.com and Moniker.com, but again, the choice is
broad. Do your research, check out what the sites offer you in exchange for
your money, and - if you are not happy, change hosts later down the line.
Step 3 Build your site
Start making your site. Use web building tools, or hire a web designer, to make
your site looks the way you want it to look. If you are selling a product that
relies on visual impact, like paintings or clothes, you will need a lot of high-resolution photos. Make sure that you have the right to use all photos that you are
intending to put on your site to avoid copyright issues. Certain famous individuals have image rights, so if you want to use their pictures on your site, be sure
that you have permission first.
Step 4 Create revenue
If you are not selling things on your website, you might want to think about
ways that your site can make you money. Google's AdSense is the obvious
and most popular promotional tool, but other sites also offer attractive incentives to incorporate their advertising banners. Amazon.com offer a tool which
recommends an MP3 track. If someone decides to buy that track, you could be
entitled 10% of the revenue.
Look into widgets, which are pieces of HTML code that you can copy and paste
into your site. These can be used to create advertising banners for other sites,
meaning that you could be entitled to commission on clicks and sales redirected from your site.
Step 5 Site maintenance
Having a site up on the net is all well and good, but if you really want to make it
work, keep it updated with the latest changes you have made to your company,
your life or your product. Leaving your website up on the net unchanged for
large periods of time will not impress would-be customers. Have the latest photos and, if possible, a news or media section where you post press releases or
the latest news stories about your company.
F
Contribution
ung shui literally means
"wind water" when
translated into English.
This poetic name shows
the study's reverence for
the power of the natural world. Fung
shui is the study how people can live
safely and happily in harmony with
their surroundings. It is a philosophical notion which has given birth to a
set of ideas that many people now live
by.
The hope is that by arranging people's lives properly, casualties and
damage can be decreased. In addition, it helps people live in places
where they can find food and water
easily. Fung shui deepens understanding of nature and focuses on
many circles, as certain sects of the
practice have written irresponsible
books. Non-scientific approaches, the
theory of predisposition of nature
based on the Chinese fortune telling
and deceit of astrologists have distorted how people view Korean fung shui
and caused a lot of confusion.
Particularly, as a result of ignoring
cosmic study of astronomy and geography, comprehension of the vast theory of fung shui is incomplete. In addition, some astrologists who weren't
knowledgeable about fung shui wrote
about it in the manner of fortune
telling. Despite being unhelpful, their
books are some of the most widely
read on the subject.
Therefore, this writer has studied
Fung Shui brings harmony
to a stressful world
By Dr. Kang Hwan-woong, chief director of Korean Fung Shui Institution.
avoiding natural disasters such as
rainstorms, snowstorms, strong winds
and floods.
Since the settlement of humankind,
early settlers lived according to the
ideas of feng shui. Without modern
technology to make life easier, it was
crucial to position oneself properly
within nature. Evidence of that fact is
the Eastern and Western 'Goin-dol', or
Dolman. Dolmen lie scattered across
Eastern Europe, northeastern China
and Korea. They are widely distributed in Hanam district, where more
than 20,000 can be found. Dolmen, in
the theory of feng shui, need to be
located in a favorable site, usually
behind a mountain with a river in front.
This means our ancestors acclimated
themselves well to nature and lived
safely and blissfully.
In addition, after the era of Three
States, a lot of remains were found in
Korea as proof of the use of fung shui.
Especially during the Goryeo dynasty,
politicians were inspired by fung shui
to move the capital to Gae-kyong.
During the Joseon dynasty, the state
examinations required thorough study
of fung shui. Furthermore, the office
and institution educated experts of
fung shui. A governmental office in
charge of astronomy, disaster, the
calendar, was installed and managed
by politicians.
Joseon also transferred the capital
city according to fung shui. In addition, in the same manner of Goryeo
dynasty, it installed Seowoon-kwan
and trained experts of fung shui to put
them practical use of the important
business of country.
Then, many scholars and experts
of fung shui held significant influence
in Korea during that period. They had
control of the improvement of fung
shui and of Korea.
Fung shui has been demonized in
feng shui based on astronomy and
geography in earnest for decades. I
have made it my mission to teach and
train younger students.
According to in-depth study, is has
been concluded that fung shui is a
natural science for people to pursue
the three following things:
First, reproduction - finding a good
and propitious site for the house in
which to reproduce one's offspring.
Second, stabilization of livelihood finding a good and propitious site for
house to live safely and happily.
Third, eternal life and immortality finding a good and propitious site to
be buried and live eternally.
The end-all purposes of a sincere
pursuit of study can be summarized in
three things above.
Therefore, this series can be categorized into four chapters.
풍수지리의 이해
(영어 원문기사: 84쪽)
풍수지리사상은 지구상의 모든 사람이
자연환경으로부터 안 하고 행복하게 생활
하기 위한 방안을 추구하는 학문으로써 뿌
리 깊은 민족 사상체계(思想體系)를 이루
어 왔으며 역사상 인류발 에 큰 기여를
한 사상적 관념임은 주지의 사실입니다.
역사상으로 최초 인류가 정착한 때부터
풍수지리에 의한 생활방식을 영위하여 왔
는데, 그 근거가 세계문화유산으로 지정된
동 서 양 의 고 인 돌 즉 지 석 묘 (支石墓 ,
Dolman)입니다.
지석묘는 동구지역과 우리나라 고조
영역인 지금의 중국 동북부지역, 그리고
우리나라 역에 산재되어 있습니다. 특히
호남지방에는 대량으로 분포되어 그 수가
2만 여개가 넘습니다. 지석묘는 풍수지리
에서 배산임수인 기본 명당 터에 자리하고
있음이 특징입니다. 이는 고대 우리 조상
들이 자연환경에 잘 적응하여 안 하고 행
복하게 살아왔다는 증거입니다.
또한 삼국시대 이후에도 많은 유물들이
풍수지리를 이용한 과학적인 생활 터 의
증거로써 우리나라에 산재되어 있습니다.
특히 고려시대에는 수도 개경을 풍수지리
에 의하여 정도하였고, 과거시험에는 풍수
지리학과가 필수였으며, 풍수사(風水師)를
양성하는 관청과 학교, 서운관(書雲觀)이
설치 운영되었습니다.
조 은 건국 초에도 수도 서울을 풍수
지리에 의하여 정도하였고, 궁궐도 풍수지
리에 의하여 조영하였습니다. 또한 고려시
대와 마찬가지로 서운관(書雲觀)을 세우고
과거시험과목으로 풍수사인 문직 관리를
양성하여 국가경영에 활용하였습니다.
그리하여 역사상 유명한 풍수지리학자,
왕사, 풍수사, 지관 등이 배출되어 오늘에
이르기까지 비약적인 발 을 이루어 왔습
니다.
풍수지리는 지구상 모든 민족이 공통적
으로 각자 삶의 터 을 구하기 위하여 비
바람과 눈보라 그리고 북풍과 하천의 범람
등의 자연재해로부터 생명과 재산의 피해
를 줄이고 안정된 생활에 필요한 식량과
식수를 쉽게 구하는 곳, 즉 풍수적인 명당
터의 지형을 택하는 방법을 연구하는 생
활과학입니다.
그러나 학문이 아닌
비과학적인 접근방법과
중국의 점술적 바탕의
이기론(理氣論), 음택
(陰宅, 묘지풍수)만을
고집하는 점술사들의
혹세무민(惑世誣民)
등으로 오늘에 이르기
까지 왜곡된 것이 많
아 사회의 혼란을 야
기시켜 왔습니다.
또한 사상체계에 있어
서도 일면성(一面性)을 크게
벗어나지 못한 감이 있으며, 특히
우주적인 천문 지리연구들을 도외시한
편협된 지식의 소산(所産)으로 방대한 풍
수사상을 다루기에는 양적으로도
미진한 것이 사실입니다. 더군
다나 천문과학이나 지리학을
잘 모르는 점술사(占術士)들
이 제각기 짧은 지식으로 흥
미와 복술(卜術)적으로 저술한
술서류(術書類)가 현대서점가에
거의 차지하고 있는 형편입니다.
이에 필자(筆者)는 수십 년간 천문지리
를 기초한 풍수사상을 연구하였으며, 한반
도의 지형적인 특성이 중국대륙과 다른 지
형임을 절감하고 자생적(自生的)인 우리나
라 풍수지리사상을 본격적으로 연구하였습
니다. 또 이를 대학 강단에서 후학들을 가
르쳐 온 수십 년 동안 필생의 업(業)으로
생각하고 최 을 다하여 왔습니다.
필자가 심도(深度)있게 연구한 바에 따
르면 결론(結論)은 다음과 같다.
▶風水地理란
첫째, 종족인 내 자식을 생산(생식)할
좋은 집터(陽宅明堂)를 구하고,<Reproduction>
둘째, 안 하고 행복하게 살 삶의 명당
(明堂) 집터를 구하고,<Stabilization of
Livelihood>
셋째, 자신이 죽어 영생할 음택 명당(陰
宅明堂)터를 구하는 사람을 위한 본능의
자연과학입니다.<Eternal Life. Immortality>
풍수지리의 진실(眞實)된 학문추구의
최종 목적은 위 세 가지의 결론으로 집약
되는 것입니다.
따라서 본 연재 기사는 총 4장으로 분
류합니다.
제1장 생활과학 과 풍수지리
제2장 생산의 터(종족인 내 자식을 낳
을 좋은 집터)
제3장 삶의 터(안 하고 행복하게 살
삶의 명당 집터)
제4장 영생의 터(자신이 죽어 영생할 음
택 명당 터)로 분류 집필하겠습니다.
글: 강환 박사
(대한풍수지리학회 회장)
Essay
Editorial
권력자들은 이제 당신의
미래 행방까지도 파악할 것이다
존 엔더슨은 범죄가 발생하기도
에
그것을 미리 잡아낼 수 있는 기술을 가지
고 있다. 미래의 경찰관으로 등장하는 엔
더슨은 범죄를 저지른 범인들을 잡는 것이
아니라, 아직 범죄를 저지르기
의 사람
들을 체포한다. 사실, 존 앤더슨은 영화 <
마이너리티 리포트>에 나오는 허구적인 인
물이다. 그러나 그가 보여주는 범죄 소탕
방식은 허구라기 보다 우리가 미래에 실현
될거라 믿고 있는 현실에 더욱 가깝다.
감시 기술의 발 은 이러한 것들을 현실
로 만들어줄 것이다. 그리고 이 기술을 꿈
의 실현이라고 생각하는 사람도 있겠지만,
악몽이라고 여기는 사람도 있을 것이다.
물체 및 동작 인식기술은 계속해서 발
하고 있다. 그리고 이러한 기술의 발달
은 단지 몇 년 까지만 해도 신뢰가 가지
않았던 보안 관련 분야를 더욱 강력하게
만들어주고 있다. 최근의 한 조사에 따르
면, 사람들의 얼굴 모습이나 몸을 움직이
는 방식과 같은 독특한 버릇들이 그사람들
이 의도했던 행동이 무엇인지를 보여줄
수 있다고 한다.
인간과 관련된 요소들을 연구하는 사람
들은 FAST (미래 기인 심사기술) 라고 부
르는 기술을 연구하고 있다. 그것은 육안
으로는 감지할 수 없을 만큼 아주 미세하
고 순간적인 얼굴 근육의 움직임을 감지하
Key words
•mannerism-(말씨,동작 등의) 독
특한 버릇, 특징
•screening Technology-심사 기술
•detain-억류하다
•along with-~와 함께, ~와 같
이, ~에 더하여, ~이외에
•sinister-불길한, 악의가 있는, 사
악한
•undue-부당한
•apprehend-체포하다, 파악하다
•scrap-폐기하다, 해체하다
는 기술 개발 분야이다. 만약에 어떤 대상
의 얼굴표현이 적대적인 것이라고 판단이
되면, 그들은 경찰에 의해서 억류되는 것
이다.
얼굴 표정을 측정하는 것이
부가 아
니다. 첨단기술 센서는 공항에도 장착되어
서 당신이 비행기 탑승을 위해 줄을 서 있
는 시간 동안에 당신의 모든 행동들을 세
밀하게 체크하게 되는 것이다. RFI D 기술
로 인해서 몇 미터 멀리 떨어져있는 정보
들에도 접근이 가능한 것처럼, 특수한 기
능을 가진 센서들은 이와 비슷한 기술 원
리로 사람들의 피부의 온도나 혈액이 흐르
는 상태, 땀을 흘리고 있는지 아닌지, 그
리고 그들의 심장 박동수가 어떤지도 모두
측정해 낼 수 있다.
기존에 이루어진 테스트들에 의하면, 이
시스템은 80%의 정확성을 보인다. 이것는
매우 인상적인 수치인 것 같지만, 잘 생각
해보면 다섯명의 피의자 중에 한 명의 결
백한 사람이 끼어있다는 뜻이니 억울하게
붙잡히는 사람들의 수가 엄청날 것으로 예
상된다.
이러한 기술을 지지하는 사람들은 야단
을 떨거나 조사를 많이 하지 않고도 아주
간편하게 범인을 잡아낼 수 있다는 이유로
FAST를 지지한다. 또한 그 기술이 있다면
인종이나 나이, 성별등과 무관하게 범인인
지 아닌지를 명백하게 분별할 수 있을 것
이라고 이야기한다. 고로 수사의 과정이
더욱 간단하고 공정해진다는 것이다. 그들
은 이 기술이 통제될 수 없는 감정적인 행
동을 측정한다고 여기기 때문에, 측정 대
상의 육체적인 반응만이 판단의 기준이 된
다고 생각한다. 만일 당신이 악한 의도를
가지고 있다면, 센서가 바로 그것을 읽어
혀 없다는
내 버리므로 발뺌할 도리가
주장이다.
그리고 바로 이 점이 FAST를 고안한 사
람들이 바라는 미래의 모습이다. 하지만
생각해보자. 인간의 감정이란 복잡 미묘
한 것이기에 그 감정이 정확히 어떤 것이
라고 판단하는 것은 쉽지 않은 일이다. 사
람들이 느끼는 감정이 정확하게 무엇인지
를 판단한다는 것은 생각보다 쉽지 않은
일일 것이고, 어떤 범죄자들은 고도의 훈
련을 통해 그들의 감정을 숨길 수 있을지
도 모른다.
그뿐만이 아니다. 적대적인 의도를 드러
내는 신호를 읽어냈다 해도, 그것이 어떠
한 배경에서 나타난 신호인가에 따라 그것
의 해석은 천차만별이 될 수 있다. 늦어
서 서둘러야 하거나 사무실에서 기분 나쁜
일이 있었던 사람이라면 아마도 살인 의도
를 가진 사람들과 비슷한 신호를 보여주지
않겠는가. 분명히 모든 사람들은 그들의
상황을 동일하게 판단하고 반응하지 않는
다. 또한 그들이 보이는 육체적인 반응도
각기 다르다.
그리고 시민의 권리를 보호하는 사람들
은 또 어떤가. 그들은 FAST 기술이 도입됨
으로 인해 정부가 손에 쥘 어마어마한 권
력을 염려한다. 정부가 시민들을 마음대로
감시하고 때로는 프라이버시를 침해할 것
이기 때문이다. 게다가 이 기술이 완벽한
정확성을 보여주는 수준이 아니기 때문에,
아마도 무고한 많은 시민들은 저지르지도
않은 범죄 때문에 억류당하고 심문받고 고
문당하게 될 것이다.
따라서 아직 저지르지도 않은 일을 가
지고 사람들을 미리 체포한다는 것은 법적
인 회색 지대를 만들어낼 것이다. 그 판단
이 과연 사실인지 아닌지를 알 수 있는 길
이
혀 없기 때문이다. 결국 이 기술은
정부로 하여금 시민을 지나치게 억압하는
권력을 갖게 할 뿐이다.
영화 <마이너리티 리포트>의 결말에서,
그 프로그램은 완 히 폐기되고, 투옥되었
던 모든 죄수들은 풀려난다. 결국 그 기술
은 순기능 보다 역기능이 더욱 많은 것으
로 판단되었다. 저지르지도 않은 범죄로
인해 투옥된 사람들은 또 다른 대립과 폭
력에 연루되었기 때문이다. FAST기술이 미
래 사회를 어떻게 바꾸어 놓을지는 미지수
지만, 우리에게는 늘 웃고 행복해 보여야
만 하는 또 다른 이유가 생겼다. 분노를
드러내면 센서에 감지되어 체포당할 것이
기 때문이다.
글: Steven Borowiec
번역:
IT의 적용에 있어서는 걸음마 수준인 한국
Korea IT TIMES 지는 여러 가지 면에서
봤을 때, 한국의 잡지더미 속에서 구별되
는 독특한 특성을 지니고 있다. 한국의 영
문 잡지들 중에 유일하게 기술이라는 말을
제목에 내건 잡지라는 두드러지는 특징뿐
아니라, 그보다 더 놀랄 만한 특징도 있다.
증거를 찾고 싶은가? 그렇다면 우리 잡지
의 웹사이트를 가보라.
그렇다. 웹사이트를 보면 알 수 있듯이,
우리는 웹사이트에서 뮤료로 팟캐스트를
내려 받을 수 있는 서비스를 제공하고 있
다. 이 글을 읽고 있는 당신이 만약 한국
인이라면, 아마도 이렇게 물어볼 것이다. "
팟캐스트가 뭐지?"
팟캐스트란, 한 개인에서부터 BBC,
CNN과 같은 주요 미디어 방송국에 이르는
다양한 출처들이 제공하는 자료를 가리키
는 말로서, 내려 받기 할 수 있는 MP3 파
일의 형식으로 되어 있다. 유럽과 미국의
Key words
•podcast-syndicated download에
의해 웹상에서 이동식 미디어 플
레이어 또는 개인 컴퓨터로 배포
되는 일련의 오디오 또는 비디오
형식의 디지털 미디어 파일을 말
한다.
•outlet-출구, 배출구, 소매점, 직
판점, (방송망 산하의) 지방 방
송국
•move on-진행하다, 출발하다, 옮
겨가다
•stuffy-숨막히는,
•a roomful of-방을 꽉 채운, 많은
•spiral-나 형으로 상승(강하)하
다
•must-절대적으로 필요한 것
•shell out-돈을 지불하다
•heavy hitter-유력자, 주요인물
•break the seal-개봉하다
•This or that-이것저것, 이모저모
•Pothole-동굴, 움푹 팬 곳, 깊은
구멍
•take stock of-찬찬히 살피다
•fools rush in where angels fear
to tread-(속담) 하룻강아지 범
무서운 줄 모른다
모든 주된 라디오 방송국들은 팟캐스트가
가능하도록 한 주파수의 프로그램들을 송
출한다. 게다가, 요즘에는 신문과 잡지에서
도 이러한 서비스들을 제공한다.
그 뿐이 아니다. 대부분의 대형 신문사
나 잡지사들은 비디오 팟캐스트를 제작하
여 사람들이 그것을 내려 받아서 PMP,
P2P 또는 핸드폰을 이용하여 감상할 수 있
게끔 하고 있다.
여기에서 알 수 있는 중요한 사실 한가
지. 이제
세계적으로"멀티미디어"라는
말은 더 이상 최신 유행을 따르는 사업에
서만 사용되는 제한적인 용어가 아니다.
멀티미디어라는 단어는 과거에는 우아하고
세련된 용어이었지만, 이제는 우리의 현실
과 어우러진 실생활 용어가 되었다. 그 사
용 범위가 엄청나게 커진 것이다.
이제, 미디어는 지난 세기 자기 자신을
옭아매던 숨막히는 경계를 벗어버릴 것이
다. 몇 년 까지만 해도 신문은 신문이었
고, 잡지는 잡지였다. 모든 인쇄매체들은
사진작가들이 표지사진을 찾기 위해 길거
리를 돌아다니는 동안에 기자실을 가득 매
운 채, 열심히 타자기를 두드리는 기자들
을 원했다.
그러나 이제, 세상은 바뀌었다. 만일 당
신의 웹사이트가 조잡하고 어설프다면, 당
신은 광고료로 수익을 낼 생각을 아예 하
지 말아야 하는 것이다. 이제는 이러한 시
대이다. 기업이 지면광고에 투자하는 비용
은 나 형으로 하강한 반면, 인터넷 광고
의 가치는 하늘 높은 줄 모르고 계속해서
올라가고 있지 않은가.
이제 풍부하고 다양한 디지털 콘텐트는
절대적으로 필요하다. 시간의 흐름과 함께
변화하는 것을 거부했던 많은 유명한 미디
어 업체들은 이제는 종적을 감추었거나,
살아 있다고 해도 사실상 조금씩 죽어가고
있는 실정이다.
오늘날의 인쇄매체의 가치는 예 에 비
해 어떻게 달라졌는가? 사람들은 이제 예
과 같은 형식으로 인쇄되어 나오는 신문
이나 잡지를 구매하려 하지 않는다. 직장
에 가면 컴퓨터로 편하게 공짜로 네이버
뉴스를 볼 수 있기 때문에, 출근길에 700원
이나 지불하고 신문을 사 볼 이유가 혀
없는 것이다.
비록 한국의 거대한 출판 미디어 업체
들은 속속 그들의 사이트에 비디오 콘텐트
를 집어 넣고 있긴 하지만, 이런 발 적인
변화들이 너무나 더디게 나타나고 있다.
서양의 미디어들은 수단과 방법을 가리지
않고 발 에 도움이 될 것 같으면 뭐든지
시도하고 있다; 오디오 팟캐스트, 비디오
팟캐스트, 핸드폰 콘텐트, RSS feeds 등등
닥치는 대로 하고 있다는 것이다. 하지만
대부분의 한국인들은 아마도 위의 용어들
이 무엇을 의미하는지조차 모를 것이다.
한국 시장은 그동안 스스로를 "기술의
원더 랜드"라고 생각하며 살아왔다. 이것은
한국의 해외시장 진출 면에서는 매우 좋은
태도이다. 특히 한국의 가장 비싼 수출품
들 - 고급형 TV와 컴퓨터 칩, 비싼 가 제
품 등을 구매하는 해외 소비자들에게는 더
더욱 중요한 태도이다.
그러나 현실을 보면, I T라는 사업에는
한국 이외의 다른 국가들은 오랫동안 많은
종류의 자금을 사용해왔음에도 불구하고,
한국은 한번도 개봉한 적 조차 없음을 알
수 있다.
한국의 기술 쪽에 몸담고 있는 많은 이
들은 이렇게 말한다. "한국인들은 자기들의
방식으로 일하기를 좋아한다." 또는 "한국
문화는 사람들이 기술의 이모저모를 편하
게 생각하지 않는다는 것을 의미한다." 라
고. 이것은 결코 간단히 넘길 성격의 것이
아니다.
한국에서 멀티미디어와 크로스 플랫폼
기술은 여 히 미발달 상태이다. 그러나 우
리는 이미 융합과 심지어 유비쿼터스 기술
부분에서조차도 준비도 없이 섣불리 달리
고만 있다. 한국은 IT를 가지고 돈을 만드
는 경쟁에서는
두의 위치를 유지하고자
하는 노력에서 너무나 멀리 떨어져 있다.
우리는 이제 뒤로 돌아가서 우리의 깊
은 구멍 - 미디어 분야와 삶의 다양한 분
야에서 I T에 대해 무지한 것 - 을 메워야
할 것이다. 우리는 하룻강아지 범 무서운
줄 모르고 대들듯이 무모하게 달려가기
에 우리 주변을 찬찬히 살펴봐야 할 것이
다. 당신은 지금 당장 우리 웹사이트를 방
문해서 우리가 제공하는 팟캐스트를 얼마
든지 내려 받을 수 있다. 만일 이것이 처
음이라면, 미래의 정보사회에 들어온 것을
환영하는 바이다.
글: Tim Alper
번역:
Analysis
한국경제는 지금 사춘기
- 이제는 변화해야 한다
(영어 원문기사: 12-13쪽)
기억도 나지 않을 만큼 나이가 든 늙은
어르신이 아니라면, 대부분의 사람들에게
있어 사춘기는 그다지 달가운 기억이 아닐
것이다. 누구나 사춘기가 되면, 불과 며칠
사이로 밝고 에너지가 넘치던 아이가 침울
하고 예측할 수 없는 10대 사춘기 어린이로
변한다. 그리고는 세상 모두와 대립하고 싶
은 마음을 갖게 된다.
지금 그 당시를 회상해보면, 그것은 몹
시도 끔찍한 경험이었지만 동시에 매우 필
요한 경험이기도 했다. 왜냐하면 그 시기를
통해 배웠던 교훈들이 나를 현재의 분별력
있고 책임감 있는 어른의 모습으로 이끌어
주었기 때문이다. 한국 경제는 지금 바로
이러한 사춘기의 시기라고 생각한다. 한국
경제는 혼란스럽고, 절망에 가득 차 있으며
스스로의 정체성을 찾기 위해 고군분투하고
있다. 이것은 마치 사춘기에 접어든 어린
아이의 모습과 흡사하다.
지난 60년간을 돌아보면, 보호무역주의
경제가 한국 금융 정책의 지배적인 견해였
다. 왜냐하면 한국은 세계적인 위기 속에서
스스로를 구원했으며, 몇 안 되는 비 공산
진 공업국가 대열에 들어갔기 때문이다.
보호무역주의는 한국의 최 우방 국가인
미국으로부터 직접 들어온 사조이다. 미국
은 그들의 경제이론을 성공적으로 사용하여
"대공황"이라고 부르는 국가의 곤경에서부
터 벗어났다. 그 핵심을 보면, 보호무역주의
가 성장 중심의 경제 원칙이다. 이것은 외
국의 수입품에 대해서는 개방하지 않고, 수
출품은 외국 여러 나라들에 자유롭게 퍼질
수 있도록 해주는 효과적인 경제 원칙이다.
이러한 미국의 보호무역주의가 한국에
들어왔으니, 이것은 마치 황금 티켓처럼 막
강한 것이었다. 지난 50여 년간, 한국은 놀
랍도록 스스로를 변화시켜 왔다. 가난한 농
부에서 시작해 이제는 세계에서 11위 안에
드는 엄청난 기술을 가진 국가로 탈바꿈
했다.
외국인 경쟁자들은 높은 세금 장벽 때문
에 한국 시장에 발을 들여놓지 못하고 있으
며, 이러한 상황은 한국이 제한된 경쟁과
충실한 국내 시장 속에서 마음껏 성장
할 수 있는 뒷받침이 되어 주었다.
그러나, 해외 시장에서는 막강한 소
수의 재벌 그룹을 제외하고는 대
부분의 한국 기업들은 활약하지
못하고 있다. 한국의 대부분의 수
출품과 서비스는 이미 포화상태에 다다
른 그 곳 시장에 아무런 대책 없이 투입
되기 때문이다.
이제는 변해야 한다. 보호무역주의는
국가간의 경쟁만 더욱 부추길 뿐이다.
그것의 한계점들은 한국에서 이제 너무
나 명백하게 보여지고 있고, 그것은
국제 경기 침체의 악영향이 아
시아 어떤 나라들 보다 우리나
라에서 가장 심하게 미칠 것을
암시해주는 것이다.
이미, 미국과의 자유무역협정
은 특정한 분야에서의 세금 규제를 불러
일으켰고, 이제는 유럽연합과 한국간의 자
유무역협정이 제시되고 있다. 이것은 국
가가 주도하는 한국의 세금 버퍼링이라
는 모기장에 더 많은 구멍들을 낼 것
이다.
기업들은 만일 그들이 그들의 물건을
구매하는 한국의 고객들에게 의존한다면,
그들이 절대로 중소기업의 규모 이상으로
커질 수 없으며 1997년의 IMF 사태와 같은
시기가 다시 찾아와 나라 경제가 곤경에 빠
질 경우에 너무나 쉽게 망할 수 있다는 것
을 실감하기 시작했다.
1997년은 한국의 많은 사람들에게 재앙
이었다. 성공한 중소기업의 사장들은 그들
이 세운 작은 제국들이 시장 모든 부분들의
기반이 흔들리자 붕괴하는 모습을 목격했
다. 그리고 한국의 현재 보호무역주의의 모
델과 함께, 비슷한 정기적인 위기가 계속해
서 오는 것을 막을 길은 정말로 없다. 한국
경제에서 10년 단위로 발생하는.
이제 한국에서 필요한 것은 세계화에 대
해서 그만 말하고 실제로 그것을 행동으로
옮기는 것이다. 한국의 기업들은 그 동안 너
무 오랫동안 응석을 부렸다. 그들은 외국 기
업들의 경쟁에 물들지 않은 환경 속에서 온
실 속의 화초처럼 자라났다. 그래서 그들이
중간 사이즈만큼 자랐을 때, 그들은 외국 바
이어들을 찾기 시작했지만 대체로, 해외에
서는 그들의 제품에 관심을 갖는 사람들이
거의 없다는 것을 발견하게 되는 것이다.
왜 그럴까? 우 은 그 제품들이 국내 소
비자를 대상으로 하기보다는 국제적인 감각
의 디자인으로 만들어진다면 더욱 도움이
될 것이다. "나는 누구에게로 수출되는 것일
까?" - 이러한 질문이 국내의 모든 CEO를
지망하는 이들의 협의사항 중에 하나이어야
한다. 대개의 경우에 이제는 그것들은 군더
더기에 불과하다.
그러나, 이토록 힘든 경제상황 속에서도,
한국의 기업들이 빛을 보기 시작했다는 고
무적인 표시들이 있다. 지경부의 정부 통계
가 거리 지출이 작년부터 9% 정도 줄어들
었음을 확인해주었다. 한 편, 삼성 경제 연
구소에서는 한국의 경제 성장이 내년에
3.5% 정도 으로 떨어질 것이라 예상하고
있다.
그러나, 그와 같은 황량한 시기 속에서
도, 온라인 컴퓨터 게임 산업은 한국에서
번영하고 있다. 가장 최근의 업계 인사들은
한국의 비디오 게임
문가들이 9억 달러
정도의 가치가 있다는 것을 보여주었다. 작
년 이맘때쯤에 코리아 I T TI MES는 한국의
온라인 게임 제작자들이 "국제화로 나아가
던지 아니면 멸종될 수 밖에 없다"라고 말
하는 것을 보도했던 적이 있다. 이제, 그들
은 자 쪽을 택하여 집중하고 있는 것
같다.
한국의 가장 큰 온라인 게임 제작사 중
에 하나인 넥슨은 지난 달에 미국에서
"Combat Arms"라는 이름의 게임을 출시하
였다. 미국에서는 이미 <메이플 스토리>가
어느 정도 성공을 거두고 있다. <카트 라이
더>는 넥슨에서 자랑하는 중국 시장에 스며
들어가고 있는 넥슨의 또 다른 히트 게임
이다.
NHN은 일본에서의 판매량을 30% 가량
증진하였다. NCsoft의 <리니지> 시리즈 또
는 JoyMax의 <실크로드>등은 돈이 벌리는
커다란 아시아 시장에서 대중성을 확보해나
가고 있다.
참으로, 중국, 필리핀, 인도네시아 등의
같은 나라들은 한국을 위한 거대한 잠재적
시장을 대표한다. 그들은 또한 유럽과 미국
등과의 무역 쟁에서 앞 출발을 하고 있
는 나라들이기도 하다.
한국인들이 스스로를 중국에서 멀리하고
싶어하기 때문에, 비디오 게임에서 동양적
취향은 매우 획일적이다. 그리고 서울에 기
반을 둔 게임 회사들과 베이징, 마닐라, 자
카르타, 그리고 상하이와 같이 떼지어 있는
대도시들 간의 지형적 거리의 결핍은 상대
적으로 작다.
많은 한국인들이 더 크고, 더 힘이 강한
컴퓨터 게임 회사들에 의해 제시되는 경쟁
에 대해 걱정하고 있다. 일본의 소니, 미국
의 EA 등과 같은 통적인 콘솔 및 PC 게
임 시장 두기업들 그들은 대규모 온라인
게임들을 출시하는 것의 가장자리에 있는
것처럼 보인다.
올 여름에 미국 회사들은 <골 라인 블리
츠>라는 제목의 온라인 미식축구 경영 시뮬
레이션 게임을 출시했다. 그리고 다른 창조
적인 제목들은 비슷한 것을 하는 일본의 기
업들로 새어나갔다.
그러나, 한국의 기업들은 여 히 틀을
깨고 있는 중이다. <컴배트 암스>는 완 히
무료로 즐기는 게임이다. 그 게임의 제작자
들은 온라인에서 수들이 하는 일들 통해
서 이익을 얻는다. 그것은 대규모 쿠데타를
포함하는 것으로, 잠재적인 게이머들에게
이 게임이 더욱 매력적으로 보이도록 해주
는 역할을 한다. 다른 나라에서 온 커다란
회사들은 여 히 그와 같은 아이디어에 있
어서는 시대에 뒤떨어진다.
게다가, 비록 EA, 소니, 그리고 그러한
비슷한 수준의 회사들과 같이 덩치 큰 수
들이 온라인 게임의 경쟁에 들어가게 되면,
이것은 한국 온라인 게임의 죽음은 너무나
도 당연한 것이다. 작고 다양하고 창의적인
회사가 되는 것이 온라인 게임 제작의 세계
에서는 엄청난 장점이다. 커다란 회사들이
좀 더 거친 사업 모델들 중에서 변화를 덜
두려워하는 반면, 작은 회사들은 좀 더 빠
르고 여유 있게 움직일 수 있다.
온라인 게임 시장은 절대 1회성의 것이
되어서는 안 된다. 시장의 이런 부분들이
특정한 사례들을 근거로 하여 주도하고 있
지만, 이것이 한국의 삼성과 LG를 제외하고
성공한 유일한 스토리이어야만 하는 것은
아니다. 그러나 한국의 온라인 게임 제작자
들은 글로벌 감각을 가지고 생각하는 것의
힘을 깨닫기 시작했다. 그들은 한국 시장이
포화되어있을 뿐만 아니라 불안정하다는 것
또한 볼 수 있다.
보호무역주의는 이제 사라져야만 한다.
온라인 게임 제작자들은 이것을 실감했고,
이제는 다른 IT 사업들이 이 사례를 따라야
하는 시기이다. 경쟁의 증가는 그곳에 참여
한 한국 게임 회사들을 더욱 강하게 만들어
주었으며, FTA의 의지가 이곳에 있는 다른
산업들로 하여금 그들의 행동을 함께 따라
하도록 할 것이다.
이제는 한국 경제가 사춘기를 통과해야
하는 시기이다. 이것은 해외 경쟁 업체들이
더욱 증가하기 때문에 새로운 한국의 기업
들이 더욱 힘들 것임을 의미한다. 그러나
만일 그 상이 글로벌 시장에 나아갈 수 있
는 관문이 된다면 있는 그대로를 받아들여
라. 사춘기는 혀 재미없는 과정이지만, 그
것으로 인해 내 스스로가 성숙해진다면 그
것은 분명 가치가 있는 것이다.
글: Tim Alper
번역:
Key words
•pubescent - 사춘기의
•puberty - 사춘기
•forward-thinking - 진보적인, 장래를 고려하는
•spotty - 한결 같지 않은, 불규칙한
•first World - 제 1세계, 비 공산 진 공업국들
•fiscal - 국고의, 국가 세입의
•quagmire - 수렁, 진창, 곤경, 궁지
•bustling - 부산스러운, 소란스러운
•crumble - 부스러뜨리다, 가루로 맞들다. 무너지다, 망
하다, 붕괴하다
•mollycoddle - 응석
•for the main - 대체로
•agenda - 협의사항, 의제
•for the most - 대개의 경우, 대개는
•afterthought - 군더더기
•government figure - 정부 통계
•street spending - 거리 지출
•bleak - 황량한, 처량한, 차가운, 궁색한, 처절한
•industry figures - 업계 인사
•in spades - 극단적으로, 결정적으로, 솔직히
•infiltrate - 침투시키다 잠입시키다
•head start - 타인보다 유리한 스타트, 앞 출발, 출
발의 좋음
•swarming - 무리, 떼, 떼를 짓다
•on the verge of - ~의 가장자리에
•trickle out - 새나가다
•transaction - 처리, 취급, 처치, 업무, 거래, 매매
•behind the times - 시대에 뒤떨어진

레이아웃 1

Transcription

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