South Korea news for the rest of us...

The story is from the NYTimes, so registration is required. If you are in hurry, use bugmenot for a quick read. The story details how South Korea has leveraged electronic communication technologies to push its society ahead of others with investments in technology like super-fast WiFi for everyone (called Wi-Bro) and by providing tech instruction for homemakers. CyWorld which is one of my blog's persistent threads is part of the mix.

South Korea, perhaps more than any other country, is transforming itself through technology. About 17 million of the 48 million South Koreans belong to Cyworld, a Web-based service that is a sort of parallel universe where everyone is interconnected through home pages. The interconnectivity has changed the way and speed with which opinions are formed, about everything from fashion to politics, technology and social science experts said.

But now people are starting to notice that these infrastructure changes which change the way people communicate, and thus I would argue, the way they think, are starting to change the political scene. Again, from the NYTimes,

Two years ago, after the opposition-led National Assembly impeached President Roh Moo Hyun, a consensus began forming on the Internet that the move was politically motivated — two hours after the vote took place...

there were mass street demonstrations. That hadn't been typical of South Korea, but as in the Phillipines and even in the more trivial moblogs, everyone is connected and they can move together swiftly. The downside, is the hounding of folks like "dog-poop girl" which I've detailed previously, but not the schools have incorporated "IT Ethics" into junior and senior high school. Oh and all those afraid of wild teens and MySpace, they also teach "Healthy Mobile Phone Culture" and "Protecting Personal Privacy" to kids. Gee, why didn't we think of that? And what is coming next? Networked robots for home and public spaces like the Post Office. Go visit there if you have the chance, it is quite interesting.