Korea Bridges Digital Divide
Korea's IT agency has advice for the Obama administration.
By Elizabeth Woyke
Korea's IT agency has advice for the Obama administration.
Dr. Yeongi Son has a message for President Obama: If you're serious about making broadband a priority, establish an agency dedicated to digital divide issues.
Son runs such an agency in Seoul. Called the Korea Agency For Digital Opportunity & Promotion, or KADO, it has been working to increase Koreans' access to the Internet since the late 1990s. As access has increased--nearly 80% of the general public uses the Internet regularly--KADO has focused on helping people with disabilities, senior citizens, rural dwellers and low-income families get online. These groups have a much lower Internet adoption rate, around 40% combined.
KADO's approach contains useful lessons for the new Obama administration, which must target the same groups to improve America's broadband penetration rates. Under the new economic stimulus package, the U.S. government will dedicate $7.2 billion in grants toward broadband expansion.
Federal agencies, including the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, have been tapped to oversee the process. There is no U.S. equivalent to KADO.
Korea, which is smaller in area than the state of Virginia and has a population of 48 million, is past the broadband build-out phase. "We have no infrastructure problems here," says Son. Instead, KADO concentrates on IT education and access. It has offered public IT courses, online and offline, since 1998.
To reach people in remote areas, it partners with local governments and civic associations and even holds classes in private homes. Volunteers do most of the teaching. Son says KADO's education efforts have taught 10 million Koreans how to e-mail, search the Web and download files.
People with disabilities make up a good chunk of that 10 million. To encourage this group to use computers, the Internet and cellphones, KADO has authored accessibility guidelines for Web sites, software and cellphone keypads. It frequently commissions assistive devices, such as software that can move a mouse cursor with a flick of an eye, from small manufacturers and subsidizes up to 80% of the cost.
A new initiative, called TRS for Telecom Relay System, enables people with hearing and speech impairments to send audio cellphone messages through operators. Users submit messages by e-mail or sign language via Webcam. A team of operators, who work out of KADO's headquarters, then call the intended recipient's cellphone and "speak" the message.
No group is seemingly too small for KADO to target. It has created special IT classes for the illiterate, for foreigners with Korean spouses and for North Korean refugees. About 10,000 North Korean refugees currently live in South Korea. Many have never used a computer, says Son.
For those who need PCs in order to get online, KADO collects used computers from offices and schools and refurbishes them for free. KADO says it has distributed more than 160,000 PCs to needy individuals through this program since 1997.
The ultimate goal is to boost Korea's Internet penetration rate. While Son admits that 100% penetration isn't a realistic goal, he believes Korea can push Internet usage as high as 90% within the next few years. The growth, in turn, will improve people's quality of life and stimulate the economy in a kind of virtuous cycle, says Son.
A high Internet-usage rate also burnishes Korea's reputation as an innovative, tech-savvy country. Beyond its domestic programs, KADO also functions as the Korean government's global IT ambassador. Its international efforts include establishing IT training labs in places like Kenya and Laos, organizing a corps of Korean volunteers to teach IT education abroad and hosting an annual forum for IT experts from developing countries.
All these programs, naturally, cost money. KADO has a staff of 142 and an annual budget of approximately $45 million, which is fully funded by various branches of the Korean government. KADO was originally established as Korea's Information Telecommunication Training Center in 1982 and has evolved into its current form over the past decade.
To track its progress, KADO continuously collects data on key metrics like Internet usage. According to its research, only 16.2% of Korea's rural-dwelling "farmers and fishers" used the Internet in 2003. By 2007, the rate had climbed to 33.4%.
Over that same period, the rate of PC ownership among farmers and fishermen increased from 33.2% to 55%, according to KADO. In its 2007 annual report, KADO noted, "Excellent infrastructure and high Internet use rate alone [is] meaningless without pragmatic solutions and benefits."
That's likely to be true in the U.S. too. A recent report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that most Americans who lack broadband don't want the service because they don't find it useful. KADO is careful to stress the utility of fast Web access in all its programs. It has set up a "National Knowledge Portal" that includes information on everything from public transportation routes to how to organize a funeral service. It teaches people that they can save money by doing some tasks, such as banking, online. And it promotes technology as a way to bridge another cultural divide--the generation gap--by improving communication between parents and children.
Son says he is eager to share KADO's experience with the Obama administration. Similar goals, he argues, require similar organizations. "A specialized agency like this one will make it easier for the Obama administration to promote information technology initiatives," he says.
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