ICT: S’Korea Aims For Ubiquitous Status

South Korea aims to become a “ubiquitous society,” following its fast changing world of ICT, Prof. Ki-Shik Park, the Chairman, Operating Committee of Ubiquitous IT Korea Forum, said.

Park disclosed the plan in a lecture on “Recent Trends and Changes in ICT” which he delivered to some 20 Nigerians participating in an e-government training in South Korea.

He said that the recent trends in ICT had brought about changes in computing environments of the world.

He also said that South Korea, having passed the agrarian and industrial age, and enjoying a robust “Big Age of ICT, aims to be in ubiquitous age in the nearest future”.

“ICT is becoming ubiquitous, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, while there is an increase in the availability and diffusion of wireless broadband and the use of mobile technologies in other regions.

“The upper middle and high income countries of the world are fast adopting the wonders of IT, while the lower middle and lower income countries lag behind, though this is expected to change in the next few years.’’

The Electronics and Telecommunication Resource Institute (ETRI) fellow said that the world’s information main frame of the 1980s where many persons used one computer shifted to one person/one computer usage in the 1990s.

“And we are now in ubiquitous 21st century, with one person having many computers and smart gadgets and widespread use of the Internet.

“Just by walking down the street, you can be subjected to a personal bio-metric system.

“You can be scanned by the gateway of the transit system because there will be something embedded in the street or in the flooring beneath you.

“You can also be touching other tangible interfaces in the environment around you and the lamp posts and other features of the street scape can have informational service.

“And a robotic helicopter surveying the cityscape and communicating with all of these devices,” Park, who is also the President of Policy Studies Association for Human Dignity, said.

He said this might seem to be distant vision, but that the scenario “is just around the corner” adding that presently in South Korea an entire city was being built that would have these features.

“Several other countries are currently planning and building cities modelled around South Korea’s U-city.”

“It is a future world filled with wonders, where today’s possibilities become tomorrow’s reality,” Park said