"Eldest brother" of the Internet Field, Sharing its Experience As the core element of Ubiquitous computing, RFID/USN is the next generation core industry that will contribute to the improvement of citizens' quality of life and to national economic development. Aware of this fact, the National Internet Development Agency of Korea (NIDA/ www.nida.or.kr) is taking the initiative in actively supporting the government's IT839 strategy, which is being promoted for the sake of creating the Ubiquitous network era, for Korea to be reborn as an innovative power that leads the way toward the future globally connected society. NIDA has already been conducting research into future technology. Some of these technologies include VoIP, 'ENUN', 'IPv6', 'WINC', and 'RFID MDS.' NIDA president Song Kwan-ho said in a special interview on the occasion of the RFID/USN Korea 2005 (International Radio Frequency Identification/Ubiquitous Sensor Network Exhibition & Conference 2005) to be held in Seoul on Oct 12~14 that the Agency is participating in this exhibition by securing its own booth and is planning to show that NIDA manages "kr" domain registration management as well as infrain DNS on the Internet. In RFID as well, NIDA manages RFID national code systems and managing the RFID infrain reference system ODS is the Agency's role, he explained. Namely, since RFID also is one sphere of Internet address systems, NIDA, as a management agency for Internet address resources, will manage, the president emphasized. Song, who took office as the first president of NIDA in September last year, is also serving as president of the Society of Korea Mobile which promotes the development of mobile core technology and associated technology. Mobile communication-related technology development is multi-dimensionally driven by technologies such as DMB phone, RFID, WiBro, IPTV, and D-CATV. The president who appreciates the fact that he has been in a core position to construct a future networked society as a spearhead of the informatization age, mentioned that to date NIDA has attained remarkable success in securing international cooperation, IP address resource security, and KR domain growth, adding that this year NIDA has established the basic plan of Internet address resources' development, use facilitation as well as management over the next three years. Internet's quantitative No. 1 is no more than an empty slogan Song noted that he is proud of the fact that he has been able to help in attaching a modifier of "Internet Power" before the name, Republic of Korea, through active and diverse international activities, explaining that he has been striving to construct a stable and convenient Internetuse environment for domestic Internet address resources as the first president of KRNIC from late 1999 through 2004 and since then as the first president of NIDA. Though Korea has come to construct a super quality Internet infrastructure, the president pointed out that in the meanwhile, the nation has concentrated on the quantitative side of Internet use. As a result, 70 percent of the entire nation utilizes Broadband Internet and kr domain registration numbers, which amounted to no more than 26,000 in 1998, now exceed 620,000 as of September, 2005. Moreover, the number of IPv6 addresses possessed by Koreans is the fourth highest in the world. Song explained, however, that it is NIDA's task to boost and upgrade the Internet qualitatively in Korea, pointing out that being the Internet's quantitative No. 1 is no more than an empty slogan. Rather, to raise economic efficiency and productivity, will become the most important criterion in future. At present, the number of Internet users in Asia-Pacific totals 346 million, while North America has 223 million users, and Europe has 269 million users. There are about 938 million Internet users worldwide. Song maintained that efforts should be made to convert the current U.Soriented international Internet community to an Asia-Pacific-centered Internet community. As part of these efforts, NIDA is operating an Internet issue team comprised of 50 experts to promote debate about the Internet's social influence. As the "eldest brother" as well as a leader in the Internet field, the NIDA president underlined that NIDA would endeavor to share more of its experience and technology with Southeast Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, which are interested in the informatization society from now on. From profit-oriented to publicoriented Song explained that he has changed the Agency's management policy from "profit-oriented" to "public-oriented" since his inauguration as president, elaborating on NIDA's key business matters such as domain registration and management. He says that NIDA is planning to devote its best efforts for the sake of "kr" domain's activation, adding that the Agency is ceaselessly developing diverse additional functions, plus registration channel's enlargement. What is noteworthy, is that NIDA is being designated as the domestic Internet address management institution by law regarding Internet address resources. The president went on to say that the present situation regarding Internet address resources breaks down largely into domain and IP addresses. As of September, 2005, "kr" domain registration numbers are posting the largest registration numbers with 620,000 cases and considering foreign domain registration number increase tendency or domestic domain potential demand, the number of "kr" domains registered is forecasted to gradually increase, he added. In the case of domestic IPv4 address, on one hand 40,902,912 addresses are already allocated and this is a scale conforming to the third rank in Asia area following Japan and China and the ninth rank all over the world. Recently, diverse services such as home networking, e-Commerce, telematics, WiBro, DMB, RFID are being developed and commercialized, so the importance of IPv6 security, nextgeneration Internet address resources to become the groundwork of such all services, is coming to the fore, according to Song. The president said he believed that such next-generation Internet address resources as IPv6 address' security would serve as a catalyst for the growth of next-generation Internet-associated market and industry activation, to say nothing of solving concerns about IP address shortages. Song mentioned further that the development of mobile express service is under way. Mobile addresses (WINC) is a public service through which NIDA allows connection to wireless Internet contents through numbers instead of complex URL inputs in concert with SKT, KTF, and LGT to provide a user-friendly environment for wireless Internet users. He concluded that he expects the wireless Internet market will be more active in the years to come with increased convenience to wireless Internet users through mobile express service. Further details can be found at http://www.nic.or.kr/english/index.htm