The stated purpose of the book is to educate citizens, leaders in business and government on what a real information society can be in Korea. This is quite useful to non- Koreans, due to the insular nature of the peninsula. Yoon Jae-hong, Senior Vice President of Korea Telecom, had this to say about the book. "Having been involved with the planning and implementation of the Broadband and Telecoms revolution in Korea and internationally on Telecoms missions since, I am really impressed how Tomi and Jim have captured the essence and achievements of the Korea Digital journey from a range of cyber citizen, venture, corporate and Government perspectives. This book really helps the reader understand what makes a winning Digital ecosystem within a Global context."
The first chapter starts out without pulling any punches. It unequivocally states that the future, which some countries only write movies and dream about, already exists in South Korea. The chapter includes plenty of statistics to back up its claims, and practical examples to show how the future will affect the lives of the rest of the world, once it spreads from Korea.
The second chapter talks about the digital youth, and refers to them as Generation C, in the term coined by the book Communities Dominate Brands (Ahonen & Moore, 2005). The large impact of SMS messaging and the phenomenon of having all of a child's friends instantly accessible in their pocket is discussed. Chapter two also speaks of the impact of social networking sites, and focuses on the Korean phenomenon Cyworld.
The book also focuses on the phenomenon of online gaming in persistent virtual worlds, and has a case study focus of the Korean game Lineage II.
Other topics of the volume include the intelligent home, or ubiquitous technology as it is referred to by leaders in the Korean technological revolution. Portable television, online shopping, electronic government, automobile telematics, consumer robotics, and digital convergence are each covered in separate chapters. Care and attention is paid not to the technical details of the technology but in the million different and subtle ways that they affect the lives of those that use them. Each chapter includes a detailed case study of one prominent example of the technology discussed in the chapter.
All in all, the book is an excellent summary of what has been going on for the past few years in Korea. This book is also a convenient summary of the reason that this reporter has been in the peninsula for so long. The book comes highly recommended for anyone who wants to find out detailed information of the digital revolution coming from the isolated Korean peninsula.
The hardcover book is 284 pages and has been available at all major booksellers, Amazon.com, and directly from the publisher since July 2007. The ISBN is 978-0- 9556069-0-8.
