The Avengers was a Hollywood blockbuster that ranks 3rdin box office grosses with USD 1.5 billion ticket sales worldwide, after Avatar and Titanic. A posting on the internet which said Avengers: Age of Ultron (hereafter ‘Avengers 2’), the sequel to Avengers will be filmed in Korea attracted the attention of Korean web surfers.
Diehard fans of the movie were excited by the details of the story, that not only will the sequel will be filmed in Seoul but the highlight of whole movie, a large-scale action scene will be filmed in Songdo New Town, Incheon. Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow played by Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Scarlett Johansson, respectively, will join the filming.
In the Avengers, Nick Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D, the international peacekeeping organization, (played by Samuel L. Jackson) searched for the super heroes in different corners of the world to join Operation Avengers and found the beloved heroes, such as Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, etc., to fight the enemy and save the world. If the filming of Avengers 2 really takes place in Korea, we may actually be able to meet a whole bunch of super heroes in Korea.
In 2014, the super heroes of ICT will gather in Busan for the 2014 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-14). Ministers from 193 nations worldwide and some 3,000 foreign visitors will come to Korea The nation is making thorough efforts to prepare for the big event, where we will be able to not only introduce our advanced IT technologies, but also secure a foothold for our companies to expand to overseas.
The PP-14 is one of the largest diplomatic events in the area of IT, and hosting the event is especially important to Korea as it is a great chance for the country to emerge as the center of ICT diplomacy.In 2014, the super heroes of ICT will gather in Busan for the 2014 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-14). Ministers from 193 nations worldwide and some 3,000 foreign visitors will come to Korea The nation is making thorough efforts to prepare for the big event, where we will be able to not only introduce our advanced IT technologies, but also secure a foothold for our companies to expand to overseas.
Taking the lead at this PP-14 as the host, will give Korea the chance to show off its world’s first technologies it has developed in hopes they will become the global standard. While almost everything in the world, including economy, society and so on, is becoming more and more dependent on the internet, having an upper hand in creation of order in the cyber world, standards of a variety of IT technologies, and rules on the distribution thereof will allow Korea to secure a pivotal position in the global IT market. Thus, naturally, many people are keen to know what items will be suggested and discussed in the coming PP-14.
Some items on the agenda for PP-14 include; the participation of women to ICT and strengthening access for the disabled; establishment of a standard and regulation to respond to the e-waste and eco-friendliness issues; the protection of children in cyber space; and the establishment of strategies and financial plans for the next four years. Other issues include; the establishment of policy direction in the area of global IT, the management of international radio frequencies and satellite orbits, international standardization, etc. All of the aforementioned items and issues are significantly influential to a nation’s ICT industry, and will be decided at the Plenipotentiary Conference.
One of the items that is gathering special attention at PP-14 is internet governance. Since the WCIT held in Dubai in December 2012, this issue had become a subject of disagreement by nations in the area of ICT. In May last year, ITU held the World Telecommunication/ICT Policy Forum in Geneva to discuss the issue of internet-related public policy in depth, and the major suggestions the Forum was able to draw out allowed the establishment of an effective internet governance model.
Regarding the reliability of ICT and ensuring the security thereof, the developing nations are claiming that ITU must have a stronger role in building a well-balanced internet environment, but the advanced nations are suggesting limiting the authority and role of ITU. As the importance of information security is emphasized more than ever, the issues of internet governance, reliability of ICT and cyber security are to be discussed in greater detail.
The internet-related public policy is another item expected to be hotly debated. The advancement of internet technologies has increased the influence of internet and the formation of social structure and order in the areas of politics, economy, society, culture, etc. as well as in a variety of issues in a wide range of areas, such as internet-related public policy, management and regulation, are subsequently being suggested. Also, developing nations are demanding ITU to convert the internet address resource to the new internet address system of IPv6, because the North Americas have preempted the limited internet address resource (IPv4). ITU adopted a resolution that promotes the conversion of the IP address system, and it is expected that the applicable statistics, analysis and trend of conversion regarding the conversion from IPv4 to IPv6 will be reported at the PP-14.
The issues concerning children, women, and the disabled are also worth paying attention to at PP-14.
The Plenipotentiary Conference is expected to discuss the roles and actions of ITU regarding the protection of children on-line to protect them from violent and adult contents from the internet. Most of the member countries are aware and supportive of the importance and necessity of this issue, but since there are objections to the suggestions that may create another problem of censorship in the course of implementing such suggestions, it will be interesting to see what kind of result the discussion will produce.
Regarding the ICT and women issues, it had been resolved that more activities will be conducted to improve the social and economic environments for the women everywhere in the world by promoting gender equality through ICT, and the discussion on gender equality will continue with regard to the activities and all programs of ITU, such as establishment of gender equality TF, Girls in ICT Day, Tech Needs Girls International Campaign, etc.
A resolution on cooperating with external institutions and groups was also adopted with regard to the comprehensive execution plan for the enlargement of access to ICT for the disabled.
ITU is expected to engage in the social integration activities to enhance the accessibility for the socially weak that needs the ICT technology more dearly than anyone else.
The PP-14 is also expected to discuss the role of ICT with regard to the protection of environment and dealing with climate change to seek for a solution by which ICT can contribute to its prevention, and to develop items covering a wide range of issues, such as basic means of transmission for a smooth electric telecommunication, harmonization of international electric telecommunication protocols related to the charging, billing and settlement, space resource registration system, and adequacy and mutual compatibility to bring a solution to the difficulties caused by the oversupply of products that do not comply with standards and suffered by developing nations, to decide the major priorities and plans of ITU for the years to come and the directions for future ICT policies. Such efforts made at the PP-14 will create an information society based on global ICT, a world where everyone enjoys the benefit of internet and a world everyone can actively participate in the digital economy.
Especially for the current administration of Korea, the PP-14, the largest festival in the area of IT, is expected to work as a catalyst for the Creative Economy initiative led by the current administration, and accordingly, the current administration is saving no effort to make it a success. For the new items to which Korea is to take initiative, a team made up of scholars and experts from related institutions is researching the global ICT items which Korea can excel at and develop further, through the working-level groups per item and committees to advise on these items. At the PP-14, Korea is expected to lead the items related to convergence, Internet of Things, and the protection of major information platforms.
The convergence between ICT and other industries has gained the attention of many people as the most prominent future growth engine for the development of the economy, and the importance of ICT technology is growing larger than ever as the core technology for the convergence. However, while the convergence between ICT and other areas, such as medical services and education, is widely materialized in the field, the convergence discussed by ITU is limited to the areas of electric telecommunication and ICT. Naturally, there is an overwhelming opinion that the scope of ITU’s discussion must be expanded to the convergence between ICT and other industries also that the expertise and capacity of ITU must be made stronger. Since a continued, comprehensive discussion on the issues subsequent to the convergence between ICT and other industries, such as tuning the policies created as a result of such convergence and building technical standards, is needed, Korea is expected to keep leading the item related to the convergence at this PP-14.
Another area receiving attention is the Internet of Things (IOT) that has a concept of all things surrounding you being connected through the internet and exchanging information.
IOT is a core platform of future mobile and broadband network, expected to have a growing social and economic use in the areas of public administration, disaster recovery and safety. So far there is only a positive outlook on IOT, not any clear definition on the market segmentation, current standing, scale, technical issues, etc. Since nations need to have a discussion at the ITU level to coordinate the related policies of and to resolve the disparities between the nations, Korea is preparing to lead an item regard the IOT.
Korea is also to suggest an item on the protection of major information platforms, since the importance of major IT infrastructure is amounting as more important core functions of a nation (broadcasting, telecommunication, internet, transportation, finance, energy, etc.) are being operated by the IT technology.
The need for international cooperation for the protection of major IT infrastructure has grown as nations are now connected by, not only wired and wireless networks, but also by the internet itself, and ITU started to recognize information security as an issue for the global community, not just a domestic issue of a nation. As the opinion that the protection of major IT infrastructure must be dealt by the global frame grew, an item related to the establishment of international cooperation system led by the ITU that will designate, protect, and restore major IT infrastructure upon the request of member nation will be discussed.
The fact that Korea is taking such an active role on the various areas of ICT is a sign that the country’s ICT industry has taken on an important role in the global arena.
Such a sign becomes clearer when considering the fact that the nation is in top ranks of global ICT with its world class IT infrastructure envied by the whole world. However, despite such a remarkable success and advancement, Korea is said to be facing a new challenge caused by the changes of environment in the global ICT market.
Some of the international ICT indices announced by the private sector showed Korea stalling. Some experts in and outside of Korea have advised that the nation must step up from its dependency on network and hardware and grow competitiveness in the software and contents to make the future of its ICT industry remain optimistic.
In such a critical time, the 2014 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference to be held in Busan will work as a lubricant for Korea to become a super hero of ICT and leader of global ICT. Korea will have to demonstrate as much ICT capacity at the PP-14 as possible, and its people must take pride in the achievement of their nation place in the field of ICT and work together to create an opportunity to celebrate such achievement.
