IT Abroad:One Pager

IT Abroad : One Page Summary

Title IT Abroad : a discussion on IT/Public Policy issues of interest

Team Members Name, Location, Email, Country of interest

• Lars Bergstrom, UW, lars@cs.washington.edu User:Lars, China
• Walker Duhon, UW, wduhon@cs.washington.edu Walker, Japan
• Avichal Singh, UW, avichal@cs.washington.edu Avichal, India
• Can Pham, UCB, canpham@berkeley.edu User:Canpham, Vietnam
• Huong Bui, UCB, hbui@berkeley.edu User:Hbui, Vietnam
• Hyojoo Kang, UW, hkang@cs.washington.edu Hyojoo, South Korea
• Eiman Zolfaghari, Microsoft, eimanz@windows.microsoft.com EimanZ, Iran

Team Organization Each member would work fairly independently to cover their countries of interest. However they would collaborate via Wiki to gain an understanding and appreciation of issues in other countries, and offer any suggestions.

Sources: Listed below for each chapter

Description This project will be a compilation of chapters, each covering IT/Public Policy issues of concern for a country. Thus like the 'Chasing Moore's Law' book gives the readers an overview of contentious IT/Public Policy issues in US, our project would give the reader a perspective of various IT/Public Policy being dealt with in the world. The following are the current selection of topics planned to be covered for each country, however they may change a little or gain more focus as our research goes on for these countries.

China: Lars

Topic: IT Business in China
Description: China poses a unique set of challenges to US-based businesses due to its predisposition towards home-grown technologies, censorship of some topics and practices, and limitations on foreign investment. This chapter will survey the differences in environment and barriers to US investment in the Chinese marketplace.
Sources:

1. China as an emerging regional and technology power : implications for U.S. economic and security interests : hearing before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, One Hundred Eighth Congress, second session, February 12-13, 2004.
2. The China Game, Corporate Legal Times, October 2004, Vol. 14 Issue 155
3. Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/china/
4. More to come (using library sources only available through work)

India: Avichal

Title: ICT efforts for Societal Development
Description: With a large proportion of population below the poverty line, and advanced technological centers like bangalore, India presents an extreme contrast in digital divide. This chapter would examine the ICT efforts in India aimed at societal development (Rural development/Poverty reduction/Education etc.) It would attempt to examine, and hopefully propose remedial steps to counter, challenges faced by such ICT efforts (lack of coordination, lackadaisical involvement from the Private sector, miniscule impact of such programs to a complex problem etc.)
Sources:

1. IT landscape in India : focus, agriculture & rural development / A. Thaha, D. Vijayadharan
2. Information and communication technology in development : cases from India / edited by Subhash Bhatnagar, Robert Schware
3. And various online resources - World bank Global ICTUN ICT Task Force Digital Dividend Clearinghouse etc.

Iran: EimanZ

Topic:Iran's IT Sector
Description: After the Revolution of 1979, Iran has become a theocracy and has had no official relationship with the United States. As a result, Iran's IT industry had been slow to grow, given little access to the technological advancements in the United States, and given a poor economy. However, more recently there has been a surge of Internet access and use, and a seeming growth of demand for IT-related business. In this section, we will explore some main questions: what is the government's role in the growth of the IT industry? How does the government invest in academia and invest in research? How are companies in the IT sector doing these days, and what are their visions of the future? As we try to paint a general picture of the IT sector and its main players, government, academia, and industry, we hope to see the unique position that Iran is in, and how the future looks like for Iran.
Sources:

1. http://www.iranitreport.com
2. http://www.sanaray.com
3. Building Iran's Software Industry: An Assessment of Plans and Prospects Using the Software Export Success Model, BRIAN NICHOLSON & SUNDEEP SAHAY

Japan:Walker

Topic: Industrial Policy and IT in Japan
Description: In contrast to the U.S., Japanese policymakers have generally placed more importance on the manufacturing sector than post-industrial services. Japan's relative strenghs in areas such as robotics, embedded devices, and video games/toys and its relative weaknesses in areas such as desktop software and e-commerce reflect these differences. What are the institutional, economic, and cultural reasons for Japan's interesting IT industry profile? What do recent IT trends (emergence of mobile internet, embrace of open source) say about how this profile is changing? Finally, what policies are backing these changes?
Sources:

1. Coates, Ken and Holroyd, Carin. Japan and the Internet Revolution. (Palgrave,2003)
2. Hachigian, Nina and Wu, Lily. The Information Revolution in Asia. (RAND,2003)
3. Yoshimatsu, Hidetaka. Japan and East Asia in Transition (Palgrave, 2003)
4. Funk, Jeffrey L. Mobile disruption : the technologies and applications driving the mobile Internet (Wiley, 2004)
5. Morris Low, Shigeru Nakayama, Hitoshi Yoshioka. Science, technology and society in contemporary Japan (Cambridge University Press, 1999)
6. Various web sources, including the the English language sites of METI

South Korea: Hyojoo

Topic: IT Policy and the Rapid Development of the South Korean IT Infrastructure

Description: In the past four decades, South Korea has gone from abject poverty, classified at levels comparable to the poorer countries of Africa and Asia¹, to having the highest proportion of high speed internet connections in the world². We will analyze four factors that contributed to the rapid development of South Korean IT infrastructure: government IT policies, the IT industry landscape, socio-cultural and economic factors, and South Korea's IT relationship with foreign countries. Specifically, we will analyze the effects of the South Korean government's aggressive promotion of IT funds, plans, training programs and governmental projects^3,4. We will discuss the relationship of the government with IT industry and the conflicts between developing monopolies and competition^3,4. We will consider the cultural factors such as population density, the emphasis on education and rapid progress, the rise of internet cafes and computer games⁵. Finally, we will analyze how the development of South Korea's IT infrastructure has been both facilitated and impeded by import/export policies.

Sources:

1. CIA World Factbook (2004) (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ks.html)
2. The Economist, June 21, 2001. "Broadband blues" (http://www.economist.co.uk/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=666610&CFID=2420499&CFTOKEN=3647187)
3. Hyungbin Yun, Heejin Lee, and So-Hye Lim. (2002) "The Growth of Broadband Internet Connections in South Korea: Contributing Factors." Working paper. Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford Institute for International Studies (http://aparc.stanford.edu/publications/20032/)
4. Jeong, K. and King, J. 1997. “Korea’s national information infrastructure: Vision and issues.” In National Information Infrastructure Initiatives. Eds. B. Kahin and E. Wilson III. 112-149. The MIT Press.
5. Aizu, Izumi (2002) A Comparative Study of Broadband in Asia: Deployment and Policy. 3rd Draft (http://www.anr.org/web/html/output/2002/bbasia0929.pdf)

Vietnam: CanPham & Hbui

Topic: IT Policy in Vietnam

Description: Compared to the US or by any international norm, the standard of 'computerization' in Vietnam is low¹. Although the situation in Vietnam has improved, the gap with neighboring countries (i.e. Thailand and Singapore) has widened nonetheless. In order for Vietnam to close the gap, a new policy platform is much needed for Vietnam's IT development. The progressive IT policy of Vietnam unfortunately does not incorporate the current policies for industry; foreign trade; education and training; administrative reforms and the communications infrastructure². The growth and development of an IT industry in Vietnam is compromised because the impact of the knowledge society on Vietnam’s culture, values and institutions is being underestimated. Why is this so? What are important elements for the implementation of development policies that are needed in order to strengthen the Vietnam's IT industry? Also, why, unlike US, is intellectual property hardly enforced and why open source is fully embraced while MS will be eliminated altogther in Vietnam?

Sources:

1. "Vietnam-Canada Information Technology Project" (GAIA 2001)
2. "Electronic and Information Technology in Vietnam" (www.vacets.org)
3. "Vietnamese Free/Open Source News" (http://www.iosn.net/country/vietnam/)
4. and more to come.

Back to Main Project page