2003, Vol.10, No.3

Informatization Policy 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 4.08

pISSN : 1598-3498
https://journal.kci.go.kr/nia

While information technology has changed Korean society rapidly and widely, there are rarely studied but very important questions to be addressed concerning information technology: For what direction should information technology be developed? How can the development of information technology be intervened in? The objectives of the study is to analyze how social factors have influenced the development of information technology. Based on the methodology of social constructivism of technology, this study examines the case of "Recommendation guidelines to improve accessibility by the handicapped and the elderly to the IT services/IT products". This case study investigates why institutionalization of information accessibility in Korea does not improve the information accessibility even though the institutions in Korea look as valid as those in advanced countries. The findings of this study are as follows. The social groups related the guidelines were government, people with disabilities, the elderly, IT corporations. According to their interests in information accessibility, they took a negative or positive attitude towards legal effectiveness of the guidelines. In spite of disagreement of people with disabilities, the guidelines that lack legal effectiveness was promulgated in January, 2002. But people with disabilities did not take an action against that and the promulgation of guidelines played the role of closure mechanism. It should be noted that such action of the relevant social groups are limited by relations of interests and social structure, such as the government-oriented institutionalization, IT and welfare policy, the dependence of people with disabilities on government, general awareness on people with disabilities.

Along with the expansion of the computer-mediated communication, it is expected that the influence of gender, race in online communication will decrease. The computer-mediated messages are separated from gender and race of the writer. But, it is also proposed that social characteristics of individuals are strengthened rather than weakened in online communication. In this paper, I tried to examine whether gender identity in online communication is important or not. Online sexual harassment is used as a type of online communication. Women and men with the experience of online sexual harassment are asked to participated in focus group interviews. The interview materials were used as data. The results of the study are as follows. Despite the optimism of gender-neutral online communication, gender plays an important role. Both men and women feel that they are strongly influenced by the gender identity when they write and express in online communication. Even the case of a woman with a transsexual experience indicates that the role of gender is strengtened. In conclusion, the results show that the role of gender identity in online communication is important.

This paper sets out the economic case for the effectiveness of open, collaborative research, and the forces behind the recent, countervailing rush to strengthen and expand the scope of intellectual property rights protection. Focusing upon innovations in copyright law and the sui generis protection of hitherto unprotected content, we analyse the economic implication of new intellectual property rights regime.