IT Development in the 21^st Century and Its Implications

Abstract

This talk discusses general IT development in the 21^st century and its positive and negative effects. It also talks about Korea’s IT development and makes suggestions for Korea’s further advances in IT. The three keywords to describe the IT development in the 21^st century are digitalization, convergence, and ubiquitous revolution. This IT development has presented new opportunities for our society, corporations and individuals while posing a threat to us. That is, IT revolution may dramatically improve the quality of human life and allow amazing degree of comfort in our lives, but like a double-edged sword, IT may also be misused and have disastrous impacts on our daily lives, such as invasion of privacy, leakage and abuse of personal information, and hacking. In dealing with these problems, technological advances alone may not be sufficient. There is a need for innovative education regionally and worldwide to cultivate wisdom in U-citizens so that they can use the modern convenience of IT with strong ethics. We also need to establish new laws and societal systems appropriate for the ubiquitous era.