The digital divide: "The not so World-Wide Web"

Interesting but powerful chart published by Statista based on ITU data. (click on the graphic to see a full size version)

The rise of digital media: Smartphones kill subway ads

The first picture to the left (click the image for a full size version) accompanied an article in The Korea Times entitled "Smartphones kill subway ads." According to the article, "Technological advances have changed many things from how people spend their time to where their attention wanders. This trend has pushed advertisers to move away from traditional forms of media toward digital forms. As a result, subway operators are increasingly struggling to sell ad space, which is one of their big revenue sources. According to Seoul Metro, the operator of lines 1 to 4, its ad revenue has dropped to 35 billion won ($31 million) last year from 42 billion won in 2012. It said only 36 percent of available ad space has been filled this year, down from 41.8 percent in 2014."

A more typical subway scene is shown in the second picture at left, published by the New York Times with an accompanying article in 2015.  The steady rise in use of digital rather than traditional media continues apace, and nowhere more rapidly than here in South Korea with its fast mobile broadband networks.

"Educating the world in Songdo" interview by the Korea IT Times

Earlier this summer I was interviewed at length by a writer for the Korea IT Times.  The interview took place in my office here at SUNY Korea, as pictured to the left (click to see a full-size version of the photo).   Read the full interview here.

The brief disappearance of this blog --a cautionary tale of the digital era

A couple of days ago this blog disappeared from the Internet for the better part of a day.   Here's why.
In early July I started receiving notices from Google Apps warning me that the domain registration for koreainformationsociety.com would expire at the end of the month if I didn't update my payment method.  What ensued over the weeks of July was a seemingly endless exchange of e-mail messages with a tech support person at Google, who--despite all his efforts--could not provide instructions that actually worked, allowing me to log in to the admin console for the koreainformationsociety.com domain.   Probably not surprising since I registered the domain nearly a decade ago when I started this Blogger blog.  At that time, so I am told, Google automatically set up an admin console and login.
At any rate, to continue the story, I have multiple Google accounts, including one's through Stony Brook University, the Stanford Alumni Association and a Google Apps for Work account of my own.  This did not make it easier to decipher the e-mail tech advice.
The solution, finally, came when I called and spoke to a tech representative at Godaddy who asked if I'd completed Google's online form to solve admin login problems with Google Apps for Work accounts.  This was the first I'd heard of this, but I proceeded to fill out and submit the form.   About 30 minutes after doing so I received a phone call from a Google tech representative who quite efficiently walked me through the process of updating my domain renewal payment arrangements.  It took the better part of an hour, after I shared my screens with him, but I now understand the whole process, including why the first tech support person had been unable to help.
Welcome to the hyper connected digital era!  I'm glad to have the blog domain reserved for another year.