The ‘Forum on ICT Industrial Policy Direction’ was held by the ICT Industry Committee on September 25th at Press Center in Seoul. ICT experts from academic and industrial sectors gathered to discuss what direction the next government should move towards in order to boost the ICT industry, which is said to be neglected in the absence of the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) within the current government.
The forum started with a presentation by Hak-soo Kim, Professor at the College of Communication at Sogang University under the topic of “Where should ICT go?” During this presentation he emphasized the collective problem solving in the digital era. “The power of the collective public is greater than aggregate and issue public. Aggregate public refers to simply gathered individuals without a specific purpose and issue, while public is those who gather to choose one or the other such as during elections, which naturally leads sides to be divisive. However, the collective public is people who gather for collective problems. They can become united by common issues, say, weather, financial crisis or Olympics. Although there is no single body to govern, they can be integrated and also gain trust, justice and solidarity in the process of solving problems together. In this digital age where group consciousness has been removed and individual voices are raised more often, it is time to ponder how to develop new community spirit through collective problem solving.”