A final flowering of the developmental state: The IT policy experiment of the Korean Information Infrastructure, 1995–2005

In contrast to the private-led initiative typified by the U.S. Information Superhighway project in the early 90s, the Korean government was in the forefront of directing the Korean Information Infrastructure (KII) project (1995–2005), which was aimed at building a nationwide broadband backbone network. This study first looks at how the developmental mechanism of Korea during the KII project signifies the weaker status of the civilian government of the 90s. This study then shows how in the KII project, the government served primarily as a moderator mediating conflicts between the private sector and the relevant public agencies. To describe the close state–capital linkages in the KII project, this study focuses on the government's financial investment system for enticing the private sector to install the IT infrastructure, the neatly coordinated policy networks between the public and private entities, and the policy discourses by which the government achieved a national consensus on IT-driven economic development.     

Push them forward: Challenges in intergovernmental organizations' influence on rural broadband infrastructure expansion

Many rural US communities lack access to adequate broadband services. This paper draws on semi-structured interviews conducted in 2019 with 16 Regional Planning Commissions to uncover dynamics of how these intergovernmental organizations contribute to the deployment of broadband infrastructure in rural Missouri. The proposed framework integrates the decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the Theory of Reasoned Goal Pursuit, and Stakeholder Theory. Many participants reported a low level of involvement in broadband infrastructure initiatives even though supporting infrastructure development to promote economic growth is one of the Regional Planning Commissions' primary goals. Regional Planning Commissions are highly influenced by four primary stakeholder groups, (1) residents and businesses, (2) local governments, (3) internet service providers, and (4) state and federal government, which vary in terms of priorities and power. While defining the region's priorities with elected officials, Regional Planning Commissions often “push them forward” to recognize the necessity of broadband infrastructure. However, Regional Planning Commissions also struggle with low self-efficacy and inadequate expertise to support broadband planning efforts. The proposed framework could be generalized to understand actions and decisions by other intergovernmental organizations that have convening power and face similar power dynamics with their stakeholders.     

Rethinking localism in the broadband era: A participatory community development approach

This research presents findings from a case study of how three municipal access channels were transformed into channelAustin, a digital community access center in Austin, TX. More generally, it addresses the question of how states and municipal governments can employ video franchise resources to promote sustainable adoption and use of broadband services. Drawing on participatory approaches to community development, this paper offers a model of community participation in local information ecosystems to guide planning and evaluation of these interventions. Findings indicate that digital community media projects like channelAustin can help municipalities serve information needs of ethnically diverse local publics, while also promoting advanced digital skills, economic opportunities, civic engagement, and social cohesion. However, the article recommends that more attention be placed on community outreach, partnerships with nonprofits and other local public media, local curation of citizen-produced, digital content, and the consolidation of accessible online distribution channels through which residents can connect and deliberate about local issues. I discuss the implication of these findings for efforts to connect broadband and media localism policies in the U.S.     

Broadband Redux: 2013

As the first major federal intervention in improving high speed access to a resource increasingly identified as necessary to contemporary life, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) funds devoted to broadband represented a new chapter in building infrastructure in the country and in moving toward a next generation of network connectivity. Though intended to understand what the stimulus funding accomplished as part of this special issue, we realized that it would take several more years to complete the funded projects and to assess their impacts. This special issue explores aspects of the ARRA investments in broadband, and offers some comparisons with earlier assessments collected in special issues in Government Information Quarterly (GIQ, 2003; 2006).     

Exploring geographic disparities in broadband access and use in rural southern Illinois: Who's being left behind?

Recent literature about broadband telecommunications reveals two major areas that are not only globally gaining prominence, but are also demanding urgent attention from a research perspective. One of the key areas is related to the need to spatially evaluate the availability and deployment of broadband services, especially among urban versus rural communities. Another area of interest falls under the need for enabling broadband policies and strategies that address existing geographic disparities. These motivating factors shaped this research and provided a basis for defining three specific objectives, namely: (1) to identify locations with or without broadband access, (2) to identify underserved rural and inner-city markets, and (3) to determine whether university and community college towns can be used in the adoption and dispersion of broadband technologies in southern Illinois. Supply-side and demand-side data were collected and inputted into a Geographic Information System (GIS). Supply-side data included cable modem, digital subscriber lines (DSL), wireless, and fiber optic lines, while demand data included reported broadband requests from individuals without access (n = 439), students (n = 45,866), and higher education workforce (n = 5419). Using the GIS and statistical techniques, insightful maps of broadband infrastructure were created to illustrate areas of supply and demand so that governments and businesses can address existing gaps in consumer needs. Specifically, different levels of broadband access and use were mapped; different under-served rural and inner-city markets were identified so as to emphasize the dramatic economic impact on the business opportunities available to small business entrepreneurs. Also, different geographies of use and accessibility of broadband connectivity in the study region were synthesized to support decision-making. The resulting maps provided supply and demand marketing intelligence based on the geographic analyses of residential and enterprise sectors. These data can be used as a model to develop specific policy recommendations for a knowledge-based economy, specifically for the southern Illinois region or other rural communities in the United States.     

The FCC and Indecency: Local Television General Managers' Perceptions

A number of factors have been suggested to help explain the success of broadband in Korea. However, whatever factors are mentioned, just as many questions are raised as to why comparable roll out of high-speed Internet access has not occurred in other countries with similar characteristics. This paper argues that supply-side push and demand-side pull, a synergistic process, are combined to make broadband Internet access in Korea particularly strong. With a new type of supply of broadband capacity in the market, and an intensely competitive environment, prices dropped drastically and new killer applications were continuously created. This resulted in a supporting responsive surge in demand and sky-rocketing numbers of new subscribers. This is a very clear case of a positive spiral generated by the synergistic process of the market: success breeds success.     

Public broadband investment priorities in the United States: an analysis of the broadband technology opportunities program

In 2009, U.S. Congress approved $7.2 billion to accelerate the deployment of advanced broadband networks and services to unserved and underserved regions of the country. Although primarily a short-term response to the economic crisis, the appropriation also indicates a willingness to seek a new balance between private sector and public sector initiatives in the development of the nation's broadband infrastructure. This paper is a first step in assessing the potential impact of the new government initiatives. It discusses in detail one component of the overall program, the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). The rationales and objectives of BTOP and its initial implementation are explored. Based on information in the BTOP database, 265 awards were examined to document award types, target communities, applications, technology, and access speeds. Whereas it is too early to assess the initiatives' effects on employment and other important social and economic objectives, it is appropriate to consider whether the awards made under the BTOP program advance a national broadband development agenda. Overall, they appear to. However, the present analysis found that projects focusing on minority populations may have received less emphasis in the BTOP awards than that announced in the stated goals of the program.     

The evolution of the policy objectives of South Korea's Broadband Convergence Network from 2004 to 2007

The purpose of this study is to explore the South Korean government's policy objectives for the Broadband Convergence Network (BcN) between 2004 and 2007. The BcN is envisioned as conduit for broadband content and applications. This paper uses generativity as a conceptual framework to determine whether the objectives for the BcN, based on a content analysis of policy documents and interviews with experts, empowered the network to sustain a generative critical information infrastructure. This study is designed to be useful for executives in the private sector, officials in government and academics in university settings who are interested in drawing insights from Korean experience to inform their own work.     

Persistence of the middle mile problem for rural local exchange carriers

Cost of middle mile bandwidth is declining, but the bandwidth required to meet the needs of broadband subscribers is increasing. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has set a Broadband Availability Target of 4 Mbps downstream speed, but average speeds provided to customers in rural areas fall short of this target, indicating a need for more investment in bandwidth capacity. The cost of these upgrades will be substantial and may prove to be a barrier to providing greater speeds to subscribers. We also find that higher capacity and packet technology provide cost savings for the middle mile connections. Population density and geography alone do not explain differences in middle mile costs.     

Funding public computing centers: Balancing broadband availability and expected demand

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) recently announced by the Federal Communication Commission visualizes a significantly enhanced commitment to public computing centers (PCCs) as an element of the Commission's plans for promoting broadband availability. In parallel, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has channelized part of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) funding to PCCs. However, BTOP funding was the result of an unprecedented economic crisis, and is unlikely to be repeated. Future programs will need to evolve criteria for selecting projects for funding that maximize their cost-effectiveness. We argue in this paper that basing funding for PCCs on broadband availability (or non-availability), is not as cost-effective as considering a broader array of factors related to demand for internet access at public computer centers. We use data on public libraries from the National Center of Educational Statistics to identify factors predicting high demand for internet access at PCCs. Based on this analysis, we argue that low demand markets may benefit more from consumer outreach and digital literacy programs, than from infrastructure deployment. Also, we argue that markets with high availability, should receive more funding if there is high demand as well, as predicted by our model.     

Broadband for public libraries: Importance,issues, and research needs

U.S. public libraries provide free public internet services to the communities that they serve, but require robust, high-speed broadband internet connections to continue meeting public demands. The 2008–2009 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study (PLFTAS) illustrates challenges that public libraries encounter in achieving broadband connectivity and equipment upgrades, and maintaining acceptable levels of services as they meet continually increasing internet-enabled service demands. This article: 1) analyzes the ability of public libraries to serve as a community-based public internet access point in the context of limited funding and access to telecommunications services and equipment; 2) discusses key policy issues that affect the provision of public library internet-enabled services through broadband; 3) provides recommendations for policy makers to include libraries as part of a larger national-level telecommunications policy; and 4) identifies a number of topics and issues that need further investigation and research in this shifting policy environment.     

The wireless abyss: Deconstructing the U.S. National Broadband Map

The U.S. National Broadband Map (NBM) is arguably the most complex articulation and synthesis of telecommunications data ever generated by the federal government. Drawing upon information collected by fifty U.S. states, five territories and the District of Columbia, broadband provision is tabulated at the Census block level and made available to the general public in a variety of formats (e.g., maps, tabular databases, and geographic coverages). One major policy challenge associated with deepening our understanding of wireless broadband provision in the United States is developing a methodological process for accurately rearticulating NBM wireless data collected at the block level to more meaningful economic units (e.g., Census block groups or tracts). Without this ability, policy analysis and an objective evaluation of the goals set forth in the National Broadband Plan are compromised. The purpose of this paper is to outline such a methodology, while simultaneously highlighting several consistency checks for ensuring completeness and data aggregation integrity.     

Analysis of the urban/rural broadband divide in Canada: Using GIS in planning terrestrial wireless deployment

Millions of Canadians residing in Canada's northern, isolated, rural, and remote communities do not have broadband Internet access. This situation has led to a national “broadband divide.” That is, the deployment of wireline broadband is very limited in Canada's northern, isolated, rural, and remote areas because of the significant expense of installation and maintenance of the wired infrastructure needed to reach dwellings in these locations.Terrestrial broadband wireless technology, on the other hand, does not entail the same kind of physical infrastructure. As a result, there are dramatic changes in how spatial considerations affect the provision of broadband Internet services (BIS) to areas beyond the urban zone. In particular, the spatial question is now focused on assessing the capacity for different technological solutions to reach profitable population bases, and brings to the forefront organizations that are developing non-line-of-sight (NLOS) technologies that would permit wireless Internet access over much greater distances than current solutions.We begin this paper by establishing the importance of broadband connectivity to Canada's northern, isolated, rural, and remote communities. This discussion comments on the role of the Government of Canada in the provision of broadband connectivity to residents of these communities, and outlines the current regulatory issues that govern wireless services and policy formulation.The second part of the paper illustrates the use of geographic information system (GIS) approaches in the study of wireless broadband planning and deployment. Case study findings suggest that GIS applications can make a significant contribution to the analysis of wireless deployment planning, to the understanding of the relationships between wireless signal sources and consumers, and to the spatial configuration of terrestrial wireless broadband networks. We conclude the paper by discussing how the GIS approach employed could be used to inform the public policy process with regard to increasing access to broadband Internet services in all regions of the country, and thereby providing the opportunity for all Canadians, regardless of location, to fully participate in the Information Society.     

Technological change,civic engagement and policy legitimization: Perspectives from the rise of broadband Internet as an essential utility in Canada

This article investigates how the emergence of broadband Internet connectivity as an essential utility has influenced the development of public policies that aim to promote universal access to basic communications services in Canada. We utilize quantitative Natural Language Processing (NLP)/content analysis techniques to map the evolution of conceptual emphasis by stakeholders in their formal submissions to the telecom regulator along a series of public proceedings between 2009 and 2016. The analysis documents that the growing essentiality of broadband Internet access as an enabler of social and economic activities made its quality and affordability questions with broad economic and policy relevance that cross the traditional conceptualization of universal access in terms of the rural-urban digital divide. The case study offers a novel explanation for reliance on formal public consultation processes in administrative law in terms of policy innovation: Opening communication channels with the public can be valuable for enabling policymakers legitimize regulatory adjustments necessitated by technological change.     

Making IT work for municipalities: Building municipal wireless networks

The lack of widely available, affordable broadband Internet access has spurred a movement in which municipalities are rolling out wireless broadband networks. This movement has raised a number of questions including: Why are municipalities acting as the early adopters of wireless broadband technology? How does increased state regulation of municipal broadband networks affect this trend and how can cities respond? As cities use wireless broadband technology to enhance services to citizens, the growth of municipal wireless deployments has transitioned from linear to exponential. In response, many states have passed laws to regulate and restrict cities' ability to own, operate, deploy, or profit from either telecommunications or information services. Current and pending laws will be examined to understand how cities can deploy a wireless broadband network under these regulations. An analysis of municipal facilities and technology expertise illustrates the opportunity for public–private cooperation in wireless deployments. This paper will show that cooperation is beneficial in many cases. Finally, current business models will be examined for their ability to foster cooperation between the public and private sectors, bridge the digital divide, and create competition among private sector providers.     

The prospects for broadband deployment in rural America

A great deal of policy attention over the past two years has been directed at insuring that more communities within the country have access to high speed or “broadband” connections. The 1996 Telecommunications Act promises through its universal service provisions that telecommunications services will be roughly comparable across urban and rural areas, but the rapid development of new Internet-based services and the networks on which they depend illustrates huge discrepancies in broadband availability. This paper analyzes some of the programs and policies that claim to address this network divide, using existing data to comment on their efficacy. These analyses suggest that the prospects for near-term broadband services in rural region are dim, and that the existing policy approaches appear insufficient to achieve the goal of widespread rural deployment.     

Implementation of BTOP funding for public computing centers: Goal consensus and project performance

This paper seeks to perform an assessment of the current state of implementation of BTOP-funded public computing center projects based on insights from principal–agent theory. Using newly available data on BTOP-funded PCC projects and correlating them with socioeconomic and geographic data derived from the US census and the FCC, we seek to assess whether program funds were targeted at unserved/underserved areas as required by program objectives, as well as the progress towards completion of PCC projects by type of grantee and funding amount. On the distribution of funds, we find that the PCCs supported were located in areas of high broadband availability as well as high demand: while this is contrary to the BTOP's stated purpose, we argue that it is actually more cost-effective to also target areas of high demand. It was also found that whereas a majority of PCC grants went to governmental agencies, who also received larger grants than non-governmental recipients, they were no more likely to generate a significantly higher percentage of matching funds or to move toward project completion sooner. We speculate that the intense competition for grants might have narrowed the performance gap between these categories of applicants.     

A new benchmark for Internet use: A logistic modeling of factors influencing Internet use in Canada, 2005

Internet diffusion is not homogeneous and depends on many factors. This study uses data from the Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS) to explore the extent demographic variables affect Internet use by individuals in Canada. A logistic model confirms that certain factors, educational attainment, and geography in particular influence Internet use in Canada, controlling for age and income. Education maintains a strong, significant impact on Internet use such that the odds of using the Internet are about three times greater for someone who has some post-secondary education than someone who has, at most, a high school education. An urban–rural digital divide persists in Canada with the odds of using the Internet being almost one-and-a-half times greater for someone who lives in an urban area. While language also has a large effect on Internet use, the presence of children in households no longer seems to be a significant factor. This study thus underscores the changing digital environment in Canada and the need for adaptive, flexible policies addressing national connectivity issues and, in particular, broadband Internet availability.     

A critique of Korean National Information Strategy: Case of national information infrastructures

In 2004, the Korean government launched the IT839 project with the objective of converting Korea into a ubiquitous information society. This study investigates the role of the Korean government in the development of the national information infrastructure and the realization of IT839 vision. This paper reviews the historic and individual data related to the infrastructure project, draws on the social construction of technology theory as a framework for interpreting such data, traces the transformations and translation of this data in the public, political, and social discourse, and discusses the next generation of information infrastructure. Findings imply that despite optimistic prospects and proactive drive, uncertainty still remains with respect to where IT839 will evolve and how it will impact the new information milieu.     

基于非负矩阵分解的技术主题演化分析

[目的/意义]分析技术主题演化过程可以梳理技术发展脉络,对于发展创新、预测技术发展趋势具有重要意义,但是从语义角度分析技术主题演化轨迹的研究较少。因此,从语义的角度出发,分析技术主题演化过程。[方法/过程]提出基于非负矩阵分解的改进的动态非负矩阵分解模型对专利文本进行动态主题建模,并利用TextRank算法抽取名词短语进行标注,增强所抽取技术主题的可解释性。在此基础上,利用词向量的方式计算技术演化轨迹,并进行可视化展示。[结果/结论]对2002年、2005年、2008年、2011年和2014年的五方专利进行实证分析,识别出65个技术主题及其演化轨迹,表明方法的可行性。