A Productive and Fruitful 2nd APIRA International Conference in Seoul, Korea

	In the Country/Regional report session, delegates from different countries/regions presented their survey methodologies and latest research achievements on Internet usage of their own countries/regions. Speakers from CNNIC described the latest Internet development and usage situation in Chinese mainland, by comparing and analyzing data of previous years. Mr. Cheong Weng Hin from Macao cross-analyzed relevant data of the Internet development in Macao from the year 2001 to the year 2004. TWNIC representatives also presented the latest Internet development trends in their local region. It is the very first year for MCMC to have conducted their survey on Internet usage. Representatives from MCMC introduced their survey methodology and questionnaires they adapted to the survey.
By means of questions and answers at the presentation, all participants shared information with others and benefited from learning experience from others in the field of Internet statistical survey. Beside the country/regional reports, representatives from MIC introduced Korean national information strategy “IT 839 Strategy” in the next decades on the conference. The aim of the strategy is to realize u-Korea (ubiquitous Korea) in the near future, ensuring the obtaining of information at anytime and anywhere in Korea. The current Internet development situation was also presented by representatives from NIDA. All of the participants were very impressive with the world-leading development of Broadband in Korea.
In the Theme Paper session, Japanese speakers described the latest development of E-commerce in Japan. Comparisons among Japan, Korea and China were also made in the filed of E-commerce by Japanese delegates. Besides, other issues were also covered on the meeting, such as Internet economy, measurements on the development of Internet and information society, Internet security, Internet host statistics and indicators of the behaviors of Internet users. At the end of the conference, representatives from NIDA gave a presentation about the comparison results based on the outcome of the 1st APIRA joint statistical survey in different countries/regions in AP region conducted at the end of year 2004. From the comparisons, basically, the Internet development situation was unbalanced among different countries/regions in AP region.
The rapid development of Internet has brought in significant changes to the world. But the phenomenon of “Digital Divide” exists almost everywhere, which is the description of a figurative gap between the unbalanced development and distribution of Internet. Meanwhile, there are also big differences between the methodologies of the statistical survey on Internet adopted by different organizations. The intention of the establishment of APIRA is that by the alliance of different Internet research organizations in Asia Pacific region, all APIRA members use unified and comparable statistical criteria for the survey on Internet development in respective country/region at the end of every year and the survey results are compared and analyzed so as to find out the root causes of the imbalance of the Internet development in those countries/regions, and as such, help them to take effective steps to close the gap of the “Digital Divide”, facilitate the improvement of the Internet development in Asia Pacific region, and finally make the Asia Pacific Internet industry one of the most influential and important one in the world. Still, APIRA is looking forward to seeing more organizations' joining.
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