Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam]
----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "The Digital Divide Network discussion group" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2005 2:08 AM
Subject: Re: [DDN] 70% of Koreans Use Internet (fwd)
We have personal experience with Korean internet use. Koreans use internet cafes, rather than home computers. Seoul, which has 11 million residents, has over 10,000 internet cafes. These internet cafes have high speed bandwidth and excellent machines. Internet-based gaming is very popular, and the players demand the best in speed and equipment.
My son is/was a famous professional internet gamer, and spent a year and a half in Korea (for anybody who is into gaming, he was 'Maynard' and 'KGOR'). In Korea, internet gaming is covered nationally like soccer or football, i.e., as a sport. My son used to appear on Korean TV regularly, and get lots of emails with beautiful school photos of Korean fans, who are so polite in their email.
I think that the skills learned by young Koreans in gaming will translate into dominance in all aspects of computing, and at this point, the best gamers in the world are Koreans. When my son was a dominant player, Americans were the best, along with Brittish, Canadian, and even Australian players, reflecting the history of the creation of the web and video gaming. Not so anymore, and I think this is a harbinger of our future in computing and cyberspace.
In Argentina, many more people have home or business computers to use for email and internet. But the charges for using dial-up access are outrageous, so it is common for people to limit their use at home or work. High speed broadband is now available in Buenos Aires, and BA has thousands of 'locuturios' or internet/phone cafes. They are incredibly cheap, albeit tiny, and a new one seems to spring up on every block. They advertise their bandwidth, and charge more for higher bandwidth. But it is cheap--about 33 to 50 cents (US) an hour. I take my own computer and just plug in to their network, because the equipment is not so hot. Notebook computers cost a fortune in Argentina, so I get admirers! The equipment varies from old and slow to usable: a Pentium II with 256K ram is about average. Computers are expensive in Argentina.
In Mexico, internet cafes often use dial up access! Often the equipment is as old as the hills. Some, however, have broadband if they are located in the cities. Sometimes the internet is an add-on to a long distance telephone location: send faxes, take and make phone calls, buy cigarettes, candy, drinks, and manifiestos, etc., all in the same tiny store. The best one for use I have come across was run by an Argeninian living in Mexico who also served coffee, drinks, and snacks. Yes, you can use the computer and drink your coffee at the same time. But I have never seen good fast equipment.
Kathleen Muro
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