情報隔差解消政策의 執行要因에 관한 硏究 = (A)study on factors of policy implementation to bridge the digital divide in Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<Objectives of the study>

The Digital Divide has become a pivotal policy phenomenon that resulted from countries' move into information society. The agenda has, thus, mandated many countries to make efforts from multiple aspects of policy tasks aimed not only at increasing citizen's or their ability to access information but also at enabling them to become more productive and effective information users. To this end, it has become vital for countries to have an effective set of IT policies designed not only to narrow the digital divide but also to turn the divide into information opportunities. So far, countries have implemented a variety of policy tools for reducing the digital divide, while attempting to resolve the agenda through various approaches.

It started out with efforts to secure universal access to information, and such efforts were stretched out to the next level of policy efforts designed to allow each citizen to be better capable of using information. In terms of Korea, the policy efforts that have been made to narrow the digital divide summed up as two phases: The first was the nationwide deployment of backbone network under the 1995 policy of the deploying the national information infrastructure. The second was the nationwide diffusion of subscribers' access network, driven by market competition among private telecom carriers. Lately, such policy efforts for reducing the divide have been brought out to the level of policy designed to allow citizen to be more effectively capable of utilizing and using IT media, thanks to a host of the state-funded information education programs. The study is going to take an approach from the point of policy implementation as it explains the process of changes in policies that have been executed to reduce the digital divide.

Against this backdrop, the study is going to classify the country's digital divide policies as several stages depending on their content of these policies. Also, it defines a set of factors that have impacted execution process of each stage. The study has the objectives as follows:

First, the country's policies for reducing the digital divide are classified as three stages. These policies have been implemented over a long period of time and with its comprehensive coverage, as they started with policy of nationwide deployment of national information infrastructure and stretched out into the policy of educating the grass roots with information programs. There were changes in nature of these policies and their policy content while they underwent the process of their execution. Therefore, the actually-implemented policies for reducing the digital divide can be divided into a group of policies designed to reduce the access divide, and another group of policies to reduce the utilization divide. These policies are classified as three stages depending on their policy content to conduct an analysis for each stage: First stage of 'nationwide deployment of national information infrastructure network (deployment stage)', second stage of 'diffusing subscribers' access network (penetration stage)', and third stage of 'nationwide information education for grassroots people (education stage)'.

Second, it is to define factors of executing these policies for reducing the digital divide. It is to explore a set of factors that have been taken into consideration in the process of executing these policies. In another words, it is to analyze what are the different set of factors that have most impacted each of these stages of deployment, penetration and education.

Third, it is to analyze a list of priority factors to sort out among these different set of factors in executing these policies. This is to study which factors have precedence over other factors for the execution of these policies when these factors are taken into consideration for each of these stages. Also, it is to study whether there is a difference of awareness about ranking such a priority among factors present between a group of government officials directly involved with the policy execution and another group of experts indirectly involved with it.

Fourth, the outcome of this study will be the basis of drawing out some implications necessary to design a new policy tools and execution for reducing the digital divide.

<The Study method>

Scope of the study

The subjects of the study are two-fold: One is the 'policy of deploying the national information infrastructure network' related to policy for reducing the access divide, and the other is the 'information education policy for people' related to policy for reducing the utilization divide.

The time scope of the study is from 1995 to 2004, and divide this period into three stages, as the country kicked off in 1995 the 'policy of deploying the national information infrastructure network'. First stage of 1995 to 1997 was the deployment period when the government constructed the state-funded nationwide backbone network connecting major cities with optical cables for the purpose of the nationwide penetration of information and thereby reduce the digital divide. Second stage of 1998 to 2000 was the penetration period when home subscribers were connected with broadband access network through the national backbone network. Third stage of 2000 to 2004 was the education period when the focus of policy execution was shifted to enhance the individual abilities for the effective utilization of information.
The geographical scope of the study is limited to the policies that have been executed in Korea for reducing the digital divide. Therefore this study exclude other policies that have been executed by Korean government or Korean institutions abroad.

The methodology

This study was carried out in the method as follows:
First, it layed out theoretical framework, defined factors regarding policy execution, divided stages of policies for reducing the digital divide, and carried out an in-depth analysis. References include such literature as papers and reports about the digital divide that have been written in Korea and overseas, long-to short-term plans and their detailed implementation plan from the government ministries including the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), which is the principal ministry in charge of solving the digital divide, new year messages, year-start press conference, speech context, etc., involving the digital divide from the president of Korea and the minister of MIC. Also it studied minutes of meetings or public hearings that were held to coordinate diverse opinions in the process of making policy decisions and executing policies.

Second, brainstorming with experts was used to analyze factors that have impacted the execution of policies for reducing the digital divide. The government officials and experts who have at leat five years or more of experiences of working for the policy agenda were selected to designate a sample group that consists of 25 such government officials who have directly participated in the execution of the related policies, and 25 experts that have worked as advisors or carried out the related research projects. These pollees were asked over two surveys to rank priorities of factors that have impacted each stage of the deployment, penetration and education, and they were also asked to suggest their opinions on the future planning of policies for dealing with the agenda. So that it can study the priority of factors, forecast the future trend of information for the next decade, and suggest the desirable future policy direction for reducing the digital divide.

Third, individual interviews were conducted with key officials and experts in charge of policies regarding the digital divide. Brainstorming was made with different groups of government officials and advising experts who participated in each stage of the policy execution. Depending on the outcome of such a brainstorm, it defined a set of priority factors that impacted the execution of these policies, and conducted an in-depth interview with these key officials and experts about these priority factors.

Fourth, the author's field experience obtained when the author played a role in establishing and coordinating related IT policies for a long time was also instrumental in carrying out the study as a method of observing participation.

<Conclusion>

The study is meaningful that it suggested the future direction and strategies of policies for reducing the digital divide, as it took a look back and examined process of how the policies have been executed over different stages of timetables. Also, it is meaningful that it has come up with some suggestions on which factors must have precedence over others in managing factors of policy execution when these policies are carried out. So that it can serve as a benchmark guides to design future planning of policy tools that can be successfully executed.

Implications from theoretical points of view

It studied factors that impacted execution of policies for each stage of carrying out policies for reducing the digital divide. It defined priority factors by brainstorming experts. Based on these priority factors, it conducted empirical analysis through history review and experts interviews. As a result of this study, it has come up with some of the following theoretical implications.

First, the method of approaching the theme with different timetable as a key variable provides a very useful framework of analysis in studying the factors that impact execution of policies for reducing the digital divide. The studies uses both the top-to-bottom method of approach and the bottom-to-top method of approach as major variables for analysis so that it can contribute to theoretical development of policy execution. The top-to-bottom approach usually suggest such variables as leadership or financial sources, while the bottom-to-top approach suggest the execution structure.

Second, the study provides a logical ground for evaluating e-government and informatization level of Korea by international institutions. Korea is one of the top information societies, according to reports by international organizations and various institutions. The country's successful implementation of its policies to deploy the nationwide backbone infrastructure and to build rapid penetration of access network has turned out to be a twin contributor to Korea's rise to be the world's top information society in terms of the global information index.

Third, it can find out an answer to a question on whether to grant bureaucratic discretionary authorities. The study is meaningful in that it has overcome a limitation that either top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top approach could otherwise have posed, as it takes both approaches. It shows some elements of forces beyond control that exist as a result of characteristics of a public organization; for instance, there sometimes arises a limitation on the discretionary power by an public entity when the importance of execution organization and execution structure is stressed. A follow-up research is therefore regarded as necessary on the model of execution for the effective implementation of policies for reducing the digital divide.

Fourth, it took a whole timetable-based approach, as it made a comprehensive analysis of policies that have been executed over the different periods of times for the past ten years when the country's information policies, e.g. deploying backbone network infrastructure, powered its rise from a mid-tier group to an advanced club of information society .

Fifth, the study verified that, even if the policies executed may look like the same set of policies from the theoretical point of view, the relative priority of importance of these policies has continued to change and evolve depending on their timing of execution, objectives of policies, their central focus, and their policy natures. Previous studies on the execution policies usually are limited to analysis on elements about each individual case. But this study confirmed by placing its research on the historic point view that there are changes of factors impacting execution of policies, and thereby confirming that the execution policies are in fact dynamic and its execution factors also continue to evolve.

Suggestions from practical points of view

The study could draw out several points of suggestions as follows, as it analyzed factors regarding execution of policies for reducing the digital divide.

First, when these policies are carried out, it is necessary to have an effective supervision of execution factors from the practical point of view so that they can fit into their characteristics, timetables and objectives of these policies that vary depending on their stages. For instance, at the deployment and penetration stages, the importance of financial resources was emphasized among factors of execution infrastructure, and leadership was stressed among factors of execution strategies. This study can be used as a good case for related policy practitioners who implement policies for reducing the digital divide to show the way on which factors must be checked out and which factors must be carried out.

Second, the study found out that each stage has a different set of priority factors among the policies to be executed. What matters about such changes is that the importance of leadership is stressed at the initial stage of executing policies for reducing the digital divide as its implementation structure is not yet in place. But as policies executions progress and settle down over a significant period of time, the systematic implementation is beginning to replace the leadership as the factor of primary importance to a certain extent.

Limitations of the study

Despite the study's significance in suggesting the policy direction, the study has certain limitations. It conducted only two repeated surveys for brainstorming from its aspect of method. It depended on recall survey by interviewees, rather than actual data collection that failed because some data were already scrapped except official documents like minutes, policy reports, etc., produced at the deployment stage. Such a recall survey sometimes resulted in difference of opinions among those who executed the policies or sometimes it was impossible to collect informations.

Also, there was another limitation to this study when empirical cases were analysed, because it focused only on selected set of key factors. Also, researchers must take into consideration the pace of changes in information technology increasingly gathering a momentum. The concept about the digital divide is getting broader. Given these facts, it is critical to have follow-up studies in order to suggest future policies for reducing the digital divide.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 제1장 서론 = 1
• 제1절 연구목적 = 1
• 제2절 연구범위와 방법 = 6
• 제3절 연구동향 = 12
• 제2장 이론적&#8901;제도적 배경과 분석의 틀 = 20
• 제1절 정보격차의 이론적 논의 = 20
• 1. 정보화의 진행과 정보격차 = 20
• 2. 정보격차의 관점 = 28
• 3. 정보격차의 종류 = 36
• 제2절 정보격차해소정책 = 40
• 1. 정보격차해소정책의 의의 = 40
• 2. 정보격차해소정책의 전개 = 41
• 3. 정보격차해소정책의 대상과 특징 = 59
• 제3절 정책집행 관련 이론적 논의 = 67
• 1. 기존 연구의 검토 = 67
• 2. 정책집행의 접근방법 = 70
• 3. 정책집행요인 = 78
• 제4절 분석의 틀 = 86
• 1. 분석의 틀 구성 = 86
• 2. 변수의 정의 = 91
• 제3장 초고속기간망 구축단계의 정책집행요인 분석 = 98
• 제1절 정책환경요인 = 99
• 1. 정보기술환경 = 100
• 2. 사회경제환경 = 101
• 3. 국제정보화환경 = 105
• 제2절 집행전략요인 = 108
• 1. 조직화 = 109
• 2. 서비스 전달 = 114
• 제3절 집행기반요인 = 118
• 1. 제도 = 118
• 2. 자원 = 121
• 제4절 소결론 = 124
• 1. 초고속기간망 구축단계의 주요 정책집행요인 = 124
• 2. 공무원집단과 전문가집단간 인식 차이 = 125
• 제4장 초고속가입자망 확충단계의 정책집행요인 분석 = 130
• 제1절 정책환경요인 = 130
• 1. 정보기술환경 = 132
• 2. 사회경제환경 = 134
• 3. 국제정보화환경 = 135
• 제2절 집행전략요인 = 136
• 1. 조직화 = 136
• 2. 서비스 전달 = 141
• 제3절 집행기반요인 = 146
• 1. 제도 = 147
• 2. 자원 = 151
• 제4절 소결론 = 155
• 1. 초고속가입자망 확충단계의 주요 정책집행요인 = 155
• 2. 공무원집단과 전문가집단간 인식 차이 = 157
• 제5장 국민정보화교육단계의 정책집행요인 분석 = 161
• 제1절 정책환경요인 = 161
• 1. 사회경제환경 = 161
• 2. 정보기술환경 = 165
• 3. 국제정보화환경 = 166
• 제2절 집행전략요인 = 167
• 1. 조직화 = 167
• 2. 서비스 전달 = 175
• 제3절 집행기반요인 = 180
• 1. 제도 = 180
• 2. 자원 = 185
• 제4절 소결론 = 188
• 1. 국민정보화교육단계의 주요 정책집행요인 = 188
• 2. 공무원집단과 전문가집단간 인식 차이 = 191
• 제6장 결론 = 196
• 제1절 연구요약 = 196
• 제2절 미래 정보사회의 정보격차해소정책 방향 설계 = 202
• 제3절 연구의 시사점 및 한계 = 205
• 참고문헌 = 210
• 부록 = 221