Appointment of Yoon Chang-Bun as secretary for future strategies signals Naver reformation

Aug 06, 2013, 09:06 am

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Information technology expert Yoon Chang-Bun will be leading the reformation of internet field.



On August 5, Yoon Chang-Bun, who was newly appointed the Blue House's secretary of future strategies, is greeting at his appointment briefing.

It seems like the reformation of major domestic portals such as Naver will be accelerated. On August 5, president Park Geun-Hye appointed Yoon Chang-Bun, the former CEO of Hanaro Telecom, as Blue House's secretary of future strategies, heightening interest in Naver reformation.

Since presidential transition committee era, Yoon has been leading the pledge of President Park's Information and Communication field, presenting internet field's 'network neutrality, platform neutrality, and device neutrality'.

It has been said that former secretary Choi Soon-Hong was replaced due to poor performance in portal reformation. Previously, president Park had released a "presidential pledges account book" containing detailed plans to carry out the campaign promises the president made to the country. According to the book's internet category, she stated "Based on user-friendly internet service principles such as network neutrality, platform neutrality, and device neutrality, we will establish internet space where every Korean citizen can share knowledge and information,  and communicate freely without discrimination."

The Korea Communications Commission has established a guideline in the end of 2011 and established a 'network neutrality policy advisory committee' in 2012. The committee prepared a draft of 'reasonable traffic management scheme' in 2012 but the draft has not been finalized due to strong opposition of internet companies such as Naver.

Yoon stressed the principle of network neutrality and even platform neutrality in the internet field since he was an expert member of presidential transition committee. For this reason, internet companies such as Naver are tensed up. Yoon presented his plan to achieve economic democratization and solve injustice issues occurred as some particular portals such as Naver began dominating internet market.

Network neutrality is the principle that network service providers should open the network, not discriminating differentially by content, device, and users. The key issue is who can control the service or content. Telecommunication business operators say they possess the network and their traffic control measures are fair enough, claiming, "Content providers are getting a free ride on the highway network which we invested at great expense."

In the other hand, some claim that users should have the right to choose in the internet environment. Kim Ki-Chang, a professor at Korea University, pointed out, "Users' right of choice is taken away because network providers are holding the right instead of users."

#Yoon Chang-Bun #Naver #NHN #reform 
Copyright by Asiatoday