On April 19, 2012, NIA hosted an interview with ReD Associates, an American Strategy Consultancy based in New York. Taking part interview was Dr. Jeongwon Yoon, Executive Director of NIA' s Global Cooperation Division and Sandra Cariglio, an associate of ReD Associates who was in Seoul to conduct an interview for research on behalf of their client, a manufacturer of mail handling equipment and provider of postal solutions.



ReD Associates is an innovation and strategy consultancy that is composed of anthropologists, sociologists, economists, journalists, and designers that employ methods of social science to study human behavior in order to gain insights to see the world in more compassionate and complex ways-and to identify new opportunities for their clients. During the interview session with Dr. Jeongwon Yoon, Ms. Cariglio asked many thought-provoking questions in order to better understand Korea' s informatization history and development.



Executive Director Yoon delved into an industrial perspective back about 40 years ago to show that key infrastructure had to be first developed and established in order to later develop an integrated information system. Ms. Cariglio wanted to know how Korea set up the necessary financing and investment in IT and how involved the government was in making the necessary plans and policies that would encourage development and benefits. Executive Director Yoon also mentioned NIA' s role acting as an interface between public and private sectors where it manages small pilot projects that later may move to the private sector and gain more investment and traction. Later the discussion moved on to online public services and how the government reacts and uses the feedback from citizens to respond and improve online e-services for the citizens of Korea.


The final part of the interview after the historical and current status was discussed was a look into the future with regards to informatization and e-government. Executive Director Yoon discussed the "Smart Society" in Korea where more would be done on the mobile platform, massive data would be stored and utilized and a borderless environment with more citizen-centric services being offered. The interview wrapped up and Ms. Cariglio thanked Executive Director for his time and effort in answering all her inquiries and mentioned that the staff at ReD Associates were getting information from a total of 3 countries for this client-focused research, all leaders in the digital IT and e-government arena - Korea, Finland and Denmark.

Executive Director of NIA' s Global Cooperation Division, Jeongwon Yoon with Sandra Cariglio of ReD Associates