Title: Measurement of the digital inequality in remote rural areas: case of South Korea

Authors: Kyung Hoon Yang, Sei Kwon Park, Seong No Yoon, Jaekyung Kim

Addresses: Department of Information Systems, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 1725 State Street, La Crosse, WI 54601, USA. ' Department of Information Systems, School of Industrial Science, Chung Ang University, Ansung Kyungki province, South Korea. ' Savannah State University, 3219 College Street, Savannah, GA 31404. ' Department of Management, Marketing, and Information Systems, State University of New York College at Oneonta 330 Netzer Administration Building, Oneonta, NY 13820-4015, USA

Abstract: As information technology evolves, the concept of digital divide evolves into the concept of digital inequality. The research aim is to discover if there are different digital inequalities, and to find factors that exacerbate digital inequality in the remote rural areas of South Korea. For our purposes, a model with factors (age, income, education, region, and gender) was tested to show the digital inequality gaps between rural areas of South Korea. We expect that the research findings can be applied to the situations of other countries and used to make digital inequality strategies and policies in improving rural living environments.

Keywords: digital divide; digital inequality; South Korea; rural areas; poverty; ICT; information technology; communications technology; information management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJITM.2010.030458

International Journal of Information Technology and Management, 2010 Vol.9 No.2, pp.142 - 161

Published online: 17 Dec 2009 *

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