Jeju Province plans to build a world model of telematics city and ubiquitous computing technology-based free economic town by next year. The municipal government began last year installing infrastructure for telematics city, injecting 10 billion won (approximately 10 million dollars) for two years.[...]
In the first half of this year, Daejeon City government will craft a roadmap for fostering 'ubiquitous computing technology-based industry'. The city authority will make its concerted efforts to attract the World Radiocommunication Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) slated for 2007, while taking initiative in developing ubiquitous computing technology and its market. It also plans to install smart home systems in new apartment complexes that can receive communication-broadcasting-game convergence service.
(from an Electronic Times article only available in the Google cache right now)
I'm not quite sure what to make of this, except it's a top-down technology investment model that assumes the need for large infrastructural investment (although $10M is not really a large investment by any infrastructural standard, really). I think most new technological innovation is going to be bottom-up, since the smaller physical size and wireless network connectivity implies less reliance on large infrastructures. It sounds like they're approaching ubicomp like it was steel production or electrification, but it's not. That said, I wish them luck.
