Development, availability and users’ participation in the information service of agricultural food sector is slower than that of other sectors in Korea. This phenomenon comes from the lack of development strategies and comparative analyses with other sectors, as well as the agricultural food industry’s own characteristics which is developed based on the offline market. In this research, we will discuss about how to improve the public information service of agricultural food sector based on the example of establishing service improvement strategy by the most representative Okdab. In this research, we have drawn the following implications for development strategy of Okdab service based on three core keywords derived from benchmarking KOSIS. Three core subjects for upgrading public information service are ‘analysis information with expertise and differentiation,’ ‘user cooperation-oriented platform,’ and ‘intuitive nd effective UX,’ and to strength B.I. as an integrated information service of agricultural food sector, we need to identify the users’ satisfaction and needs for the existing service, establish an optimized operating strategy on a short-term, mid-term and long term bases, and implement them in a positive way. Based on this positive action, it can become a trustworthy information service for the users, and we can expect the improvement of the users’ recognition for its consistent usability and efficiency.

Abstract1)This study aims to understand why public information systems in agricultural fields have shown lower performances than other industrialized fields and industries and how these problems would be fixed and overcame. To accomplish this research purpose, this study would overview the previous studies on developing agricultural information systems in public sectors and would find out meaningful and considerable factors. This study would accept the methodologies of literature review and systems thinking approaches to understand the relationships among the found factors and to suggest the conceptual research model. Agricultural information system should take care to reduce implement and maintenance costs to reduce the negative relationships between costs and expected service value and between expected service value to perceived service value. Also, it should be understood that impersonal response would reduce the eager to use the services, so the government sectors should consider positively to adopt the concept of CRM even though the government sectors traditionally have ignored its necessity. The failure of public information systems/services may be caused not only by lack of the contents but also by the failure of the persistent post management.

양파 정식기 작업에 적합한 상토 개발을 위해 원예용 유기질 주재료(피트모스, 코이어)의 적합성을 조사했다. 유기질 재료를 무기질 재료(황토 등)와 혼합하여, 묘 출현율, 생육 및 기계정식 적응 특성 등을 조사하였다. 조사 결과 피트모스 혼합 처리구, 코이어 혼합 처리구 모두 묘 출현율, 생육 및 상토 용적밀도에서 유사했으나, 피트모스 혼합 처리구가 코이어 혼합 처리구에 비해 더 높은 상토 응집성을 보였다. 피트모스 혼합 상토의 높은 응집성은 양파 묘 정식 시 뿌리부 무게 증가 등의 효과를 가져와서 정식기 작업 효율성을 증진시키는데 도움을 줄 수 있을 것이라고 생각된다. 이러한 이유로, 양파 정식기 작업에 적합한 상토 개발 시 피트모스를 유기질 주재료로 선정하는 것이 적합하다고 최종 판단하였다.

Digital divide commonly means the gap among diverse stakeholders, businesses, physical areas, and individual people in terms of opportunities, accessibilities, and usabilities (Acılar, 2011). Lee and Park (2011) and Barzilai-Nahon (2006) suggested that the digital divide issues should be considered as an important public issue because proper public response may enhance or reduce the information gaps by the digital divide. This study is a follow-up study of the study of Lee and Park. This study’s main aim is to clarify the changes of the digital divide in the rural areas during five years and to find out meaningful factors to reduce the gaps between the rural area and urban area. To achieve the research aim, this study analyzes the public data by ITSTAT and previous studies on the digital divide. Also this study follows the system thinking approach to model the causal relationships among diverse factors on the digital divide. With the results, this study suggests that the factors to measure the digital divide should be re-designed including smartphone penetration and accessibilities. Especially, current digital divide scoring factors should be considered in the way of social welfare.

Although the diffusion of mobile services appears to be occurring much more rapidly than the spread of wired services, there are risks of a new type of digital divide: the mobile divide. The mobile divide, which refers to a specific digital divide that involves the unbalanced diffusion of mobile technologies, must be concretely studied. Thus, this study focuses on the mobile divide with respect to disadvantaged populations. Although various studies suggest that the diffusion of mobile devices may reduce the digital divide, somestudies argue against the positive effect of mobile devices in addressing traditional digital devices. Low and O’Connell (2006) insisted that equity of access to mobile technologies should be considered in the contextof the traditional digital divide; they argued that there may be socio-economic barriers to accessing mobile devices and the mobile Internet that are similar to the socio- economic barriers to accessing stationary computers and the stationary use of the Internet. Focusing on the smartphone divide, this study suggests that emphasizing utilization is an appropriate manner in which to bridge the mobile divide rather than focusing on other factors, such as accessibility and capability, thatprevious studies have used to measure the traditional digital divide.