Korean Progressive Network Center ( ko, 진보네트워크센터), also known as Jinbonet ( ko, 진보넷) is a nine-year-old organization in Seoul, South Korea. Jinbonet is a network that provides ICT services (web hosting, mailing list, webmail) to that country's progressive movement, civil society and workers unions.

Best internet infrastructure, concern over rights

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has been one of the biggest group they have been hosting to. In a country which has one of the best internet infrastructures—technically speaking—in the world, concern over the rights of the citizen in cyberspace are strong, and Jinbonet helps focus on some of these issues.

After 1997 media conference

Kim Jeong-woo, a.k.a. PatchA is Jinbonet's

ICT ICT may refer to: Sciences and technology * Information and communications technology * Image Constraint Token, in video processing * Immunochromatographic test, a rapid immunoassay used to detect diseases such as anthrax * In-circuit test, in ...

policy coordinator. This network was formed in the aftermath of a 1997 international labour media conference in Seoul, where participants focused on the importance of independent network for progressive communication in South Korea.

‘Progressive’

In 1998, Jinbonet was originally launched. ‘ Jinbo’ means

progressive Progressive may refer to: Politics * Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform ** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context * Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...

in the local Korean language. It at present has eight full-time activists, apart from other volunteers. As of 2006, Jinbone
had reported
that it was providing hosting service for 600 civil society organisations, on their LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PhP) servers. This includes farmers' groups, civil movement, unionists, the women's movement, and human rights campaigners, among others.

"Difficult in imbibing international mindset"

"Koreans (in civil society) have a difficulty to imbibe an international mindset. Koreans civil society organizations think that international solidarity is very important, in the age of globalisation. Specially the struggle against neo-liberalisation,

WTO The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...

-attack or

FTA FTA may refer to: Arts and media * ''The Faery Tale Adventure'', a computer game * Festival TransAmériques, an annual dance and theater festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada * Free The Army tour, the F.T.A. Tour or F.T.A. Show, an American anti-V ...

-attack. International

solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...

is one of the most important strategy. But in Korea it is difficult to use

for international solidarity because of the language problem", PatchA of Jinbonet has bee
quoted saying

Issues raised

Some of the issues raised by Jinbonet recently include the Free Trade Agreement signed between South Korea and the United States, and, in particular, its implications on " intellectual property rights" issues. The Internet Realname System(IRS) legislation passed in 2004 is another issue taken up and raised by Jinbonet.

Internet Realname System

Under this law, the New Media and websites would be needed to install an Internet Realname System on their bulletin boards or comment board, thus compelling them to certify the identity of the person posting comments—a move seen by campaigners like Jinbonet as affecting privacy and free speech on the Net. Its website says, “No copyright, Just copyleft!”

Tech progress, socially lagging behind

South Korea has a significant online population—out of a total population of 50 million, broadband registrations cross 11 million, and

internet users The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

total 30 million. Some 70% of the population is seen to have access to the net. High-tech tools like IPTV have been introduce, as has e-learning. But in terms of policies, critics and campaigners see South Korea as being at a "low level". PatchA of Jinbone
has argued
that this is probably because "the government-driven and market-driven

sector is not focused on the people's needs."

External links

*{{in lang, ko
Jinbonet
Internet in South Korea Non-profit organizations based in South Korea Information technology organizations based in Asia Progressivism in South Korea