South Korea: High-tech hothouse

The increasing popularity and performance of handheld devices may soon transform the digital camera industry as well. Two-megapixel camera phones will come out this year, followed by 6-megapixel cameras in 2006. But several South Korean and US executives have said the true killer app for cellphones could be video on demand.

"The cellphone market (in South Korea) is quite advanced. It is six months or a year ahead of the rest of the world, so when you go out to the rest of the world, you have the most advanced products," said Sauk-Hun Song, a principal analyst at research company Gartner. "Koreans, especially young people, adopt services very quickly."

The lifestyle changes that have accompanied South Korea's technology revolution also have helped make the nation a lab for examining the societal impact of the Internet. Historically, South Korean media outlets have skewed the news to fit the views of the government or their owners, a situation that the digitally connected populace is changing.

Earlier this year, the National Election Commission offered bounties to individuals who could provide evidence of campaign bribery, a chronic problem in a country where politicians have been known to pay for support and receive crates full of money from large organisations. (The average apple box can hold 100 million won, or about $85,000, and is reputedly the preferred container for delivering payments.)

Working with cellular carrier KTF and Web portal Naver, the commission began a mobile tipster programme that encouraged people to send in photos for immediate publication. Several citizens received $5,000 bounties for pictures of money changing hands in suspicious circumstances.

The reforms appear to be working: In the April 15 election, 2,084 people were criminally booked and 508 were prosecuted.

Reports of improprieties have not been confined to politics. One cellphone photographer caught a teacher hitting a student at a time when corporal punishment was embroiled in national controversy.