business
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Businessweek: How Twitter Could Unleash World Peace, April 11, 2011
A KAIST graduate scholar, Meeyoung Cha, conducted a joint study with international researchers and released a paper on the aspect of twitter as an emerging cyber arena for political and social debates and discussions. An article on the paper from Businessweek follows:
Businessweek
April 11, 2011, 9:08PM EST text size: TT
How Twitter Could Unleash World Peace
Researchers from Britain, Korea, and Germany have determined that the amount of fresh information you get on Twitter is less a matter of what you follow than whom—and who follows you
By Bobbie Johnson
On certain days, Twitter can feel like the world"s biggest, fastest echo chamber. Since we tend to follow people who are similar to us, we often see our own views reflected back—meaning a gloomy cloud of irritation can rapidly swirl into a cyclone of outrage as we hear from other people who feel as we do. A group of computer scientists have discovered that the opposite may also be true. Can Twitter be part of the solution, not merely part of the problem?
In a study to be presented at a conference in July, a team of researchers from the U.K."s University of Cambridge, Korea"s Graduate School of cultural Technology-KAIST, and Germany"s Max Planck Institute for Software Systems show how Twitter can provide users greater access to more varied political viewpoints and media sources than they might otherwise get.
The paper, called "The Media Landscape in Twitter(http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jac22/out/twitter-diverse.pdf)," explains how the team made surprising discoveries when they looked into the site"s usage patterns. First they looked at who follows whom and discovered that Twitter is a highly politicized space. Then they examined patterns of tweeting and retweeting to try to understand how people receive information on Twitter—and what they might see. Their conclusion: Although Twitter is a pretty partisan space, it can offer unprecedented opportunities to break down the barriers that plague local, national, and international politics.
How? Through retweets and interaction—what the authors call "indirect media exposure." As they put it, this "expands the political diversity of news to which users are exposed to a surprising extent, increasing the range by between 60 percent and 98 percent. These results are valuable because they have not been readily available to traditional media and they can help predict how we will read news and how publishers will interact with us in the future."
If you"re interested in the way Twitter works, I recommend reading the paper, which isn"t very long. Meanwhile, let"s boil it down to a few key pieces of data and see what lessons they can teach.
Most Twitter users are political. Just over half (50.8 percent) of all Twitter users studied showed a distinct political bias in the media outlets and individuals they followed. Most of those lean to the left of the political spectrum, accounting for 62 percent of users who demonstrated some bias. Thirty-seven percent were doggedly centrist. Just 1 percent of Twitter users who showed a political preference were right-wing.
Here are a couple of caveats about reading too much into the sharp divide the authors found. Given that Twitter"s user base is younger and more metropolitan than the societal norm, it"s not surprising that it"s weighted to the left. It"s worth noting that this study was undertaken more than a year ago; since then, Twitter has grown dramatically, while global politics have largely skewed back toward the right. Twitter"s user base today might reflect a more-balanced political picture. Either way, there"s a big split.
Twitter has secondary and tertiary benefits. Most organizations comprehend Twitter in simple terms: More followers means more exposure. But the study shows that it"s not just about those you follow, but those your followers follow—essentially the people in your extended network. The network offers a number of routes for information from fresh sources to get to you. According to the study, some 80 percent of users choose to follow at least 10 media sources, but they are exposed to between 6 and 10 times as many media sources through their friends.
People outweigh brands. Many of the biggest Twitter accounts are big media brands such as CNN (TWX) and Time, but the study suggests that Twitter"s active users tend to prefer individuals over outlets. So while the average follower of @NYTimes (NYT) has six followers apiece, individual journalists have followers who boast a median following count of around 100. That gives individual journalists—who are, the study says, more likely to link to a multiplicity of sources—a much wider, more influential network of connections.
The inference is that the personal touch of a journalist is more important than the lofty, impersonal tone of publications that largely act as promotion channels for their content. It"s a discovery that reminded me of Twitter"s recent blog post on the science of the hashtag, which found that hashtags explode in usage when they are picked up by individuals with the most dedicated—not necessarily the largest—followings.
Active users access a wider range of views. The researchers say that indirect exposure expands political diversity by a "significant amount," despite other studies showing a tendency for social networks to do the opposite. "Other studies have found a stronger tendency of homophily; blogs of different political views rarely linked to each other," they point out. "One possible reason is that a Twitter network encompasses several different relationships—from shared interest, to familial ties, friends, and acquaintances—so political similarity doesn"t necessarily exist in all such ties."
This is not to say that Twitter"s creators should be preparing a Nobel Prize-winning speech. Far from it: The influence of its diversity is unknown. It could be that many people who see messages they disagree with simply change their behavior to screen out such material in future. But it shows that there is a potential to do something positive at Twitter. It"s clear there"s much work to be done. The researchers say they want to investigate a number of areas they"ve uncovered, having provided important insights at a time when politics seem more fractious and divided than ever.
2011.04.12 View 10794 -
KAIST MBA program was ranked 99th by Financial Times Global MBA Rankings 2011.
The Business School of KAIST in Seoul made the 99th placement among the top 100 business schools in the world, according to the Financial Times Global MBA Rankings 2011. The Hindustan Times, an English daily newspaper in India, brifely carried an article on this topic. For the article, please go to http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/656953.aspx.
Financial Times Business Education and School Rakings 2011: http://www.ft.com/businesseducation/mba2011
2011.02.03 View 9784
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2010 International Presidential Forum was held successfully.
On October 11th, the 2010 International Presidential Forum on “The Role of the Research University in an S&T Dominated Era: Expectation & Delivery” was held successfully at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul. The third International Presidential Forum to be held, participants of the 2010 Presidential Forum engaged in an in-depth discussion about the direction that research universities should take in the 21st Century.
On its opening, President Nam Pyo Suh delivered a congratulatory message saying, “This forum is a meaningful gathering where research universities will suggest role models and find ways research universities can contribute to the progress of mankind in this century.”
Following, Lee Ki Jun, CEO of the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies said, “The common goal of the world’s research universities is to solve the problems mankind is facing together. I believe that the discussion we will hold today at the forum will point to the future direction of research universities.”
“To produce next generation engineers meeting global standards, exchange and dual degree programs between universities must be strengthened,” said Lars Pallesen, President of the Technical University of Denmark. “Research universities must support the exchange between students beyond cultural and national borders to adapt to the global market.”
Ichiro Okura, Vice President of Tokyo Institute of Technology, presented on the “Asian Science and Technology Pioneering Institutes of Research and Education, ASPIRE.” ASPIRE is a community created by the coalition between science and technology universities in the Far East. Its purpose is to contribute to sustainable global growth by educating high-quality human resources and lead Asia’s technology innovation based on science and technology development.
“For research universities to solve today’s global issues, universities must create new ideas by performing fundamental studies and developing innovative technology. The financial resources of universities must be focused with choices based on results,” remarked President Suh.
Zaini Ujang, Vice-President of the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia stated that “the Malaysian government is planning on converting from a ‘labor-intensive economy’ to an ‘innovative leading economy’ with the goal of joining the advanced countries by 2020. In today’s science and technology era where innovative technology is necessary, research universities have an important role of developing the knowledge environmental system to lead the world economy.” Vice-President Ujang then explained what strategies Malaysian research universities devised in the innovative leading economy era to create research universities that bring creativity and innovation.
Tod A. Laursen, President of KUSTAR, said that “KUSTAR has a leading role in bringing science and technology and manpower necessary in converting the oil-centered economy of UAE to a knowledge-based economy. KUSTAR will continuously strengthen international cooperation to become not only the best engineering university in the Arab region but in the world.”
At this year’s forum, thirty international presidents and vice presidents from 24 universities in 15 countries including Georgia Tech, Technical University of Denmark, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, University of Queensland, Tokyo University, Nanyang Technological University, University Teknologi Malaysia and Hong Kong Institute of Science and Technology along with forty national figures such as the presidents of Hanyang University and Handong Global University, governmental bureaucrats and representatives from national business and institutions participated.
2010.10.20 View 14888 -
KAIST hosts training program for Indian MBA students
The College of Business of KAIST held an academic exchange program, inviting MBA students from the Indian Institute of Management. 65 students from India visited Korea and would have a two-week training course including field trips to various companies in the nation. For details, please click the link of Arirang News broadcasted on August 19, 2010.
http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=106066&code=Ne2&category=2
2010.08.20 View 9080
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A donation to KAIST by a gambler
The Korea Herald ran an editorial on the news that a man who won the biggest-ever jackpot in Korean casino history on Saturday, May 15, 2010, decided to donate the entire prize money to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Below is the full text of the editorial published on May 18, 2010.
http://www.koreaherald.com/opinion/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100518000648
The Korea Herald: [Editorial] Gambler’s donation
2010-05-18 18:09
KAIST, Korea’s leading research university, often makes news with donations from a variety of benefactors who wish to help develop science and technology in Korea with money they earned through their careers. The list of donors, which includes farmers, securities dealers, medical doctors, foreign businesspeople and popular entertainers, now has one unusual entry, a gambler.
Ahn Seung-pil, 60, may not be exactly a “gambler” – at least not a professional one. He has visited Kangwon Land, a casino located in the mountain region of Jeongseon, Gangwon Province, only a few times since it opened in 2000 as the only place Korean nationals could gamble. Ahn, who runs a small textile business in Seoul, hit the jackpot of 766 million won (about $665,000), the largest amount ever at Kangwon Land or from any slot machine at a Korean casino.
He said he was motivated to donate the money to KAIST in Daejeon City when he watched a television program after returning home, in which a professor emphasized the importance of advancing science and technology in the country. He had incurred heavy debts during the 1997 economic crisis and has yet to clear them all, but he thought of using the prize money for a good cause. The TV program guided him to KAIST, said Ahn, who has “not had a high level of education.”
Korea is known worldwide for its people’s strong zeal for university education. Parents do whatever they can to send their children to good universities but are so exhausted before the entrance that they barely pay the tuition once they get there. Universities have to rely mainly on tuition and meager subsidies from foundations or the state treasury. Private donations are rare, compared to European or American universities.
Major universities complain that members of the alumni societies are rather indifferent to calls for donation. The majority of donors who give significant amounts are people who weren’t lucky enough to go to university, such as Ahn Seung-pil.
2010.05.19 View 11289
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Op-Ed by Dean Ravi Kumar, KAIST Business School, for MK English News
Professor Ravi Kumar, Dean of Business School at KAIST, wrote an op-ed for MK English News, dated February 3, 2010, on "Korea’s doing business in India". Below is his article:
India: Opportunity or Frustration?
by Dr. Ravi Kumar, Dean of KAIST Business School
On January 26, President Lee Myung-bak was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade and festivities, an honor that has been bestowed on Vladimir Putin of Russia and Nicolas Sarkozy of France in recent years. President Lee signed a strategic partnership agreement with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was successful in getting the Indian government to issue permits for POSCO to break ground on their US$ 12 billion steel plant and is positioning Korea as a serious contender in India’s future purchase of nuclear power plants and trainer aircraft. Doosan Heavy was successful in getting a billion dollar order last week to build a coal-fired power plant in India and Hyundai Motors has doubled its car production capacity in Chennai with 20% Indian market share. Samsung and LG have dominant market share in the Indian consumer electronics and home appliances sector, hiring thousands of Indians this year to support their growth. Wow, all this points to India and Korea on target to double their trade to US$ 30 billion by 2014.
Last week, a group of our KAIST IMBA students with considerable business experience interviewed me for one of their class projects. Their topic: Indian culture/society and its impact on doing business in India. One of their questions probed the notion of time in Indian culture and business etiquette since they had heard that Indians are not on time for appointments/meetings. I had to explain to them that India originated from one of the oldest civilization (Indus Valley) that goes back five thousand years and this is one reason that allows Indians to think of time as being continuous and forever. Another aspect of culture that impacts Indian sense of endless time is that of re-incarnation—Indians who are predominantly Hindus believe that one is reborn again and again until one lives a purely spiritual life and becomes one with the divine being. And finally, Indians believe in fate, that their past lives (and sometimes, where the planets were located when they were born) define, in some sense, the kind of life they are going to lead in this current life. Given these three factors, there is no sense of “palli palli” in Indian life and this can be very frustrating to foreigners.
So, my advice to Korean companies and executives--have a lot of patience and be ready for endless diversity. The country that can send sophisticated moon probes can also not have electricity or clean water for millions of its citizens. When you travel from one state to another, beware that the actual language, food preparation, philosophy of government and even clothing that people wear may differ remarkably. India is really like the European Union, with different languages, different state governments, different cultures and a lot of the infrastructure still to be built. An opportunity, you bet—but tomorrow, maybe not!
2010.02.04 View 10930
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KAIST's Industrial Design Program Rated among World's Best
KAIST"s master"s program in the area of industrial design has been rated among the world"s best in the latest survey of the World"s Best Design Programs published in the Oct. 2, 2009 issue of BusinessWeek, university authorities said Wednesday, Oct. 7.
The magazine has selected 30 top design programs at the postgraduate level from all over the world. Only six programs in Asia -- one each in Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and India -- were included in the list, while famous design schools in the United States and Europe dominated the list.
Why was KAIST on the list? The magazine commented: "The master"s program, set up in 1991, focuses on human-centered design, technology convergence, and business innovation. Students take courses in design marketing and design management to understand wider corporate issues and also learn how to use design as a strategic tool."
In presenting the list of top design programs, the magazine said that "students in these programs take classes in art, management and science, for example, and create projects in multi-disciplinary teams with students from other schools, They aim to use design for strategy rather than merely for aesthetics and may find jobs as design managers, researchers or business consultants." The magazine concluded that "these programs have formally established hybrid curricula."
Meanwhile, Woo-sung Park, a KAIST graduate, has been chosen among the "Twenty-one People Who Will Change Business" surveyed by the magazine. After graduating with a B.S. in industrial design from KAIST in 2005, Park worked for a design firm for two years. He then returned to KAIST to develop the analytical skills he now uses at the global consultancy Boston Consulting Group in Seoul.
2009.10.09 View 10570
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Self-Made Businessman Donates $24 Mil. Worth of Property to KAIST
Byeong-Ho Kim, a self-made businessman, has donated land worth 30 billion won ($25 million) to KAIST, the university"s authorities said on Thursday (Aug. 13).
The 68-year-old businessman said his aim is to give students from lower-income families a chance at a decent education and, ultimately, make Korea richer and powerful through development of science and technology. He runs the Seojeon Farm in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.
Kim visited KAIST on Wednesday (Aug. 12) with his wife and 36-year-old son to finalize details of the donation with KAIST President Nam-Pyo Suh. He signed papers to certify the deed to donate 94,380 square meters of land in a ceremony.
"I promised my family I"d invest our money for a good purpose. Now I hope KAIST can educate students who can"t afford to pay tuition fees. I wasn"t able to study
further than elementary school due to poverty," Kim said, wishing that his donation could be used in fostering talented students and great scholars from around the world.
Kim"s wife, Sam-Yeol Kim, 60, sent an e-mail to KAIST last July 27, on behalf of her husband who suffered a stroke in 2004, to inform the university of her husband"s intent to make the donation.
Kim had pledged to his wife and son that some day he would return all his assets to society before his death. He began to look for the right beneficiary five years ago and chose KAIST as he was impressed by reformatory and innovative efforts at the university where its president was donating all his extra earnings to the university.
“I believe that KAIST can make my dream come true. It is to have advanced science and technology education turn Korea into a country where everyone can live happily,” said Kim at the ceremony.
He recalled his early life, saying, “I left for Seoul when I was 17 years old with just 76 won. I had to save money so much it was scary. Even when the weather was stifling, I refused to buy myself cold soft drinks just to save 1 more won.”
Even though he grew up in a difficult environment, Mr. Kim maintained a firm conviction in familial ties and education. Being the oldest of seven children, he had to support his younger siblings’ education, but never complained about his own lack of opportunity. When his father died, he took money that had been left over from funeral expenses and donated it to relatives as scholarships for their children. He believed that such kindness was the best way to make his father’s passing meaningful. In addition, he donated one billion won to a scholarship fund that helps those like him, who never had a chance to study or learn.
Mr. Kim’s favorite phrase is, “Earning money takes skill, but to spend it is an art.” This mirrors his philosophy of saving and economizing in order to make as much money as possible, then donating generously to the upbringing of future generations.
The decision to donate was also heavily influenced by the support of his wife, and his family. When he first hinted at his intention to donate, his family simply accepted the decision, saying that they were proud of him. Kim had always emphasized that wealth should be given back to society, and as such, his son Se-Yoon Kim donated to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other charity organizations every month, saying that his actions were an obvious duty.
KAIST officials said they were emotionally moved to learn that Mr. Kim donated the fortune to a university, which is completely unrelated to him or anyone in his family, simply for the sake of the nation’s future. They said that Kim is a figure that all of Korean society should follow, and that everyone in KAIST will etch his wish into their hearts, and try their hardest to make sure future generations will prosper.
2009.08.18 View 10585 -
USC Professor Appointed New Dean of KAIST College of Business
Ravi Kumar, former vice dean of the Graduate and International Program at the University of Southern California, has been appointed as dean of the KAIST College of Business, the university announced on Tuesday (June 30).
Dr. Kumar has been a professor of information and operations management at the Marshall School of Business, USC. He is widely known for his research on global operations, particularly in improving operational performance through cellular design and integrated decision-making with marketing and information technology.
KAIST President Nam-Pyo Suh said: "We are fortunate to have Prof. Kumar as the new Dean of the College of Business. He has made many important contributions to the USC business school, especially in adding international dimensions to the school"s activities. He has established an impeccable reputation as a scholar and visionary. We expect that he will display great leadership in making the KAIST College of Business one of the best schools of its kind in the world."
Prof. Kumar received his bachelor degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1974, master degree from the University of Texas, Arlington, in 1976 and doctorate degree from Northwestern University in 1981.
His papers have been published in Management Science, Marketing Science, Journal of Economic Theory, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management and Journal of Management Information Systems. He serves as a senior editor on the Board of Production and Operations management and Operations management Educational Review.
He has won several awards for teaching excellence at both the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and USC. They included the Outstanding Educator Award and the Golden Apple Teaching Award.
Prof. Kumar has extensive international consulting experiences with Rolls Royce, BMW, Daimler Benz Aerospace, ABB, Ericsson, BAS Global, Motorola, Reuters, Du Pont, Sanwa Bank, Korea First Bank, Korean Air, Infosys, Acer, Shell Hong Kong and other companies.
2009.07.01 View 13013 -
Lecture Hall Named After Venture Businessman Min-Hwa Lee
A lecture hall in the Alumni Start-Up Building on the KAIST campus was named Min-Hwa Lee Hall in a ceremony on Tuesday to pay tribute to KAIST alumnus Min-Hwa Lee"s contributions to the development of Korean venture business.
On hand at the ceremony were Sung-Woo Hong, head of the Small and Medium Business Administration, KAIST President Nam-Pyo Suh, dozens of KAIST alumni representatives, and figures from government research institutes.
Lee, who obtained his M.S. (1978) and Ph.D. (1985) in Electrical Engineering from KAIST, established a fund of 10 billion won along with other KAIST alumni in 2001 and donated it for the construction of the Alumni Start-Up Building for aspiring entrepreneurs. To remember his lofty vision, KAIST decided to name a lecture hall after him.
As a venture businessman, Lee founded the Madison, Ltd., one of the earliest venture companies in Korea, in 1985. Lee then played a leading role in the creation of the Korea Venture Industry Association in 1995, and in the establishment of KOSDAQ and the enactment of a special law for venture enterprises.
KAIST will appoint Lee as an adjunct professor in recognition of his expertise in venture business and commercialization of new inventions. Lee will teach entrepreneurship at the Graduate School of Management and the Institute for Gifted Students, a KAIST affiliate.
"Dr. Lee has made a great contribution to the development of Korean venture business. At a time when commercialization of new inventions was at an infant stage, he nurtured technology ventures and built the foundation for the proliferation of technology venture," President Suh said. "We expect that he will strive to open the generation of technologies which will lead the development of Korea in the future and become a mentor of aspiring entrepreneurs," Suh added.
2009.06.30 View 14052 -
KAIST Introduces Dual Degree Program for MBA with American and British
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Graduate School of finance signed a dual degree program contract with the University of Rochester and London Business School. Starting from the entering class of 2009, the dual degree program will allow students of the Graduate School of finance to attend ten lectures in a foreign university and receive degrees from both institutes. After the dual degree program is applied, in the case of the University of Rochester, KAIST students will finish three terms at KAIST Graduate School of Business. Then the students will spend the last eight months in the University of Rochester. This opportunity will be given to roughly 20 students out of 100 entering students.KAIST MBA School was built in 1995 and has been operated as the Graduate School of Business Administration for ten years. Then, it was developed into two major departments: the Graduate School of finance and the Graduate School of information and media. After the division, they have chosen the dual degree program as the strategy for building up the capability of the Graduate School of Business.The dual degree program of KAIST has a unique feature that other MBA Schools do not have. Once a student is selected by KAIST to participate in the dual degree program, the student will be able to study in the foreign university even if he or she had been rejected from it. This is an important characteristic that differentiates KAIST from other MBA Schools where students need to have approvals from both universities.As well as the Graduate School of finance, the Graduate School of information and media is currently working on signing a dual degree program contract with Marshall University. Once a contract on Memorandum of Understanding is signed, students will be able to receive MBA degrees from both KAIST and Marshall University.The University of Rochester is a MBA School specializing in finance, which in 2007, was ranked 5th in financial affairs and accounting according to Financial Times. Currently, 14 KAIST students are enrolled in a dual degree program for MBA in the university.By KAIST Herald on November 2007
2007.12.21 View 12859
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KAIST Business School Opens Homepage !!!!
KAIST Business School, founded in September, 2006 to efficiently manage the Graduate School of Management, founded in 1996, the Graduate School of Finance and the Graduate School of Information & Media Management, both founded in March 2006, now opens its homepage to provide more information on the school.
Click here to go to the homepage
2007.07.02 View 13268