Ahonen 5th book released: Digital Korea. If iPhone is today, Digital Korea shows tomorrow

I'm proud to announce my fifth book, the eagerly awaited "Digital Korea" which has been released by its publisher futuretext and is now available at booksellers. The 284 page hardcover book was co-authored together with Jim O'Reilly and discusses the most digitally advanced information society.

Its everything you'd expect. We go deep into the digital miracle of South Korea - the first country where all internet connections were upgraded to broadband, where all phones are cameraphones and three out of four mobile phones are high speed 3G phones. Where digital TV tuners are now being built into cars, laptop PCs and mobile phones.

You'll find all of our favourite Korea stories in the book. We have case studies of Cyworld (like MySpace but two years into the future say users familiar with both), Ohmy News (the world's first citizen newspaper), Lineage 2 (twice the size of World of Warcraft), Cart Rider (a multiplayer game that has been played by 25% of the total South Korean population !  Imagine that !) as well as Tu Media, Melon Music etc. We have chapters on automobile telematics, home robotics, digital money, electronic government and the intelligent home. And the book discusses digital youth - Generation C as well in its own chapter. Don't forget digital music - where 10% of American music is now digital, in South Korea it is already 57%.

South Korea is the one country where the future exists already today. What happens when hospitals build intelligent floors, when bridges are built with sensors and parking places become intelligent (not that I can pay for my parking by mobile phone, but where is the nearest available parking place...). Yes, and the abuses? Kids cheat in class using text messages, virtual properties in multiplayer environments are stolen, etc. What happens to the police in a virtual digitally converged world? They adapt of course. In South Korea already today every police department has a cybercrime unit. And those home robots? Yes, South Korea says every home will have a robot in ten years. You might ask yourself what kinds of robots will these be, there has to be more to it than an intelligent vacuum cleaner. And there is. Read the book...

The book Digital Korea costs 25 UKP / 39 Euro / 49 USD and is available direct from the publisher at www.futuretext.com  or from your regular bookseller such as Amazon. The book includes a foreword by Dr Yoo the CEO of SK Communications (owners of Cyworld, Melon Music, Nate etc). Jim O'Reilly and I have set up a website for the book at  www.digitalkorea.info 

And all you fans of Alan Moore and our book Communities Dominate Brand - please don't despair. These two books are "cousins" - where Communities Dominate is a book about social networking, new media and marketing with a touch of digital convergence, my newest book Digital Korea is a case study in digital convergence with a touch of social networking and media. They complement each other. And Alan and I are of course working on a follow-up to our book, we are currently researching it, so don't worry, I won't disappear from this blog or our topics here. And as soon as Alan and I can finish it, there will be also a follow up to Communities Dominate Brands.

I will give you plenty more about this book as we get early reviews etc. One review was already released by the English language news site about Korean telecoms and IT matters, Telecoms Korea. Its Editor in Chief, Seong-ju Lee wrote this:

"The two authors fo Digital Korea draw attention to the dynamic changes taking place in Korea and introduce readers to digital lifestyles that will be experienced around the world in the near future. The 12 case studies are particularly useful to those who want to learn about the 'Digital Nirvana' in Korea. Digital Korea is a must-read book showing us that the future of digital society si close at hand rather than an abstraction about a remote future."

Thank you Seong-ju Lee.

Certainly, if the Apple iPhone is proof of the viability of convergence today in a pocketable device, with internet, video, music and telephony within that device, then this book shows what convergence is tomorrow, when every phone is faster than the iPhone, where media ability includes full digital TV etc. If your live involves convergence of media, broadband, telecoms, banking or advertising, this is the must-read book for you now. See how they are doing it in Korea and learn good lessons and case studies.

As with Communities Dominate Brands, I have a first chapter excerpt for you if you want to sample the book. Please write to me at   tomi at tomiahonen dot com  and I'll send you the excerpt. (please don't leave me a comment here asking for the except else it might take a while for me to get to it, send me the email directly so you get it as fast as I can get it to you, ok)

And if you happen to be in Seoul, South Korea next week, I'm returning to present a keynote at the big annual iMobicon event on digital convergence in Seoul on Aug 23-24 where I also am chairing one day. I'll be discussing the customer of tomorrow and the event is the official launch event of the book Digital Korea. Jim O'Reilly will be joining me in Seoul as well. Would love to see some of you there. If not, then perhaps we'll meet at one of my other near future speakerships such as the Mobile Web conference in London in September or the Mobile Monday event in San Francisco in October or the Asian TV forum in Singapore in November.

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