A Gathering of Korean Experts in Web Core Technologies

The Web was first officially introduced in Korea in 1993, and Web-related experts in Korea voluntarily organized a community the next year.
Marking the 20th anniversary of the birth of this community, the Korea Internet Conference(KRnet)¹⁾,
organized mainly by members of ETRI and KAIST, celebrated the monumental year in the history of the Korean Web.

In celebration of the anniversary, the 20th Korean Web Anniversary Conference was held on October 17 at Gwang Gae To Building of Sejong University,
and was attended by over 1,500 participants from Korea and abroad.

1) KRnet(Korea Internet Conference): Korea’s largest Internet-related conference(first held in 1993)

Valuable Venue for Korean and Overseas Specialists

This conference was attended by a number of core-technology experts in Korea working in relevant fields to look into the past history and the future of the Web,
and presentations were made on the entire scope of the Web industry based on a range of themes.

A total of 30 thematic presentations were provided in nine areas,
including user interface(UI), user experience(UX), Web designs, Web platforms, Web accessibility, and future Web.
In particular, this meaningful event was attended by the world’s top specialists,
such as Brendan Eich²⁾, the inventor of JavaScript, Hakon Wium Lie³⁾, the CSS inventor, and Daniel Davis, a W3C HTML5 specialist.
Other key participants included Prof. Jeon Gil-nam, often dubbed the father of the Internet in Korea,
and the head of the ETRI Standards Research Center Kim Yong-un, as well as Senior Researchers Lee Kang-chan and Jeon Jong-hong.


2) Brendan Eich founded Mozilla Foundation and invented JavaScript
3) Hakon Wium Lie is the Chief Technology Officer of Opera Software and invented the Cascading Style Sheets(CSS) technology

ETRI, a Leading Institution in Introducing and Spreading the Web

The ETRI Standards Research Center has assumed important roles since 1994, when Web services were introduced in Korea.
In 2001, the Center began to operate the W3C Office in Korea within ETRI as a part of its leading initiative in distributing Korean Web technologies and standards.

Notably, the Center took the initiative in founding the HTML5 CT Forum in 2014 in an effort to vitalize new Internet industries on the basis of the HTML5 standards and
to reinforce Internet competitiveness. Based on its efforts and contributions with respect to diffusing Web technologies in Korea for the past two decades,
the Center is committed to further distributing relevant technologies and pursuing standardization by playing a role as a coordinator
and mediator of cooperation among industries, academia, research institutes, and other interested communities in Korea and overseas.

Accomplishments in the Past, Prospects for the Future

This conference was prepared and held through a joint effort by industries, academia, research institutes,
and related domestic communities and served as a valuable venue for looking back at the past two decades and
foreseeing the coming years in regard to Web technology and standards, which brought a renaissance to the Korean Internet industry.

Marking the 20th anniversary in 2014, the Korean Web industry is hoped to actively embrace standardized technologies,
thereby improving the convenience of the general public and creating global competitiveness and new markets.