nanoomi

One of my favorite Korean blogs at the moment is RadioKidz@LifeLog which, surprise surprise, covers a lot of tech. RadioKidz has had a couple of interesting posts of late, which, despite my dodgy efforts at translation, deserve to be shared.

Sony NEX-5

RadioKidz managed to get hold of the new Sony NEX-5 camera this week and took it for a spin. The NEX-5 is one of two new Sony cameras that incorporate a sensor 50% larger than the Micro four thirds format, and interchangeable lenses, into a point and shoot form factor.

Read the full story

That’s right!

We’re nearing episode #100, and we want to celebrate it with our listeners. So mark your calendars for June 19th and meet us at the rooftop of Roofers in Itaewon for alive show with a live audience (you, really).

In order to entice you there, the kind folks at Roofers have set up a deal where you can get a burger and beer for W10,000.

Stay tuned here and on our Facebook and Twitter pages for details as they arise.

This is the third post in a series on copyright and blogging in Korea. The first part : “Can I See Your License Please Sir?” on Creative Commons Licensing, can be found here. The second part: “Copyright Vs. Copy-wrong” on The misuse of content can e found here.]

After looking at the pitfalls of misusing other people’s content, and a way of licensing your own work the intention in this third post on copyright and blogging in Korea (and elsewhere) is to give you a few hints and show you some tricks on how you can find content that is freely available for use on your blog, or in any other content you might want to produce.

Read the full story

Rob has written a thoughtful piece on Korea’s national branding campaign to outsiders, and how it’s always falling short because of its pigheaded heavy-handed approach(es)

Which is not to say there efforts aren’t well intentioned, and indeed Travel in Korea’s (Is that the Korean Tourism Organisation – KTO??) attempt at an iPhone app is a good example of a balanced workable approach, albeit a little lacking in what is, the first iteration.

Read the full story

So far the iPhone has proved a boon for getting around in a part of the country that I have only just arrived in.

One really useful App for getting around is simply called DAUM 지도 or Daum Maps and is free (Free!) from the App Store:

I have talked about the efficacy of Daum Maps before in that up until very recently they provided a much better alternative to Google’s offerings on Korea. While Google has lifted its game considerably, Daum still has the advantage with its “Road View”– a version of Google’s “Street View” which isn’t available in Korea.

Daum has done an excellent job of porting their maps (http://local.daum.net) to the iPhone with the same “pinch and swipe” multi-touch interface you would expect. In addition with KT’s 3G network it provides real-time traffic data. But it is the Road View option that shines on Apple’s big ass phone display:

This can be quite handy in Korea, a country seemingly without street numbers. Now with Daum Maps, you can enter an address and actually get a view of what the building looks like!

Very Handy!

As I say, the App is free from The KOREAN version of the App Store (Haven’t checked the US version) and is in Korean, so a working knowledge of the language to start would be good, especially if you want to search addresses, only the simplest of English searches worked when I tried.

Bimbo Rating: ★★★✩ (3.5/5)

There are a Bajillion Korean (language) blogs out there that, much to my own chagrin, I just don’t have the language skills to read, save for looking at the pictures.

We have seen, in the form of people like “Minerva” that in Korea especially, bloggers, while easy targets for the authorities, do have the power to raise consciousness in the best of cases, or at least rabble rouse, such was the case a year or so ago with Mad Cow, or the ongoing fracas surrounding Anti-English Spectrum.

There is all this content out there that I sorely want to read, surround myself in and learn from but…

한국말을 없어!

There are a couple of tens of quite a few Korean (English Language) blogs out there that, much to the chagrin of Korean speakers, are inaccessible as they are written in English, save for the pictures.

We are seeing an explosion of English language blogs in Korea that are extolling the wonders of Korea, its sights and its people and its food that Koreans sorely want to read, surround themselves in and learn from these visitors from their country, but…

영어를 어렵다!

Imagine a world then where you could take content from all of these blogs, English and Korean language alike, have them translated into the respective language and keep them all in one place where Koreans and English speakers could come together read these posts and learn from each other.

Imagine.

Well imagine no more dear reader, thanks to the power of The Tubes Internet, the day when all of this is possible is about to dawn.

And it’s all thanks to a growing group of English language bloggers, a company called Tatter & Media and the possibilities provided by startup Social Translation Service Looah.

Tatter & Media is best described as a blog syndication network distributing content from its partner bloggers all over the Korean Internet. It is now turning to English Language content and this will come in the form of a team blog called Nanoomi (currently in beta) of which your humble Chosun Bimbo is a contributing partner.

The third side of the triangle is Looah, a social translation service (also still in beta) where by actual human flesh and blood type people collaborate on the translation of English Stories into Korean and back again.

Above and beyond the advantages ‘’social” translation has over machine translation (which is getting pretty good nowadays) it is this kind of thing that I believe will point us in the direction, not only of a true open web regardless of language, but also towards a semantic web, or the web that can be navigated with natural language.

So in my mind Looah fills an important role not just in the short term of translation, but also in the long term development of the web in general.

In the meantime I will be writing tech stories at Nanoomi (My recent visit to Samsung being the first dry run) but will also be branching off in a few related areas. Those of you astute enough may have seen the Nanoomi badge in the sidebar over the last wee while, once the site is out of beta you’ll be able to click through. Until then, stay tuned.

For more information on Tatter & Media see here.