The Net seemed to play a significant role in the Dec'02 South Korea presidential election. And instead of the usual rent-a-crowds that are the staple of political rallies, the volunteers were able to bring out thousands of people for Roh's stump speeches for free. Worth wondering how much the net really mattered, and how to have a similar effect here on the [Political Process].

• [Net Pulse] article

• Reuters coverage

• or was his win mainly about riding a tide of public resentment toward the United States?

• anti-[NetiZen] [Korea Herald] editorial (reg required) Most netizens, no doubt, have an impressive educational background, having grown up in one of the most competitive societies in the world, but are still poorly educated as they were forced to learn almost everything by rote. Thus, many are not capable of engaging in sustained arguments over any political or social issue; nor are they capable of articulating their thoughts or writing an exposition in a coherent and logical manner, beyond the level of shouting slogans or muttering one-liners.

Mar6 addeundum: NyTimes article about Korea's Ohmy News online newspaper. Although the staff has grown to 41, from the beginning the electronic newspaper's unusual concept has been to rely mostly on contributions from ordinary readers all over the country, who send dispatches about everything from local happenings and personal musings to national politics. Only 20 percent of the paper each day is written by staff journalists. So far, a computer check shows, there have been more than 10,000 other bylines. This article from [Business Week] (a couple weeks ago) says Revenue last year totaled about $1.7 million, and Oh says the site is making a small profit.

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