Project "Smart Seoul" Group C, SISF 2012

 Creating a “Smart Seoul” requires allowing access to the latest information, not only to its residents but to its short-term visitors. Sharing the latest information at once in all the centers of Seoul Global Center is crucial to experiencing Seoul to the fullest and can be a boost for tourism. But we need a connected Seoul global center for that.

 However according to the experience of foreigners, especially those who just came to Korea, without knowledge of the necessary information from appropriate websites and foreigner aid systems, such as Seoul Global Center，life in “Smart Seoul” did not turn out smartly.

 Seoul is regarded as the “Smart” City thanks to the consistent efforts of the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Global Center in recent years to increase the presence of Seoul on the Internet. Improvements are seen in many aspects of making Seoul a more convenient and comfortable city to live in for foreigners as well as residents.

Thus they would like to be provided with relevant solutions on life in Seoul, with information that is both easily accessible, practical and helpful. Currently SGC network has many branches like Business centers and Village Global Centers, and all these centers have their own web pages to serve the residents of Seoul in providing valuable information regarding the Seoul city.

  However, if all these centers are connected to each other in such a way that the information uploaded/shared at one center should appear in all the centers, that would be a great contribution in making Seoul a smart city. As everyone knows，social networks like Facebook or Twitter are widely used nowadays, especially by Seoul’s international residents.

  A specially designed page connecting the branches of SGC and sharing the important and useful information at the same time can provide people with instant and helpful information. Additionally the branches can share their respective events and information, so that institutions can be effectively managed and coordinated. 

Consequently our group C of SISF 2012 proposes a specifically designed page on Facebook which not only connects the branches of SGC, such as Village global centers, but also provides useful and instant information to its subscribers.  It was not an easy job to do, but commmitd to our work my Team C, including Khaled Fazily,Nelly Ivanova,Chimi Wangmo,Minseok Kim,SooAh Cho,Zeyuanyu Long,Seowoo Lee, Ju-Yeong Lee, Jingqiu Liu,Rie, and Jen Taie really did great work. As team Leader it was a challenging task for me as well, but thanks to almighty Alalh, I really enjoyed that time with the awesome ones..

 Meanwhile this page can be a platform that collects te international residents’ feedback concerning life in Seoul, so that SGC can improve and adjust the service provided to same internationals in a convenient and efficient way. 

      Our Team C of SISF 2012, presented our plan to Seoul metropolitan government to coonect the business and village centers of SGC so that every one can get all the information at once and in equal. Moreover, the information can be shared to and from each and every SGC center,which will result in more connected Seoul and SGC will be a more trust able organization for the foreigners. 

    Our Team C specified the Research & Methodology of the project oh how we will conduct this study/project. We also developed a FB page, Account and a group using Face book as  a tool of sharing Information with the name of "SOUL of Asia",indirectly representing Seoul Global Center, to analyze which one of those would be the best way to pursue the aim of making Seoul a “Smart” city. 

  The  Statistical Figures & Data was collected on weekly bases to practically prove and decide which tool is the most helping in sharing information. We have found that Face book page is the most reliable source for an organization to spread information.In case one hasn’t noticed, just about everyone is online these days doing a thousand different things. From paying bills, to arranging travel, to shopping for a new home, people spend a LOT of time online. People are even using the Internet more than ever to keep in touch with family, friends, and co-workers. Not only do they keep in touch with each other, but they recommend useful information and services that they like.  For instance, when one person “likes” a link or service, they let other people know about it and they, in turn, “like” the link or service too.

Imagine someone liking our link, information or service so much they tell everyone they know. Then, they come to our Fan page and “Like” our page and now they get all of our promotions and become loyal customers. The process becomes viral and continues to go on and on. 

       

     Organization owners are becoming aware that they also need to be online in a major way to capitalize on social network usage among fans/consumers. It is a fact that our organizational goal success strongly relies on a solid, reputable online existence. 

We found out the groups are generally better for hosting a quick and active discussion and attracting attention. For example, some of our friends dwelling in Seoul personally messaged me sending potential suggestions to make our group better. Thus, SISF Group C puts forward the proposal to create a genuine facebook group coordinated by real officials and professionals.

 One problem with the account is that you are limited with your friends only. But in case of page your connection is unlimited. Another problem with using a Facebook persona for our purposes is that it allows only one user to add content and make changes, which makes it impossible for all centers to work together on the profile. Also it doesn’t provide any statistical data about the scope and reach of the profile as for example a Facebook page has.

Here is a description of the use of group or page on Facebook.

	Group	Page
Applications	None	Most
Active Outreach	Post to Profile	Post to Profile Send Update to Fans Advertisements
Event Invitations	Invite Members	Invite Fans
Metrics	None	Comprehensive
Control of Associations	Partial	Yes

On the basis of all the above discussion we have concluded that Facebook Page is the best option for promoting any organization or sharing information to public.

we have also make a manual for how t use and manage the FB efficiently. at the same time we have submitted a social media strategy plan to SGC to make our project more successful. 

We have put forward our recommendations to the Seoul metropolitan government for further action. We had an open discussion in “Soul Town meeting with the mayor of Seoul on August 23, 2012. He was happy to listen our project.

Yesterday I receive a call from our Seoul International Students (SISF) coordinator that Seoul government is seriously thinking to practically imply our project. I think for me and my group C, it is indeed a great effort to give a policy that is accepted by the government. I must appreciate my Team, without their efforts it was almost impossible to work together. I must also thanks to Seoul Global center for providing us the best opportunity and to facilitate us all the way to success. 

"Long Live our Team C.... Long Live our Friendship"