Taking a Closer Look at the Venture Boom.

The 320th issue of the Dongguk Post certainly featured a topic of great relevance to current university students: The Venture Boom. Society and business are changing at a pace not seen since the Industrial Revolution, and for the most part, the Post did a good job of covering several areas of interest and concern related to the new and burgeoning opportunity that the Internet has created. How this will affect universities and students was a central theme, however, it was only examined from a domestic perspective.The Venture Boom, although a relatively young phenomenon, certainly has its roots in Silicon Valley and nearby universities such as Stanford and UC Berkeley. These schools are forerunners in the Internet era, and examination of how they have fostered and encouraged entrepreneurship would have served as an interesting basis for comparison with the changes that Dongguk and other Korean universities are currently undergoing.Internet giants such as E-bay, Yahoo, and Sun Microsystems (which actually derives its name from Stanford university) were created by Stanford students and graduates. A closer look at what role the school played in the nurturing and development of these blue chip firms, along with any side effects to the quality and integrity of education, as well as any benefits, both financial and otherwise, would have provided a more balanced view of the pros and cons of school involvement in business incubation.Overall, the Post should be commended for its efforts as it is no simple task to produce a periodical, much less one in a foreign language. I look forward to reading future issues and appreciate to opportunity to comment.

The writer is a professor of English conversation at Center for Language Research and Institute.