People use the term "global standard" when talking about worldwide benchmarks. A standard means a "norm." Standards are a promise that spans the economy, industry, and technology. Sometimes technological progress creates the need for a "standard," but a single standard can also drive a leap tantamount to a revolution. Based on a survey of experts from industry, academia, research, and the media, the National Institute of Technology and Standards and ChosunBiz selected the "top 10 standards that changed the world" and the "top 10 standards that changed the lives and economy of Koreans," and reexamine the role of standards. [Editor's note]
Recently, an old broadcast news clip posted across several internet communities and social media under the title "1990s K-office workers' commute" drew attention. From Sept. 9 to 12, 1990, an average of 452 millimeters of torrential rain fell over four days in the central region, breaking a Han River levee for the first time in 65 years and leaving 148 people missing. Yet on the 12th, the news reported office workers smiling as they waded through water up to their chests to get to work.
At the time, office workers had to go to the office no matter what. That was the social norm, but physically it was also impossible to work from home. The domestic computer penetration rate was in the low 10% range, and it was the "wired internet era." Up through the mid-to-late 1990s, people accessed the internet using telephone lines. Back then, if you used the internet, you couldn't use the phone. And you could only use the internet if the telephone line and PC were connected. So to work, office workers had to go to their companies where there were PCs.
When the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) established the first Wi-Fi-related standard (IEEE 802.11) in 1997, the "wireless internet era" began. The first Wi-Fi transmission speed was 2 Mbps (about 0.25 MB per second), which is quite slow compared with today's mainstream 4G (150–180 Mbps). On top of that, it would crash if even a few more users tried to connect.
Since then, new standards have been released steadily with incremental speed improvements. The latest standard (IEEE 802.11be) has a maximum download speed of 46 Gbps. In theory, it could take 2 seconds to download a 10 GB movie. Wi-Fi made it possible to enter a hyperconnected society where people anywhere in the world can share the same screen and communicate.
Bluetooth is another wireless communication technology that removed cables. Bluetooth wirelessly connects nearby computers, mobile devices, and home appliances to enable real-time, two-way communication. Bluetooth appeared three years before Wi-Fi. Ericsson, a Swedish telecommunications equipment company, developed it in 1994.
Later, Bluetooth was adopted as an international standard by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), an international standards body formed with Ericsson at its core alongside IBM, Intel, Nokia, and Toshiba. The name Bluetooth is said to come from the Viking king Harald Bluetooth, who unified Denmark and Norway.