Infobusiness issues in ROC

The infobusiness operation has been popular for many years in the ROC. Management information systems in the government, military, and enterprise were the original applications, and then came the information service requirement from various kinds of users. Computer networks, database systems, and information providers together proposed the draft infobusiness environment. Closed systems are still the ones that major infobusiness operations provide to their customers. Issues in the infobusiness development include: (1) closed systems limited the infobusiness opportunity. (2) Chinese character handling and the inconvenient localized environment blocked the user and the vendor in information service applications. (3) Public computer networks are not popular, hence the add-on value of infobusiness is invisible. (4) Large database handling experience is not available. These issues concern techniques, standards, and even laws. For example, the open system concept is generally acceptable, but it is usually too vague for the public. Open databases still do not talk smoothly to one another, especially when different operating systems on networks are trying to exchange Chinese information. Another factor is that the total number of standard Chinese characters is still in negotiation internationally although applications have been practised for 20 years on computers. In order to unify the number of Chinese characters, there is discussion about whether laws are necessary to define a formal discipline for creating new Chinese characters.<>