• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.141-170
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• 2010

User created content (UCC) is created and shared by common users on line. From the user's perspective, the increase of UCCs has led to an expansion of alternative means of communications, while from the business perspective UCCs have formed an environment in which an abundant amount of new contents can be produced. Despite outward quantitative growth, however, many aspects of UCCs do not meet the expectations of general users in terms of quality, and this can be observed through pirated contents and user-copied contents. The purpose of this research is to investigate effective methods for fostering production of creative user-generated content. This study proposes two core elements, namely, reward and motivation, which are believed to enhance content creativity as well as the mediating factor and users' committement, which will be effective for bridging the increasing motivation and content creativity. Based on this perspective, this research takes an in-depth look at issues related to constructing the dimensions of reward and motivation in UCC services for creative content product, which are identified in three phases. First, three dimensions of rewards have been proposed: task dimension, social dimension, and organizational dimention. The task dimension rewards are related to the inherent characteristics of a task such as writing blog articles and pasting photos. Four concrete ways of providing task-related rewards in UCC environments are suggested in this study, which include skill variety, task significance, task identity, and autonomy. The social dimensioni rewards are related to the connected relationships among users. The organizational dimension consists of monetary payoff and recognition from others. Second, the two types of motivations are suggested to be affected by the diverse rewards schemes: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation occurs when people create new UCC contents for its' own sake, whereas extrinsic motivation occurs when people create new contents for other purposes such as fame and money. Third, commitments are suggested to work as important mediating variables between motivation and content creativity. We believe commitments are especially important in online environments because they have been found to exert stronger impacts on the Internet users than other relevant factors do. Two types of commitments are suggested in this study: emotional commitment and continuity commitment. Finally, content creativity is proposed as the final dependent variable in this study. We provide a systematic method to measure the creativity of UCC content based on the prior studies in creativity measurement. The method includes expert evaluation of blog pages posted by the Internet users. In order to test the theoretical model of our study, 133 active blog users were recruited to participate in a group discussion as well as a survey. They were asked to fill out a questionnaire on their commitment, motivation and rewards of creating UCC contents. At the same time, their creativity was measured by independent experts using Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Finally, two independent users visited the study participants' blog pages and evaluated their content creativity using the Creative Products Semantic Scale. All the data were compiled and analyzed through structural equation modeling. We first conducted a confirmatory factor analysis to validate the measurement model of our research. It was found that measures used in our study satisfied the requirement of reliability, convergent validity as well as discriminant validity. Given the fact that our measurement model is valid and reliable, we proceeded to conduct a structural model analysis. The results indicated that all the variables in our model had higher than necessary explanatory powers in terms of R-square values. The study results identified several important reward shemes. First of all, skill variety, task importance, task identity, and automony were all found to have significant influences on the intrinsic motivation of creating UCC contents. Also, the relationship with other users was found to have strong influences upon both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Finally, the opportunity to get recognition for their UCC work was found to have a significant impact on the extrinsic motivation of UCC users. However, different from our expectation, monetary compensation was found not to have a significant impact on the extrinsic motivation. It was also found that commitment was an important mediating factor in UCC environment between motivation and content creativity. A more fully mediating model was found to have the highest explanation power compared to no-mediation or partially mediated models. This paper ends with implications of the study results. First, from the theoretical perspective this study proposes and empirically validates the commitment as an important mediating factor between motivation and content creativity. This result reflects the characteristics of online environment in which the UCC creation activities occur voluntarily. Second, from the practical perspective this study proposes several concrete reward factors that are germane to the UCC environment, and their effectiveness to the content creativity is estimated. In addition to the quantitive results of relative importance of the reward factrs, this study also proposes concrete ways to provide the rewards in the UCC environment based on the FGI data that are collected after our participants finish asnwering survey questions. Finally, from the methodological perspective, this study suggests and implements a way to measure the UCC content creativity independently from the content generators' creativity, which can be used later by future research on UCC creativity. In sum, this study proposes and validates important reward features and their relations to the motivation, commitment, and the content creativity in UCC environment, which is believed to be one of the most important factors for the success of UCC and Web 2.0. As such, this study can provide significant theoretical as well as practical bases for fostering creativity in UCC contents.

• MISULJARYO - National Museum of Korea Art Journal
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• v.98
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• pp.104-129
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• 2020

Designated as a national treasure of Korea and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the Tripitaka Koreana at Haeinsa Temple is the world's oldest and most comprehensive extant version of the Tripitaka in Hanja script (i.e., Chinese characters). The set consists of 81,352 carved woodblocks, some of which have two or more copies, which are known as "duplicate woodblocks." These duplicates are supplementary woodblocks (bogakpan) that were carved some time after the original production, likely to replace blocks that had been eroded or damaged by repeated printings. According to the most recent survey, the number of supplementary woodblocks is 118, or approximately 0.14% of the total set, which attests to the outstanding preservation of the original woodblocks. Research on the supplementary woodblocks can reveal important details about the preservation and management of the Tripitaka Koreana woodblocks. Most of the supplementary woodblocks were carved during the Joseon period (1392-1910) or Japanese colonial period (1910-1945). Although the details of the woodblocks from the Japanese colonial period have been recorded and organized to a certain extent, no such efforts have been made with regards to the woodblocks from the Joseon period. This paper analyzes the characteristics and production date of the supplementary woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana. The sutra with the most supplementary woodblocks is the Maha Prajnaparamita Sutra (Perfection of Transcendental Wisdom), often known as the Heart Sutra. In fact, 76 of the total 118 supplementary woodblocks (64.4%) are for this sutra. Hence, analyses of printed versions of the Maha Prajnaparamita Sutra should illuminate trends in the carving of supplementary woodblocks for the Tripitaka Koreana, including the representative characteristics of different periods. According to analysis of the 76 supplementary woodblocks of the Maha Prajnaparamita Sutra, 23 were carved during the Japanese colonial period: 12 in 1915 and 11 in 1937. The remaining 53 were carved during the Joseon period at three separate times. First, 14 of the woodblocks bear the inscription "carved in the mujin year by Haeji" ("戊辰年更刻海志"). Here, the "mujin year" is estimated to correspond to 1448, or the thirtieth year of the reign of King Sejong. On many of these 14 woodblocks, the name of the person who did the carving is engraved outside the border. One of these names is Seonggyeong, an artisan who is known to have been active in 1446, thus supporting the conclusion that the mujin year corresponds to 1448. The vertical length of these woodblocks (inside the border) is 21 cm, which is about 1 cm shorter than the original woodblocks. Some of these blocks were carved in the Zhao Mengfu script. Distinguishing features include the appearance of faint lines on some plates, and the rough finish of the bottoms. The second group of supplementary woodblocks was carved shortly after 1865, when the monks Namho Yeonggi and Haemyeong Jangung had two copies of the Tripitaka Koreana printed. At the time, some of the pages could not be printed because the original woodblocks were damaged. This is confirmed by the missing pages of the extant copy that is now preserved at Woljeongsa Temple. As a result, the supplementary woodblocks are estimated to have been produced immediately after the printing. Evidently, however, not all of the damaged woodblocks could be replaced at this time, as only six woodblocks (comprising eight pages) were carved. On the 1865 woodblocks, lines can be seen between the columns, no red paint was applied, and the prayers of patrons were also carved into the plates. The third carving of supplementary woodblocks occurred just before 1899, when the imperial court of the Korean Empire sponsored a new printing of the Tripitaka Koreana. Government officials who were dispatched to supervise the printing likely inspected the existing blocks and ordered supplementary woodblocks to be carved to replace those that were damaged. A total of 33 supplementary woodblocks (comprising 56 pages) were carved at this time, accounting for the largest number of supplementary woodblocks for the Maha Prajnaparamita Sutra. On the 1899 supplementary woodblocks, red paint was applied to each plate and one line was left blank at both ends.