A Fruitful ORF Autumn | Hideyuki Tokuda (Dean, Graduate School of Media and Governance)

2010.11.18

This year, after a very hot and long summer, we had a cold October, and now in November, it has finally started to feel like a mild autumn. Every November, as the annual Open Research Forum (ORF) approaches, members of my lab get busy with system development in the final push. When ORF first started, it was held on campus. Recently, to allow more people to see the results of our research and educational activities at SFC, we have been holding it at venues in the city center, such as Roppongi Hills and Otemachi Oazo. This time, as it is the 20th anniversary of SFC's opening, several sessions have been planned to discuss the future of SFC. On the evening of November 23, there is "Thinking about the Future of KEIO—The Path Forward for Keio University SFC," a premium session with external experts. Also, on the afternoon of November 23, current students and alumni will hold the "SFC 20th Anniversary Future Creation Contest: Grand Final."

Another event we have planned is the "Keitai Future Contest," also on the evening of November 23. The final judging for this contest, which asks everyone from first-graders in elementary school to graduate students to envision the future of mobile phone-type devices, is scheduled.

When SFC was established, it was the first in Japan to require all first-year students to have a recommended personal computer (PC), which they used not only for classes and research projects but also as an intellectual stationery to support their daily campus life. It may surprise some people now, but back in 1990, the term "e-mail address" had not yet become common, and it was a time when some people even confused it with a fax. We received questions from students asking how to use these addresses. Furthermore, for the recommended PCs in 1990, the modem for connecting to campus was an option, and we even held workshops in the Omega Building on how to install them. Of course, there were no hard disks or 3G mobile communication functions.

In 2010, when we recommend smartphones, there is an overwhelming difference, even though they are the same kind of intellectual stationery. They are "connected" anytime, anywhere. Without the task of "connecting" to the campus, friends, or smart objects, you can be naturally connected and communicate and collaborate in real time. Students will have an intellectual stationery with processing power that is incomparable to the PCs of the early 1990s. Some people in the telecommunications carrier industry may think of it as merely an extension of the telephone, but I see it as a mobile phone-type device that is a completely different "intellectual amplifier."

In fact, in our country, due to differences in the business strategies of telecommunications carriers, smartphones equipped with 3G and wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) functions and a web browser were slow to be introduced to the market, entering several years later than in Europe and the United States. Furthermore, the current situation is that very few SIM-unlocked devices are sold, so it is not possible to freely choose a device and carrier, or an OS and carrier, independently.

This autumn, we have finally entered an era in Japan where a wide variety of smartphones can be purchased. At SFC, we have an educational and research environment where many services, including SFC-SFS and GC, can be used from the CNS via a browser. I hope that students will use their smartphones not just as PCs, but as amplifiers for their own intellectual stamina, and have a fruitful autumn.

(Date Published: 2010/11/18)