Kite Flying Festival and the Council on ICT Growth Strategy | Hideyuki Tokuda (Dean, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies)
June 13, 2008
On May 17, we held the memorable first Kite Flying Festival, hosted by the Keio Endo Kite Association (tentative name), on the grounds of Fujisawa Junior and Senior High School together with local residents. On that day, we had first-year students taking the courses "Creation of Policy Management" and "Creation of Environment and Information Studies" join us, and they were taught how to make and fly kites. Apparently, many people in the Endo area used to fly kites. Several first-year students gave it a try, and while they managed to get a few small kites up to some extent, the main large kite unfortunately could not be flown due to a lack of wind. We decided to try again next year by making our own kites.
From May 19, I participated with students in an international conference on ubiquitous computing called Pervasive 2008, held in Sydney. Our research group gave a total of four presentations: three in the demo session and one in the video session. As in previous years, the conference held its "One Minute Madness," where all presenters from the demo, video, and poster sessions line up and give one-minute teaser presentations one after another. While the technical sessions for hearing about cutting-edge research are important, events like this "One Minute Madness" or "Two Minutes Madness" provide an excellent opportunity for students to hone their presentation skills. I believe the level of English presentations by Japanese university and graduate students is certainly improving, but the best presenters have a certain ease and wit about them. Simply presenting one's research with brute force is not enough to reach the next level of presentation.
Now, for the topic of this entry. Since the theme this time is "free choice," I will touch on the topic of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' "Council on ICT Growth Strategy," which I have been assisting with since February of this year. This council was established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to strategically consider, from a broad perspective, measures for realizing a safe, secure, convenient, and prosperous society by leveraging the world's most advanced ICT (Information and Communication Technology) infrastructure, with the aim of enhancing Japan's competitiveness and contributing to the international community. It is chaired by Teruyasu Murakami, a Senior Fellow at Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. and a Guest Professor (Part-time) at our Graduate School of Media and Governance, and consists of a total of 11 members. I don't know when people started being called "members" (kōseiin), but the term has a peculiar ring to it. Despite Japan's ICT infrastructure being among the best in the world, we are discussing how to overcome the current situation where its utilization has not progressed sufficiently, and how to leverage it to enhance Japan's growth potential and competitiveness. At each meeting, various members discuss various topics from various perspectives. For those who are interested, please see the minutes . There is also a relay column written by the 11 members.
My turn has not yet come, but I have decided to write my column on the theme "A nation cannot be empowered without empowering its individuals," based on Yukichi Fukuzawa's words, "First be independent as an individual, then as a nation." Of course, I am well aware that national-level policies are also important, but I believe that without improving the ICT literacy of each individual, the utilization of even the most advanced infrastructure will not progress, nor will it lead to an increase in the nation's growth potential. Furthermore, as I wrote in a previous Dean's Diary entry about network robots, I believe that technological innovation alone is often not enough to develop into the kind of innovation that evolves society. Incidentally, under the current Road Traffic Act, robots are not allowed on public roads. Based on experiences such as the Robot Special Zones (Special Zones for Robot Development and Demonstration Experiments) in Fukuoka City and Kitakyushu City, I believe that innovation is also needed in the reform of various social systems, and that innovation driven by both technology and social systems as two wheels of a cart is essential.
I believe that the role of SFC, which has the potential to bring about these two types of innovation and to discuss them in depth, is becoming increasingly important.
(Published: June 13, 2008)