The Heavy Burden of DX | Motohiro Tsuchiya, Vice-President and Professor, Graduate School of Media and Governance
2021.11.09
The first time I touched a computer was in elementary school. I was taught MS-DOS commands, but I was not excited at all. I remember getting bored quickly because I could not figure out how to do anything beyond the commands I was taught.
Later, as an undergraduate student at Hiyoshi Campus, I heard that we were entering an era where we had to be able to use computers properly, so I took a FORTRAN class. The instructor was from China and lectured on how to use the FORTRAN computer language, speaking Japanese with great effort, but it did not resonate with me, and I could not master it.
When I joined a seminar in my undergraduate program at Mita Campus, there was a student, H, who was a Macintosh devotee (I do not think it was abbreviated as "Mac" back then), and he taught me the basics. He even gave me his old Macintosh SE. The OS at that time had the curious name "KanjiTalk." I suppose it was meant to signify making the American-born Macintosh "speak" Japanese. I heard that H later went on to work for IBM Japan and lost interest in PC hardware.
When I entered the master's program, I had the opportunity to visit the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo. The internet was not yet freely available on the Mita Campus, so I spent a lot of time at the research center's campus and began to understand what the internet was. At home, I used email and a browser via dial-up, but it monopolized the phone line, leading to constant arguments with my family. At the research center, however, I could use it freely. But when I heard that the Rolling Stones had created a homepage and went to see it, it took about an hour for their trademark red tongue to appear on the screen.
In April 1996, when I entered the Ph.D. program at the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), the laboratories and special classrooms, known as "tokkyo," were lined with UNIX workstations. During my master's program at Mita Campus, accounts had not yet been issued to students. I vividly remember the face of the person at the SFC ITC (Information Technology Center) who, when I gave my dial-up email address after being asked for my email account, muttered "you poor thing" with a look of contempt.
At SFC back then, students were made to buy PCs at a discount from the co-op. Windows 95 had just been released in 1995, and it was common practice to read email by typing UNIX commands on a Windows PC. A graduate student who had come up through SFC taught me, telling me to memorize commands I did not understand. I read my emails as they scrolled across a black screen, wondering why I had to do such a thing.
During my Ph.D. program, while I struggled with UNIX commands at SFC, nearly all the computers at the Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM) of the International University of Japan, where I worked part-time, were Macintoshes. As a result, I ended up continuing to use a Macintosh.
When I returned to SFC as a faculty member in 2004, almost no one was using UNIX anymore. Windows was mainstream, and Macs (the name changed around 2001) were in the minority. However, in the 17 years since, I feel that the number of Macs has increased considerably.
Now, I am in charge of the information infrastructure for all of Keio University. And I have been tasked with overseeing DX (Digital Transformation). The more I learn about the actual situation, the more I realize what a massive undertaking it is. They say DX is not just about digitalization but aims to transform the very nature of the organization.
At Keio University, a multitude of different IT (Information Technology) systems are used across the affiliated schools, undergraduate faculties, graduate schools, hospitals, and administrative divisions. Some are new, but many old ones remain. Each is specialized for its respective division and has undergone extensive customization. There are many systems that staff in charge insist they cannot do their jobs without. However, to conduct education, research, medical care, and administration smoothly and seamlessly across Keio University as a whole, a significant amount of consolidation is necessary.
Teleworking due to the COVID-19 pandemic brought this to light. Some systems were only accessible from within the campus, and in the spring of 2020, when we still did not fully understand what the novel coronavirus was, we had no choice but to ask some staff members to come to campus.
Former Vice-President Jiro Kokuryo, who was in charge of information technology, laid the groundwork for me. However, the major shift in direction is yet to come.
I held the first meeting of the DX Promotion Committee. We had enthusiastic participants from the affiliated schools, various campuses, the hospital, and administrative divisions. Nevertheless, I am honestly anxious about how much we can accomplish.
The DX we will be implementing across Keio University will involve using the same systems in each division with as little customization as possible. Staff members are transferred between various divisions. Until now, they have had to adapt to the system of each division they belong to. Students and faculty members do not understand this and tend to insist on what they are familiar with. However, having moved between campuses myself, I can somewhat understand the staff's struggles.
Pupils and students want to learn across the boundaries of their affiliated schools, undergraduate and graduate faculties, and campuses. This is natural given the increase in online classes. However, because each division uses a different system, coordinating this has become a burden on the staff. Students and faculty raise their voices, asking, "Why can't it be done?" but it is quite troublesome. We will have to ask each division to give up the familiar systems and work procedures they are used to.
Organizing this is one of the tasks given to me by the President. To be honest, it is a heavy burden.