Executive Director's Report

I was recently invited to be a keynote presenter at a conference sponsored by NTT Data, in Japan, primarily to discuss the work and achievements of Davis Community Network (DCN) and Yolo Area Regional Network (YARN), and other community based approaches to building an internetworked society.

In the weeks prior to going, I had email communications with a few Japanese acquaintances for additional contacts. Kazuaki (Aki) Okabe and Hideko Yoshimoto, both journalists based in the Bay Area, who had previously reported on my efforts with the Telluride InfoZone and DCN, as well as on AFCN and other community networking initiatives in the US, provided numerous names and contact information. Izumi Aizu, currently based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, working on a pan-Asia network, provided me with contacts at GLOCOM, in Tokyo. In pursuit of my media arts interests and work, I also prearranged an appointment with the NTT Intercommunications Center, the primary facility for networked and digital media exhibitions and exploration in Japan.

Leaving Davis, CA, via Sacramento and San Francisco International Airport, departing at around noon on Monday, I arrived at Tokyo's Narita International Airport at around 4:00 on Tuesday afternoon. The arrangements for my travel, accommodations and other logistical needs had been very well organized by Kimiko Kondo, of My-Do Co., Inc., with a business class, no smoking seat on Japan Airlines and a stay at the very big and luxurious New Otani Hotel. Upon arrival, I was met by Rena Machida, a computer graphic artist, who escorted me from the airport to the hotel and provided my itinerary for the following day.

After a good night's sleep, and almost no jet-lag, I was met at the hotel lobby by Ms. Motoko Hayashi at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday the 28th, and taken by taxi to meet with my hosts and for what would be a long day of meetings and media interviews at the NTT Data offices. In addition to finally meeting Kimiko Kondo, I was introduced to and spent the day with Toshinobu Kanaya, Ph.D., and Kaori Watanabe of Praxis, Inc., a very impressive small think tank, research, publishing, and conference organizing group, which contracts with NTT Data on many projects, including the upcoming conference. Representing NTT Data, were research analysts, Naoyuki Tsunematsu and Hiromu Soukawa (Research Institute for System Science), Yoichiro Murakami, Senior Executive manager of the Institute, and Professor Emeritus at University of Tokyo, other NTT Data officials and Board Chairman, Shirou Fujita.

Interviews that day, facilitated by a most apt translator, were conducted with writers and editors from Yomiuri Shimbun (newspaper), Japan Broadcasting Corp., The Environmental News and Japanese Journal of Environment, Nikkei Home Publishing, NHK, and ASCII News Service. The subject of the interviews ranged from the work of Davis Community Network (with a live web connection in the room, for examples) and the Yolo Area Regional Network, to more general discussion of community partnerships, processes, problems and opportunities in the US and in Japan. Given the current economic crisis in Japan and increasing public mistrust of leadership, as well as understandings that top-down impositions will not succeed in building a distributed networked society, there was specially expressed interest in certain projects that DCN and others have set early examples for. These included the DCN Voter Information web site, with candidates financial disclosure information (a few days before the Nov. 3 elections); the pilot "WaterWorks" bioregional watershed decision support project; DCN's partnerships with UC Davis, local government and other government agencies, schools, libraries, non-profit organizations, and the business community (with Davis Virtual Markets).

That evening a group of us had an excellent Japanese restaurant dinner, and late night conversation about local cultural issues, other interesting projects and cooperative possibilities. It also provided the opportunity for us to get to know each other personally better, with a sense of some possible ongoing friendships beginning.

Motoko met me at the hotel again the next morning and we went to a restaurant for breakfast and more meetings with representatives from interested organizations. First was a very interesting exchange with Tamotsu Katada, with the Digital Communities Project, a Japanese initiative which a virtual university component, already partnering with North Carolina University, Chapel Hill. This was followed by a meeting with delegates from Fuji Research Institute Corporation , working on the technical aspects of networking Japanese communities, investigating the appropriateness of kiosks, and developing various online applications, but lacking a grounded understanding of the local social and economic implications and complexities inherent in people adopting and effectively using these systems.

Motoko then escorted me to my self-arranged meeting with Takuo Komatsuzaki, curator at the NTT Intercommunications Center. After a brief tour of the exhibits and installations, we spoke about my work as an artist, and about opportunities for future networked or on-site presentation. I have been remotely aware of the Center since its founding, have reference to some of my works in their online artists database, and know and admire many of the artists who have shown there, including Woody and Steina Vasulka who just recently installed a very successful work there.

We then went to GLOCOM (Center for Global Communications, International University of Japan), to meet and talk with Shumpei Kumon, Ph.D., Executive Director (former director at NTT Data); Takahiro Miyao, director of the CAN (Community Area Network) Forum; and Adam Peake, a research fellow from the UK. This group is central to much of the important good work being conducted on networked communications among community initiatives in Japan, as well as authoring policy recommendations and other critical research reports. They have recently hosted and met with Madeline Gonzalez (AFCN) and Andrew Cohill (Blacksburg Electronic Village). We had lots to share and will continue to be in touch.

After a late afternoon vegetarian lunch, Motoko and I returned to the hotel to meet with Shin Mizukoshi, a very bright young Associate Professor at the Institute of Socio-Information and Communication Studies, University of Tokyo. We had prearranged to meet, since Shin had been the organizer of an Information Society Forum on Sept. 26th in Tokyo, commemorating the 120th anniversary of Asahi Shimbun Press, featuring numerous speakers, including Steven Levy from the US. That Forum also included a video broadcast featuring the Davis Community Network, as well as Plugged In (East Palo Alto) and Senior Net. Shin is most interested and involved in cultural implications of increasing media penetration in society, and taught at Columbia University a few years ago.

That evening I had dinner with Shosaku Teramoto and his wife (Mikiko). I met Shosaku this past May, at the Government Technology Conference in Sacramento, and the following day when he attended the Agriculture, Environment and Telecommunications Summit, hosted by DCN and YARN. As Manager for Advanced Technology & Solutions at IBM Japan, he has been very active as a corporate liaison for a number of community networking initiatives in Japan, including the well know Yamada Village project.

Very late that night, I grabbed my camera gear (including nightscope) and wandered around back streets and busy neighborhoods, under a light drizzle, shooting a photo series of "Tokyo by Night".

Friday morning, I was taken to the JP Conference Hall for pre-conference set-up, meetings with organizers and other presenters, and introductions to some NTT and government officials. I had two very capable translators who assisted in personal communications and would provide simultaneous headphoned Japanese-English translation during the conference proceedings.

The title of the afternoon NTT Data Inforum 1998, attended by over 400 people, was "The Age of Consensus Community in the Information Age". After opening greetings and remarks by the Board Chairman of NTT Data Corp, Naoyuki Tsunematsu of NTT Data gave a presentation on the results of a just completed survey and book publication. This 5,000 person survey report, offered statistics on public views and participation in a networked society. Its underlying finding was that the majority of Japanese people are not optimistic about their or their children's future, and have deep concerns about top-down social and technical solutions as implemented to date.

I gave a half hour keynote on the example of DCN, with some additional comments on concepts that I have been promoting for some time: that tele-communities must be communities of learning, and that we need to incorporate and better understand the ecology of our actions in creating a tele-mediated society. This latter approach was much in line with the conference theme, which stressed an environmental and ecological context for community networking. My short description of applications for public access to online GIS resources, was of great interest to organizers and the audience.

The next presenters were Glenn Prickett, V.P. Corporate Partnerships, at Conservation International, Washington, DC, and Ms. Fumiko Fukuoka, C.I. Japan, both giving a very good overview of global environmental issues and the use of the Internet among activist groups to work together, share information, communicate and educate their constituencies.

After a short break, Professor Murakami led a panel discussion on the role of government and private sector in sharing and disseminating information for greater consensus building in society. In addition to myself, Mr. Tsunematsu and the C.I. presenters, the panel included Dr. Fumio Hasegawa, Dean of Tohoku University Graduate School of Art and Design , and Manabu Akaike, Director of the Universal Design Research Institute (a leading advocate of bioregionalism in Japan).

The lively panel discussion and moderated questions from the audience, were most thought provoking, and added to the planting of new seeds for tele-social development in Japan. They have many hurdles to overcome and some exciting opportunities, as we also do in the US. I will be interested in seeing how things proceed, and look forward to staying in touch with these newly made friends and colleagues.

At a reception after the conference, I additionally met many interesting individuals and local activists, including Nobuyoki Ueda, Ed.D., professor of Educational Technology at Konan Women's University (who studied at MIT), and Takashi Kawakami, who had taken a video production class at DCTV in Davis, last year.

That night, I got a much needed good sleep. On Saturday morning, I met with Takao Asano, with the Information Planning and Processing Section of city government in Sapporo , on Japan's northern island, Hokkaido. Takao had heard of my visit from Hideko Yoshimoto, and had arranged to meet with me at the hotel that morning. Working on many projects, including a community telecommunications center, he is a dedicated and bright community networking advocate (as well as a blues guitarist with a new CD about to come out), who I hope to be in continued contact with. Kaori Watanabe, of Praxis, Inc., a remarkable behind-the-scene hard worker, joined us later in the morning, and immediately struck up a possible joint venture testbed project between her group, some high tech. sponsors and Takao, as a point person for local government in Saporro; as well as their sharing a mutual interest in music. Successful networking! The three of us spent the rest of the day and evening, joined by Motoko Hayashi, sightseeing around new and old sections of Tokyo, taking a river ferry tour, photographing, enjoying meals (Japanese, Thai/Vietnamese and Italian), and having wide ranging conversation. This was resumed on Sunday morning, until it was time to say goodbye. It was a jam packed, inspiring and somewhat magical few days among wonderful people.

I flew out of Narita Airport at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, and arrived back in the Bay Area before noon on Sunday. Time traveling across the International Date Line is more of a near-virtual experience than the Internet can be. Back home in Davis, I'm already wading deep in the day to day efforts of this regional community network, with all of its dedicated, hard working community volunteers and partners. Lots of work ahead, putting the words of the past week into practical action.