Summary of The Third Symposium on Creation of Science and Technology Knowledge Platform - Part 2 -

By Hajime Yamada (GLOCOM)

Seinosuke Yano, Director of Kitakyushu Techno Center Corporation, made a speech after the panel discussion. Kitakyushu Techno Center is a TLO for transferring technology from universities. In addition, its business includes technology transfer from local companies. This makes the Center a unique organization different from other TLOs. Kitakyushu Techno Center has already achieved six consent contracts for implementation of patents. After reporting their activities, Yano shared his views on the future of Japan as follows:
In order to combat the decline in Japan's international competitiveness, we must arm ourselves with our curiosity, enthusiasm for improvement and taste for subtlety, and continue to ship to the world our new products supported by intellectual property rights. Therefore, an efficient technology transfer system is necessary, and competition and cooperation beyond organizational boundaries is essential.

Kazuyoshi Korida, Special Research Staff of the Institute for Hypernetwork Society, made a speech on the role that the Institute plays in the informatization of Oita Prefecture. Korida explained that real informatization is to pile up, on top of the cycle of production, distribution and consumption of substantial objects, the intangible loop of production, transmission and utilization of information. In order to realize this, information loops must be built from bottom-up, just as the cycle of substantial objects have been constructed. The top-down concept of officially structuring an information network, and doing nothing afterwards, is wrong. That is the reason why the Institute cooperates with the informatization of Oita Prefecture.

Finally, Shunichiro Deguchi and Masao Mori, Director and Media Producer, respectively, of Nikko Forum made a speech on a system called Sangyoten promoted by the Japan Industrial Journal. The Japan Industrial Journal established a portal site called Sangyoten as a measure devised for a newspaper company to deal with an era in which all individuals can broadcast information. Corporations can freely place their information on the new products in this portal site, and engineers and persons in charge of purchasing can freely retrieve the data. It has already grown to be a site with 20 thousand access hits per day. Business expenses are earned by a system in which the Journal analyzes each access, processes it into marketing information, and sells the information. Both Deguchi and Mori aim to become not an electronic catalogue supplier of product information, but a coordinator of knowledge-level cooperation between suppliers and those who need products.

In summary, this symposium introduced examples of some groups actually being formed beyond organizational boundaries. These groups are considered to be the leading examples of Group-Forming Media that Professor Kumon has been advocating. Compared to previous symposiums associated with the Creation of Science and Technology Knowledge Platform, which mainly consisted of conceptual-level discussions, this one was a symposium with much more practical contents.