<<February 3, 2001>>
Archived distributions can be retrieved by clicking on the top lines of our home page at <http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/>.

Dr. Paul Lefrere <p.lefrere@open.ac.uk>

P. Tapio Varis, Ph.D, Professor <tapio.varis@uta.fi>

Mart Susi <susim@ciue.edu.ee>

John M. Eger <jeger@mail.sdsu.edu>

Professor Mark Armstrong <m.armstrong@rmit.edu.au>

James R. Sheats <sheats@spica.hpl.hp.com>

Dr. David Levy <AXEL@conted.lan.mcgill.ca>

Steven Donahue <sdonah01@bellsouth.net>

Marietta C. Mojica <MCM947@yahoo.com>

Ms. Pureza IV. Veloso <reza_7454@yahoo.com>

Alexandre Rivas, Ph.D. <alex_mau@argo.com.br>

Tunji Lardner, CEO <Agenda2@aol.com>

Dear Paul:
==========

(1) Hope you had a very fruitful trip to Tampere, Finland from 1/31st to
2/2nd, for our project of community development in Estonia and
Barcelona with possible fund from European Commission which
application deadline is April 15th. I look forward to receiving all
the materials you and Tapio produced for the project.

(2) ATTACHMENT I is a copy of John Eger's wonderful essay which tells the
principles and directions of the community development for your reference.

I would strongly suggest that you visit his web site, also.

Dear Mark:
==========

Although you marked it DRAFT ONLY, I took the liberty of
attaching it here, since there is a deadline constraint.

(3) I also suggest that you visit Jim Sheats' web site, too.

Dear Jim:
=========

One of your PowerPoint slides says that you are planning to have
a project with the use of 3G mobile phones in China.

BTW, our planned English as Second Language (ESL) e-learning
program with David Levy is to use a laptop (or better yet,
SONY's PictureBook at 2.2 pound with a built-in camera) and
mobile phones (e.g., DoCoMo of NTT in Japan which can access
Internet at 128 Kbps), since the PictureBook can provide a
larger screen -- I think HP is a pioneer of mini-calculators and
notebook computers, too.

See followings at
http://www.friends-partners.org/~utsumi/gu-l/mid-2000/index.html

a. "English as a Second Language e-Learning course proposal - December 16, 2000"

b. "ESL program for Japanese business people - December 19, 2000"

c. "DVD-ROM and Electronic Books for ESL plan - December 21, 2000"

David's English course via terrestrial radio was one of the most
popular courses in China for almost 2 decades.

We plan to utilize an innovative technique of teaching
pronunciation via web by Steve Donahue which was mentioned in
his E-testimony for the US Web-based Education Commission.

Dear Steve:
===========

Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT III). Pls inform me
of your two alternatives of the interview -- preferably
before the end of March, since I will have extensive travel
schedules in April and May.

Pls convey to Janine Firpo if the similar approach may be
applicable in China, and ask her to contact me.

Dear Marietta in Cavita, Philippines:
=====================================

(4) Referring to your msg in ATTACHMENT I in "Visit to Cavite State
University in the Philippines - February 1, 2001" at
http://www.friends-partners.org/~utsumi/gu-l/early-2001/index.html,

your vice-governor may be interested in reading John Eger's essay.

Dear Pureza in Cebu, Philippines:
=================================

(5) You may also distribute copies of John's essay to attendees of your seminar on April 20th.

How is your preparation of the graduation ceremony on 4/18th and seminar on 4/20th?

Dear Alex in Manaus, Amazon:
============================

(6) You may also include the principles and directions of the community
development as John stated, into your grant application to the InfoDev.

BTW, how is it progressing since our last correspondences?

Dear Tunji in Lagos, Nigeria:
=============================

(7) You may also show John's essay to the officials of the local
governments in Lagos, Nigeria.

Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I

DRAFT

Collected Papers from
the Sixth Meeting of Foundations and Institutions
concerned with the Future of World Communications
and World Community

on 25 September 2000
at St Pete Beach, Florida, United States of America
Hoso-Bunka Foundation, Inc

Contents

Introduction
Welcome
Cultural Ecology Project of the Japanese Foundations
Some priorities for the next two years as seen by the FES
Report of Japan Media Communication Center (JAMCO)
Report of the Hoso-Bunka Foundation
Report of TeleFoundation
Report of the International Communications Foundation (ICF)
Report of the Telecommunications Advancement Foundation (TAF)
Proposal for creation of the World Forum on Communications
Smart communities concept
Proposal for a Global Services Trust Fund and International Coalition
for Global Information Infrastructure in Education and Healthcare
Discussion paper on holding a global summit for establishment of Global
Services Trust Fund (GSTF)
WRTVC project on measurement of public broadcasting impact
List of participants
About the Hoso-Bunka Foundation
About the Network Insight Group
========================================

Smart Communities Concept

by Professor John M. Eger, Executive Director, International Center for
Communications, San Diego State University

Cyberspace and Cyberplace: Building the Smart Communities of Tomorrow

(As background to his proposal, Professor Eger kindly provided the following
article which he wrote in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Sunday, October 26, 1997.)

In a space of five years, the great global network of computer networks
called the Internet has blossomed from an arcane tool used by academics and
government researchers into a worldwide mass communications medium, now
poised to become the leading carrier of all communications and financial
transactions affecting life and work in the 21st Century.

The Internet's so-called World Wide Web has been even more spectacular. With
30 million-plus users worldwide, growing at 15 percent per month, it is being
integrated into the marketing, information, and communications strategies of
nearly every major corporation, educational institution, political and
charitable organization, community, and government agency in the United
States. Other nations are not too far behind.

No previous advance -- not the telephone, the television set, cable
television, the VCR, the facsimile machine, nor the cellular telephone -- has
penetrated public consciousness and secured such widespread public adoption this quickly.

Where is this all leading? Predictions range from electronic "virtual
communities" in which people interact socially with like-minded Internet
users around the globe, to fully networked homes in which electronic devices
and other appliances whirr to life on the homeowner's spoken command. From
Bill Gates and pop-scholars, like Megatrends' John Naisbitt, futuristic and
business leaders alike paint a future that looks a lot like science fiction -
except that it's fast becoming reality.

In recent years, it has become fashionable to refer to the domain in which
Internet-based communications occur as "cyberspace" -- an abstract
"communications space" that exists both everywhere and nowhere. But until
flesh-and-blood human beings can be digitised into electronic pulses in the
same way in which computer scientists have transformed data and images, the
denizens of cyberspace will have to live IRL ("in real life") in some sort of
real, physical space - a physical environment that will continue to dominate
and constrain our future lives in the same way that our homes neighbourhoods,
and communities do so today.

The Rise of Smart Communities

Already, communities and nations around the globe -- often without being
consciously aware of it -- are starting to sketch out the first drafts of the
"cyberplaces" of the 21st century. Singapore has launched its IT2000
initiative, also known as the Intelligent Island Plan. Japan is building an
electronic future called Technopolis, or Teletopia. France, as early as 1976,
initiated a plan called Telematique, an aggressive effort to place personal
computers on every desktop and in every home in the country. And in the
United States, the Clinton Administration is pursuing a vigorous National
Information Initiative, or NII, one of whose early goals is to link every
school and every school child to the Internet by the year 2000.

Many communities in the United States -- and indeed worldwide -- have
undertaken similar initiatives. Stockholm, Seattle, and Sacramento, for
instance, have constructed large-scale public access networks that residents
can use to obtain information about government activities, community events,
and critical social services like disaster preparedness, child abuse
prevention, and literacy education. The university town of Blacksburg,
Virginia, has transform ed itself into an electronic village, in which the
majority of the town's businesses and residents are connected to the local
data network. And cities like San Diego, as part of its "City of the Future"
project, are building even more sophisticated electronic infrastructures
that, one day soon, will allow a wide variety of local government, business,
and institutional transactions.

Recognizing that electronic networks like these will play an increasingly
important role in a municipality's economic competitiveness, the State of
California early last year launched a statewide "Smart Communities" program,
which has been managed since its inception by the International Center for
Communications at San Diego State University. The program defines a "smart
community" as "a geographical area ranging in size from a neighbourhood to a
multi-county region whose residents, organizations, and governing
institutions are using information technology to transform their region in
significant, even fundamental ways."

California's Smart Community program's fundamental premise was that smart
communities were not, at their core, exercises in the deployment and use of
technology, but in the promotion of economic development, job growth, and an
increased quality of life. In other words, technological propagation in smart
communities wasn't an end in itself, but only a means to a larger end with
clear and compelling community benefit.

Technology, Culture, and Place

One of the main reasons we suspected that information networks could have a
profoundly transformative effect on people, businesses, and communities was
that every other major technology advance that has shrunk space and time also
has remade society in fundamental and important ways.

Transportation, over the millennia has done more than perhaps any other
technological advance to bring the world's people closer together. But
telecommunications developments, including telephones and their more modem
kin, accentuated the trends inaugurated by transportation advances in three
slightly different, but very important ways. First, by allowing for rapid
communication between distant sites, they made it possible for business and
social relationships to flourish over long distances, permitting workers and
investment capital to migrate to the most desirable locations and those with
the highest economic return. Second, they extended the reach of these
economic, social, and other relationships far beyond national borders,
creating what was truly a global economy. And third, and perhaps most
significantly, they made possible for the first time the nearly instantaneous
transmission of information, collapsing both space and time in a way that no
other previous technological advance had done.

The Internet, the World Wide Web, and their successors are likely to produce
consequences that are as great or greater than anything we have seen so far --
and that are apt to be equally unexpected. If we are to maximise the
positive contributions of these new technologies while minimising their
negative ones, we must begin to appreciate now how these technologies are
likely to affect our people, our culture, and our perceptions of place in the years to come.

The Architecture of the Smart Community

There are a few general trends worth noting. The first is the growing
ubiquitousness of telecommunications networks. Because it is based largely on
the existing telephone system, the Internet today spans the globe, with its
tentacles reaching into more than 130 countries and connecting, in one form
or another, an estimated 30 million to 50 million people. This expansion
shows no signs of letting up. Indeed, as the Internet migrates from its
almost purely copper-based telephone platform to cable, satellite, and
digital cellular systems, the methods of connecting to the Internet will
proliferate, access costs will decline, and the number of users will skyrocket.

The second general trend in the development of the Internet is the rapid
expansion in bandwidth. In its original incarnation (which lasted for more
than two decades), the Internet was primarily a low volume text-based medium,
and so required little transmission capacity. The emergence of the World Wide
Web, with its heavy use of graphics, photographs, and animation, changed this
equation dramatically, and even top-of-the-line modem technologies -- the
28.8 and 33.6 KBPS modems -- quickly proved inadequate to the task of
transporting these billions of bits of graphical information, causing many
parts of the Internet to react like a two-lane freeway suddenly jammed with a
hundred- or thousand-fold increase in the number of vehicles.

In San Diego, the media giant Time Warner already has begun to install modem
connecting devices which vastly increase the speed of Internet traffic within
its service area, and providers in other cities are expected to quickly
follow suit. Other technologies make possible transmission speeds of 50 times
that of current modems, with further advances -- some revolutionary -- likely
to occur in the near future and offer us unlimited capabilities.

None of this means that all of the world's five billion people will be hooked
up to the Internet by the end of 1997. What it does mean is that the
potential for connecting to the Internet will be essentially unlimited -- and
that, for an increasing share of the Internet-ready population, users will be
able to send and receive not just text and simple graphics, but broadcast-quality
video, audio, advanced computer graphics, and virtual reality. And
they will be able to do so, not with the long waits that are common over the
World Wide Web today, but nearly instantaneously.

The third and perhaps most important trend in the development of the Internet
is the proliferation of access points. Heretofore. logging on to the Internet
has required a fairly sophisticated computer, costing in the neighbourhood of
$2,000 or more, which has priced the Internet out of the range of a large
share of low- and middle-income families in the United States, not to mention
the vast majority of the rest of the world's population. This high cost of
access has combined with the relative inconvenience of using a computer --
sitting before a computer, unlike a television set, is hardly the most
relaxing experience -- to restrict the Internet largely to the
technologically oriented, well-to-do minority. This is one of the main
reasons why many communities like San Diego, have undertaken aggressive
public access initiatives to install computers and kiosks at community
centres, public libraries, and other public sites in order to make it
possible for people who don't own a computer to use the Internet.

But this situation also is changing. Already, several companies, including
Sony and Phillips, have introduced devices that allow people to log on to and
browse the Internet directly from their television sets, and the number of
such devices is likely to multiply over the next two years, particularly as
cable television companies become more involved in the Internet-access
business. Similarly, other companies are beginning to distribute
videoconferencing equipment that will allow people to make videophone calls
over the Internet, to and from their television sets.

As a result of developments like these, we are quickly reaching a point at
which the world will be interconnected by a next-generation Internet that
allows for instantaneous transmission of text, photographs, and
broadcast-quality audio, video, and virtual reality, not to expensive computers nor
any-other new technological device, but to the ordinary television sets that
are now in place in hundreds of millions of living rooms worldwide.

The Changing Geopolitical Context

These technological changes are taking place at the same time that the
world's geopolitical landscape is being radically redefined. No longer
dependent upon national governments for policy ideas and information, no
longer content to be bound by the one-size-fits-all pronouncements of
national legislators, local leaders are taking social and economic matters
into their own hands, pursuing policies that will promote job creation,
economic growth, and an improved quality of life within their region
regardless of the policies enacted at the national level.

This "reverse flow of sovereignty," in which local governments are assuming
more responsibility than ever before for their residents' well-being, has
come about at a time when information and markets of all types are becoming
increasingly globalise. News, currency, and economic and political
intelligence -- not to mention products and services -- no longer can be
contained within national borders, but flow, often instantaneously, to all
corners of the globe, making it difficult or even impossible for national
governments to influence political or economic conditions over which, not
long ago, they held unquestioned control. The result is a geopolitical
paradox in which the nation-state, too large and distant to solve the
problems of localities, has become too small to solve the borderless problems
of the world.

Locally based companies that once competed with firms only in their own area
code, for instance, now must battle companies throughout the world for their
customers' loyalty and dollars; local governments that once had to compete
for high-value residents against only nearby municipalities and the amenities
they could muster now must struggle to attract such residents in a world
where a growing number of people can live nearly anywhere they want and still
have access to the same jobs, the same income, and the same products and
services to which they have grown accustomed.

To meet these challenges, many far-sighted localities have begun to transform
themselves from fractured, often highly contentious regions in which a
thousand interests compete for larger shares of a shrinking pie into
something more akin to the city-states of old than to the archetypical
municipalities of modern-day political science texts.

Those that are succeeding, like Smart Valley and San Diego possess a number
of common features. One characteristic is collaboration among different
functional sectors government, business, academia non-profit organizations,
and others), and among different jurisdictions within a given geographical
region. These "collaboratories" are fast becoming the new model for
successful urban organization in the global age, and the only local political
arrangement likely to make it possible for besieged municipalities to survive
in the increasingly intense global competition that lies ahead.

This point, admittedly a subtle one, is often lost in discussions of building
smart communities, and even in the implementation of many of the smart
community projects themselves. But it couldn't be more important.

The Technological Mandate for Smart Communities

It is here that telecommunications and information technology -- the force
behind localities' current geopolitical and economic predicament -- also can
be their salvation. More so than any previous technological innovation, this
development will erase the barriers of time and space that physical geography
has long imposed, giving a municipality's residents and businesses round-the-clock
access to information that can enhance their lives, their prosperity, and their well-being.

These are just some of the many possible ingredients of the technologically
driven smart communities of the coming century, and they are the basis on
which communities around the globe are likely to compete for high-value
residents, jobs, and businesses in the years ahead. They also are apt to be
one of the most powerful ways in which financially strapped localities will
be able to reduce the cost and burden of government while simultaneously
increasing the quality and level of government services.

This new competitive environment, however, will not come about automatically.
Communities must develop a coherent and compelling vision that makes it clear
how the new information networks are going to promote job growth, economic
development, and improved quality of life within the community: and
communicate that vision broadly. This is the key element that is missing from
so many smart community plans today, and yet it is the most essential: for
unless a community knows precisely where it is headed and how it hopes to get
there, it is unlikely to reach its destination, to its detriment and all of
us who are stakeholders in this new but uncertain future.

Professor Eger is President and Chief Executive Officer of the World
Foundation for Smart Communities.
****************************************
ATTACHMENT II

From: James R Sheats <sheats@spica.hpl.hp.com>
Subject: Re: My traveling schedules in April and May vs. Seminar in Nicaragua
To: utsumi@friends-partners.org
Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2001 14:25:42 PST
Cc: PROENZA-FAO@iadb.org, sheats@hpl.hp.com, utsumi@columbia.edu

Hello Tak,

Thanks for your continued interest in our work, and I hope you have been
able to visit our website at www.hp.com/e-inclusion to view the more general
project, of which LINCOS is just one part. I think there are many points of
contact with what you are working on, and I have asked Dennis Muscato to
follow up on the e-health aspect. Janine Firpo, a consultant who on her
return from extensive travel around 1 Feb is going to work fulltime
on our e-education issues, should also get in touch with you.

I just wanted to clarify that the $200/mo. (I think it is really $300) that
you mention is unique to Costa Rica at the moment. However, we have been
discussing satellite access costs with several potential vendors, and I do
believe that something around this value will be available for rural
communities more generally. It is a strong focus of our work.

With best regards,
Jim
========================================

> Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 11:34:48 -0500 (EST)
> From: Tak Utsumi <utsumi@friends-partners.org>
> To: "Proenza, Francisco" <PROENZA-FAO@iadb.org>,
> "James R. Sheats" <sheats@hpl.hp.com>
> cc: Utsumi Takeshi <utsumi@columbia.edu>
> Subject: My traveling schedules in April and May vs. Seminar in Nicaragua
> (fwd)
[............segment deleted]
>
> (3) If I could, I wanted to investigate LINCOS (Little Intelligent
> Communities) project in Costa Rica after attending the seminar in
> Nicaragua in April for our future projects in many other
> locations, e.g, Manaus, Amazona, the Caribbean, etc. However, I
> have to postpone this desire for the next time due to the above
> appointments.
>
> LINCOS is a wonderful telecenter project and I would like to
> emulate it for our community development projects (including e
> -learning and telemedicine, etc.) as much as possible -- since
> Jim Sheats of HP said that 4 Mbps two-way digital satellite is
> only $200/month leasing cost.
>
> I would like to utilize Japanese government's funds and
> Japanese manufacturers' equipment for the projects as much
> as possible -- satellite transponder cost and contents
> development have to be done by Americans and Europeans --
> this is the essence of our Global Service Trust Fund (GSTF)
> project at its initial stage -- Mr. Mori, Prime Minister of
> Japan has already pledged $15 billion (3 years) to close the
> digital divide in developing countries during the Okinawa
> Summit last July.
****************************************
ATTACHMENT III

Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 08:12:00 -0500
From: steven donahue <sdonah01@bellsouth.net>
To: utsumi@columbia.edu
Subject: future interview with you

Dr. Utsumi,
I would like to set up a future date to interview you for a possible article
for the American Language Review and/or Distance Educator about

1. GLOSAS
2. Japanese embracing of English as an official Business Language

My article on the Web-based commission ran in the American Language Review
this issue http://www.alr.org and a similar article will be in the next issue
of the distance educator http://www.magnapubs.org

Best regards,
Steven Donahue
****************************************

Return to Global University System Early 2001 Correspondence

List of Distribution

Dr. Paul Lefrere
Senior Lecturer
Institute of Educational Technology
Director, Networking and Partnerships, Joint Information Systems Committee
(JISC)
Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Systems
Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44-1-908 65 33 88
Fax: +44-1-908 67 28 02
p.lefrere@open.ac.uk
http://www-iet.open.ac.uk/

P. Tapio Varis, Ph.D, Professor
Acting President, Global University System
Chairman, GLOSAS/Finland
Professor and Chair
Media Culture and Communication Education
Hypermedia laboratory
University of Tampere
P.O.Box 607
FIN-33101 Tampere
FINLAND
Tel: +358-3-215 6110
Tel: +358-3-614-5247--office in Hameenlinna
Tel: +358-3-215 6243--mass media lab in Tampere
GSM: +358-50-567-9833
Fax: +358-3-215 7503
tapio.varis@uta.fi
http://www.uta.fi/~titava

Mart Susi
Rector
Concordia International University Estonia
Kaluri tee 3, Haabneeme
Viimsi vald, Harjumaa 74001
ESTONIA
Tel: +372-2-79 0692
Fax: +372-2-79 0216
susim@ciue.edu.ee

John M. Eger
Executive Director
International Center for Communications
College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182-4522
619-594-6933
619-594-6910
Fax: 619-594-4488
jeger@mail.sdsu.edu
http://www.smartcommunities.org/

Professor Mark Armstrong
Director
Network Insight Group Media & Telecommunications Policy
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University
Locked Bag 2400
St Leonards
New South Wales 1590
AUSTRALIA
+61 2 9460 9311
fax: +61 2 9460 9310
m.armstrong@rmit.edu.au
http://www.ni.rmit.edu.au

James R. Sheats
Program Manager, World e-Inclusion
Hewlett-Packard Co.
1501 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Tel. 650-857-5987
Fax 650-813-3152
sheats@spica.hpl.hp.com
jim_sheats@hp.com

Dr. David Levy
Centre for Continuing Education (CCE)
McGill University
680 Sherbrooke Street West, Suite 1184
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H3A 3R1
514-398-7374
Fax: 514-398-2650
AXEL@conted.lan.mcgill.ca

Steven Donahue
Broward Community College
1128 N. 16Th Avenue
Hollywood, Florid 33020
USA
954-927-8807
Florida
sdonah01@bellsouth.net
sdonahue@broward.cc.fl.us
http://fs.broward.cc.fl.us/~sdonahue
Sister Cities: http://www.10tongues.com
http://www.erepublic.com/publications/gt/2000/sept/departments/eCommerceSLF.shtm

Marietta C. Mojica
OIC, Open Learning College
Cavite State University (CvSU)
Indang, Cavite, Philippines
Tel: (6346) 415 0018
Fax: (6346) 415 0012
E-mail: MCM947@yahoo.com

Ms. Pureza IV. Veloso
School Director
Cebu Distance Learning Center
424 Gorordo Ave., Lahug
Cebu City, Philippines 6000
Tel: (032) 233-7874
Fax: (032) 233-9790
Cell: 09173785961
reza_7454@yahoo.com

Alexandre Rivas, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor
Director of the Center for Environmental Sciences
University of Amazonas - Brazil
C.P. 4208, Manaus 69053-140
BRAZIL
+55-92-644 23 22
Fax: +55-92-644 23 84
alex_mau@argo.com.br
http://www.argo.com.br/~alex_mau/alex.htm
http://lab-tiama.pop-am.rnp.br/cca/workshop/English/wksp_E.htm

Tunji Lardner, CEO
Wangonet
West African Ngo Network
Agenda Consulting
Nigeria Limited
710 West End Avenue, Suite 11B
New York, NY 10025
Phone: (212) 678-2237
Fax: (212) 316-3398
Agenda2@aol.com
http://www.wangonet.org
Or,
2nd Floor, ICON House
999F Idejo Street
off Adeola Odeku Street
Victoria Island
Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: 320-0271
**********************************************************************
* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA *
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.) *
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education *
* Founder of CAADE *
* (Consortium for Affordable and Accessible Distance Education) *
* President Emeritus and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of *
* Global University System (GUS) *
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A. *
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Fax: 718-939-0656 (day time only--prefer email) *
* Email: utsumi@columbia.edu; Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676 *
* http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/ *
**********************************************************************

Return to Global University System Early 2001 Correspondence