project summary - Global Think Tank Network from Japan

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

From: ajp () glocom ac jp
Posted-Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 00:44:32 -0500
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 14:46:14 -0800
To: farber () central cis upenn edu
Subject: project summary - Global Think Tank Network


Dave,  if you think it might be of interest, please feel free to distribute
the following report on your IP list.


Thanks to you and those IP'ers who helped with the project.  If anyone
would like more information (the full the report, in Japanese, should be
available soon) they should contact me by e-mail:  ajp () glocom ac jp


Thanks,


Adam


 ++++++++++++++




English Summary


NIRA Research




The Global Think Tank Network:
Promoting Greater Exchange
Between International Policy Research Centers








Preface


The purpose of this project is to further the establishment of a "Global
Think Tank Network" by studying current networking trends, elucidating
the basic framework, hardware, operations, and software for the system,
and issuing recommendations on how the system should be created.


Since the eighties, "imbalance" has emerged as a major issue between
Japan and the United States, or more broadly, between Japan and the rest
of the international community.  This has taken the form of trade
imbalances, arguments of "free-riding" on defense, and complaints about
unequal contributions to the international community.  But there is
actually a more fundamental problem at work.  What is at the heart of
the often rancorous friction between Japan and the international
community is an _information imbalance_.


One of the conclusions of our research is that better "databases" are
not, by themselves, a sufficient remedy for the information imbalance.
Rather, what is needed is a "Network Solution" that will provide a more
immediate (real-time) infrastructure accessible by  wider segments of
societies.  The best tool for creating this platform will be the highly
decentralized environment provided by the Internet.  In this report, we
provide the theoretical underpinning for this conclusion as well as
empirical evidence from surveys of potential users.


The Global Communication Center, which headed up this project, made
extensive use of the Internet in its research.  During the process of
completing its feasibility study on the creation of a global think tank
network, the center was able to build cooperative ties with many
organizations.  Obviously, such cooperation between research institutes,
organizations, and related institutions will be vital to the creation of
the kind of platform for international exchange that we envision.


Many different facets of the new computerization paradigm will be
emerging in the future, among them networking, multimedia, and the
integration of broadcasting and telecommunications.  Ultimately,
however, it will be innovations in the realm of digital communications
technology that will be the driving force behinds these developments.
How this point is understood and interpreted will have a decisive impact
on the way in which the Global Think Tank Network is put together.


We gained valuable insights for this research from our study on the new
information policies advocated by the Clinton administration in the
United States.  The most important insight of all is how laggard Japan
has been in this area.  This finding reinforces from a slightly
different angle the urgency of the need for Japan to create a forum for
the international exchange of information that is accessible from wider
segments of societies--the kind of forum envisioned by the Global Think
Tank Network.


In the United States, the Clinton administration has taken the lead in
formulating a plan to create a "National Information Infrastructure"
that will link not only institutions of higher learning, but schools,
libraries, hospitals, companies, government agencies, and all of the
personal computers and work stations in the hands of the general
population.  Naturally, the Internet will serve as the core of the NII.


As the world's first autonomous global computer network, the Internet is
also in many ways an example of "international public goods."  The
number of organizations in the network is growing sharply.




Internet and mechanisms for international information exchange.


One of the social roles of think tanks is to serve as the forum for
information exchange in the international community, a purpose for which
Japanese think tanks are not sufficiently developed.  It will be
important to utilize their storage of efforts and to ensure that their
information is publicly accessible and searchable from both inside and
outside of Japan, while also encouraging domestic think tanks to
"network".  There is an urgent need for Japan's think tanks to be able
to maximize their limited human and material resources.


The institutions that lead this effort will need to serve as a
"connection point" that provides a two-way flow of information into and
out of Japan.  In other words, when accessed from overseas they should
provide profiles of Japan's think tanks and information on the
activities they are involved in, and when requested by users in Japan
they should seek information disclosures from foreign think tanks.  The
flow of information will begin at many different levels--think tank
profiles, research topics, publication exchanges, discussions among
researchers -- and can be expected to develop into full-fledged
exchanges of more substantial information and research coordination in
the future.


Presently, useful social information is scattered among a wide range of
universities, government agencies, and private-sector institutions.  In
addition, researchers in Japan and other countries seek information on a
broad spectrum of subjects, including, for example, information on the
policies of public institutions (official development assistance, etc.),
information that will require more "transparency" on the part of the
government (Japanese defense policy or use of nuclear materials, etc.),
technical information in a wide variety of disciplines, and more grass-
roots, community-level information.  We should further note that these
are times of sweeping change, and the speed with which social
information appears on the network is therefore also of the essence.


The information in this kind of decentralized environment is not
standardized, so it will not be efficient to accumulate it in
traditional "star-style" databases.  Rather, to get effective use out of
it, think tanks will need to participate in a "rhizome-style" network.


[diagram deleted]
The traditional star-style database




[diagram deleted]
Rhizome-style networks such as the Internet




The Internet is the embodiment of the rhizome-style network.
Researchers on the network are able to exchange electronic mail,
distribute articles and working papers, and use "ultra-wide-area"
searching systems.  For example, articles and documents are exchanged
via a function known as "ftp" or "file transfer protocol," and there are
already many services that have coupled ftp with wide-area information
searching functions covering a large number of sites.


One such example is the Internet service provided by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP).  The service began in July 1993, and
according to the manager of the UNDP Gopher site, was accessed an
average 750 times a day during October of that year.  During a sample
week of that month, users from 31 different countries accessed the
service and retrieved over 900 files.  Obviously, UN agencies have an
advantage over regular think tanks when it comes to attracting users,
but the numbers nevertheless underscore how actively used Internet sites
are.






Results of Survey


We conducted a two-part survey to discover the extent to which the
world's major think tanks made use of computer networks, their
intentions for utilizing networks in the future, their interest in and
expectations for a network linking think tanks together, and their use
of and desire for information concerning Japan.  Below is a brief
summary and analysis of those results.




**  Use of electronic mail


In North America, over 65% of our respondents used electronic mail,
compared with 50% in Europe, 38% in Latin America, the Middle East, and
Africa, and 33% in Asia.  Note the relative enthusiasm of developing
countries for networking.




**  Greater-than-expected Internet utilization


Some 31% of the institutions responding that they are utilizing
electronic mail are users of the Internet, which is at about 10% of the
original population.  It is generally held that researchers in the
humanities and social sciences only recently began to use the Internet,
so this shows spread farther than we had expected.




**  Enthusiastic about think tank network


In the second part of our survey, we asked respondents to assume that it
was possible to create a global network that would link up think tanks,
and then tried to measure their interest and enthusiasm for
participating in such a network.  Some 84% said they would be interested
in using the network for information exchange and discussion, and when
the "probably interested" responses are factored in, the number rises to
nearly 90%.  This indicates an extremely high degree of enthusiasm for
the project.  Institutions were also positive about providing their own
information.  Some 80% said yes, they would definitely like to, and
another 7% said they probably would like to, for a total of 87% positive
response.  This is a major discovery in that it highlights the need not
just for information gathering and utilization, but for a vehicle over
which to publish one's own information as well.




**  Growing need for "gray literature" and databases about Japan


At the moment, "statistical materials" are the most heavily used
information on Japan, followed by "government documents and
publications," "conference proceedings," "research papers (monographs),"
"newspapers and magazines," "newsletters," "specialist journals,"
"working papers," and "reports on specialist studies."  The information
researchers would most likely access to in the future is, in order,
"conference proceedings," "reports on specialist studies," "working
papers," "specialist journals," and "monographs."  This indicates
present high demand for "gray literature"--documents and information not
generally published to the outside world or if published, not easily
accessible.


By contrast, use of "foreign on-line databases," "mailing lists," and
"Internet search tools" is low, and this is especially the case for
"Japanese on-line databases."  There is, however, a high level of
interest in using "Japanese on-line databases" in the future, as well as
(in order) "library and reference services" and "Internet search tools."
It is worth noting that these network-style utilization methods,
including such things as "Internet newsgroups" rank right near the top.




**  Think tank network highly feasible


The survey underscores the relatively widespread use of computer
networks, primarily the Internet, among think tanks, which validates our
prediction of the high potential for contribution to the international
development of research activities through a network that links up think
tanks.  Interest is particularly high in the active transmission and
provision of information rather than in one-way information reception,
and this enthusiasm makes it extremely likely that we will be able to
attract the cooperation needed to realize the Global Think Tank Network
concept.


Our conclusion, based on the results of this survey, is that the world's
think tanks are gradually developing a common understanding of the
effectiveness of networks in information exchange in social science
research.  However, the conditions have not yet been met for think tanks
and researchers to overcome organizational, geographical, and linguistic
constraints and actually use computer networks.  What is needed to close
this gap between potential and reality is for some organization to take
the initiative showing the research institutes of the
domestic/international community the potential that networked
information exchange has.  Were a non-profit private-sector research
institute to serve as the catalyst in the creation and spread of a
network to link think tanks from around the world, it would be a
valuable contribution to the research activities of the world's think
tanks, and also play a significance role in reducing the information
imbalance. that exists between Japan and the international community.


In closing we would like to offer some suggestions and perspectives
regarding the creation and operation of a Global Think Tank Network.




**  Phased-In Project Important


If the Global Think Tank Network is to be successful, it will need to
proceed step-by-step.  Keep the following principles in mind:


1)  Experiment first
Building a full-fledged think tank network right from the beginning
carries enormous risks.  A trial period will be needed to test and
verify the technology and content of the network, with the full network
being built in phases.


There are few companies providing the know-how that research institutes
in the social sciences need to connect to the Internet (work stations,
Local Area Networks, leased optical fiber lines, etc.) in many
societies.  Even when the link is made, it is no easy job to find useful
files and organize a usable researchers' network from the massive
information environment (basically all in English) provided by the
Internet.  It will be necessary to develop expertise with both the
hardware and with how the network is run, and that knowledge will have
to be shared by all users.


2)  Limit the subject matter and type of information provided,
collaborate wherever possible
It is inefficient to maintain a comprehensive collection of information.
Divisions of labor are more effective and must be pursued wherever
possible.  The basic core of information can be provided from a
relatively small database, with other institutions adding further
information.


3)  Provide information on the basis of "need" rather than
"availability"


4)  Encourage interaction between users
Few people will use networks if all they provide is information.  The
project will move faster if human interaction is encouraged.  This
should be a "participatory" project, and one way to make it so would be
to create a mailing list to discuss the project open to all interested.


Yasuhide Yamanouchi (yama () glocom ac jp)
Izumi Aizu (izumi () glocom ac jp)
Adam Peake (ajp () glocom ac jp)


International University of Japan
Center for Global Communications