Building on the first year's outcome, the project continued its activities in investigating the methodology for promoting the international exchange of academic information in the Asia-Pacific region and in evaluating NACSIS services through the trial user of NACSIS-IR, NACSIS-CAT, NACSIS-ELS and other electronic information services. The activities in 1995 include organizing WAINS2, an inter-national workshop on networks and systems in the Asia-Pacific region, and inviting prominent research and educational persons from Thailand to discuss the issues in information exchange between Japan, Thailand and other Asian countries.
This year, a new dimension was also added to the project: NACSIS established a 2Mbps commu-nication link to Thailand. The new operation enables the NACSIS-Thai project to expand its scope to an experimental basis and approach the issue from a more practical point of view with a non-trivial testbed infrastructure.
The NACSIS-Thai project is unique and valuable in that it primarily focuses on Asia-Pacific countries and emphasizes the importance of the integration of communication circuit operation, information services, and education of potential users when constructing information exchange systems. The rest of the article surveys the major NACSIS initiatives in 1995 to promote academic information exchange in the Asia-Pacific region. The coming year will bring the project greater perspective and more experience towards achieving the goals.
The international link interconnects two academic and research networks in both countries: SINET operated by NACSIS under the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan, and ThaiSarn (Thai Social/Scientific, Academic and Research Network), operated by NECTEC (National Electronics and Computer Technology Center) under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of Thailand. The international link between these two networks enables researchers in Japan and Thailand to communicate with each other faster and more efficiently than ever via Internet. On October 4, 1995, an opening ceremony was held in Bangkok attended by more than 150 people including the Minister of Science, Technology and Environment of Thailand and Dr. Hiroshi INOSE, Director General of NACSIS. NACSIS staff in Tokyo also joined the ceremony via the newly established link with a teleconferencing computer connected to the network. The quality of the teleconference video demonstrates the power of 2Mbps speed as promising support for cooperative research activities between both countries. Also, digital photo images of the ceremony were transmitted over the link for press release, which NACSIS publicized on the WWW page as well.
From the start, the NACSIS-Thai communication link has been stable. NACSIS expects the link will be an important initiative for the promotion of cooperative research and scholarly information exchange between Japan and Thailand and also the first stepping stone in the Asia-Pacific region toward the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) advocated worldwide.
The workshop is the second of its series; the first WAINS is held in March 1995 in Bangkok to discuss the future of the academic information infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region and also to demonstrate the overseas information services provided by NACSIS. This time, the workshop addressed the issues in academic information access and sharing between Japan, Thailand and other Asian countries over Internet. Also, it introduced information resources provided by Thai related institutes in Japan and Thailand. The resources include online information retrieval systems for Thai, Thai capable WWW viewers, and Thai document processing software.
The workshop program consists of invited presentations and demonstrations from various research fields which are related to Thailand. The variety of the participants, from economics to computer engineering, directly reflects the diversity of potential users of NACSIS overseas services and the workshop helped these interested people to cultivate social and technical interaction for further information exchange.
Through the workshop, NACSIS-Thai project members learned the importance of educational support as well as the provision of network facilities and information resources in constructing scholarly information exchange infra-structure in the Asia-Pacific region. Lastly, it should be noted that WAINS2 was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan, under the International Joint Study with Grant-in-Aid ÒFeasibility Study of International Exchange of Scholarly InformationÓ (1994-1996) and also by the Japan Foundation under the international research survey project ÒAsian Information on Asian Information Super HighwayÓ (1995), both led by Professor Kinji ONO, Director of NACSIS Research and Development Department.
From July 31 to August 1, Dr. Hugh THAWEESAK Koanantakool, Dr. ROYOL Chitradon, and Mr. PASSAKON Prathombutr from the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) visited NACSIS to prepare for the opening of the 2Mbps communication link between NACSIS and Thailand.
NECTEC is under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of Thailand and is in charge of ThaiSarn (Thai Social/Scientific, Academic and Research Network), an academic and research network connecting universities in Thailand.
During the visit, the following issues were discussed extensively: draft of memorandum of understanding regarding the acceptable use of the link; the arrangement of the opening ceremony which NACSIS planned in October; a utilization plan to exploit the 2Mbps transmission speed of the link; and the possibility and working items to promote overseas use of NACSIS information services.
The visit deepened mutual understanding between NACSIS and NECTEC. The international link was set up quite successfully in October. At present, besides the regular traffic for general research activities, the link is used for transmitting realtime video images between Japan and Thailand on occasions such as the opening ceremony in Bangkok on October 4, a total eclipse of the sun on October 24 in Thailand, the Second Workshop of Academic Information Networks (WAINS2) in Tokyo on December 13.
On November 16, delegates from the Ministry of University Affairs of Thailand visited NACSIS. The party consisted of Dr. KASEM Watanachai, Permanent Secretary, and other key persons from the Ministry of University Affairs of Thailand, Dr. PAIRASH Thajchayapong, Rector of King MongkutÕs Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Dr. BOONWAT Attachoo, Director of National Computer Software Training Center, and Mr. SURASIT Vannakrairojn, Dean of Faculty of Information Technology of King MongkutÕs Institute of Technology Ladkrabang.
The objective of the visit is to investigate the current status of the future plans for remote education using satellite communication links. The delegates also engaged in active discussions with NACSIS staff on various subjects of network support in education and research.
From December 11 to December 14, Professor PRASHIT Prapinmongkolkarn of Chulalongkorn University, Professor VILAS Wuwongse of the Asian Institute of Technology, Dr. CHONCHANOK Viravan of the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center visited NACSIS to attend WAINS2, The Second Workshop on Academic Information Networks.
The visitors are established researchers specialized in computers and software and are also collaborating with NACSIS to develop an experimental platform for information access and sharing between Japan and Thailand. In the workshop, Professor Prasit gave a presentation entitled ÒDevelop-ment of Information Systems for Access and Sharing in Asian Countries Using the InternetÓ and introduced an online database system to access national statistics in Thailand. Professor Vilas addressed an issue on ÒA Dynamic WEB Site using Deductive Object-Oriented Multimedia DatabasesÓ and demonstrated an experimental Web server that can enhance existing Web documents. Dr. Chonchanok presented ÒJapan-Thailand Academic Network: Envision the PossibilitiesÓ and showed a prototype of a Web homepage which could be a common entry point from both countries. All of these talks attracted intense interest from the audience.