The “Joint Study of International Exchange and Sharing of Academic Information” (Project leader: Dr. Kinji ONO, Professor and Director, R&D, NACSIS), an international joint research project supported by a grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Education Science ,Sports and Culture, is being conducted over a two-year period and started in fiscal 1998. Under its auspices, four scholars were invited to NACSIS between August 2 and August9, 1998. The are Professor Vilas Wuwongse of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand, Professor Asanee Kawtrakul of Kasetsart University, Dr. Surat Lertum of the Asian Center for Research on Remote Sensing (ACRoRS), and Mr. Paisal Kiattananan of the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) in Thailand.

This invitation provided an opportunity to exchange information about the international distribution of academic information in Japan and Thailand. In addition to studying issues related to promoting the distribution of information in both countries, there were discussions and intermediate evaluations of common projects that are currently underway involving topics such as satellite image data, hypermedia databases, distance learning, and networked conferences. Each of these projects makes use of international communications lines linking Japan and Thailand and involves close cooperation between researchers in both countries. There are therefore high expectations for them as test cases in determining the future attributes of academic research information systems and networks within Asia. A joint workshop is scheduled for December with regard to these joint research projects, and reports will be presented on the results of these activities.