1) e-mail
2) news bulletins
3) electronic bulletin board
4) video conferencing
5) on-line talk
6) others
8. Community network project
It is important to improve the system for exchanging information on local government administration, as well as the information infrastructure.
Networking is a very important aspect of the information infrastructure.
The community network project is promoted by the Ministry of Home Affairs to provide a standard system so that local governments can exchange information regardless of the type of computer.
The community network project consists of the following systems:
a) public facility information and reservation system
b) library information network system
c) regional card system.
The Ministry showed the project to local governments in June 1991.
Under the project, designated local governments entrusted the Local Government Information Centre with the research for the standard model system and the Local Government Research Centre set up a committee.
A grant was provided as part of a special local allocation tax.
The system was completed in 1996 and has been open to the public since 1997.
a) Public facilities information and reservation system
local governments are trying to manage their support and cultural facilities efficiently by new techniques to make it easier for people to obtain information and make reservations at the facilities.
However, most information on facilities and events is, in fact, stored separately by each organization.
To change this situation, the database should be made into a public facilities information and reservation system that manages all the information and provides the information that people need bytelephone, fax or the internet.
b) Library information network system
Public libraries play a very important role in providing knowledge and information on education, culture, welfare and business, and recently they are attracting attention as information centres for lifelong learning support and business research activities.
However, about 80% of towns and villages do not have libraries, and furthermore it is near to impossible even for libraries at the prefectural and municipal level to meet increasingly advanced and diverse needs from only one library.
Needless to say, it is desirable for all local governments to have their own library with adequate facilities and books.
Cooperation between libraries is necessary to provide a better quality of information.
In these circumstances, networking by telecommunication between libraries is under way to enable people to obtain information from every library in the country by means of the network.
