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"The Database White Paper" was first published in 1986 and "Electronic Information Services 2008" has marked its 23rd year. The paper traces the changes in database related activities in Japan for these years by examining the annual editions of the White Paper, and would serve readers to foresee the future direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubiquitous computing is a new ICT (information and communication technology) trend in which we can use computers and networks in anytime and anywhere to recognize real world contexts automatically, and to utilize the information for highly functional information processing. On the other hands, digital museum is a research topic in the University of Tokyo, in which we use digital technologies for all aspects of activities in museums. This paper overviews our research activity of ubiquitous computing and digital museum, then introduces the new concept of "Ubiquitous Museum" which applies ubiquitous computing technologies to digital museums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sapporo Medical University Scholarly Communication Center is a new institution formed by a merger between the Information Center of Computer Communication and the University Library in April 2006. This Center was established for the purpose of supporting scholarly communication for SMU faculty and health care providers residing in Hokkaido. To achieve its purpose, the Center's activities include improving the campus network infrastructure, through which medical science information is exchanged, as well as maintaining the academic content system. One particularly significant project is the Center's support for the distribution of literature that had been previously carried out by the University Library, for the purpose of promoting scholarly communication. In this paper, the project supporting the distribution of literature for regional health care providers will be discussed. In addition, the PIRKA system will be summarized along with issues that remain to be resolved at the Center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Diet Library (NDL) is planning to construct ‘NDL Digital Archive Portal’, which aims at navigating users to any digital information in Japan. Prior to its full-fledged operation scheduled in fiscal year 2007, we build the prototype system and have verified the functions required for integrated retrieval. This paper will show the outline of this prototype system and our portal's possible development in the future. We encourage the institutions who have digital archives to enhance their functions for Web services and make an effort to establish the portal designed for Web 2.0. Through these activities, we will achieve the connected systems among various institutions and improve the usability of digital information in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet and PCs have been spreading in the world since the 1990s. The usage of these technologies has been expanding not only in the business field but also in the ordinary society. One of those business styles is Electronic Commerce. Most of the governments of countries and economies are taking these information technologies into their policies and developing them as their own IT policy. This paper, first, takes a general view of the IT policy progress of Japan, and describes the IT budget and the IT infrastructure. Also it mentions the ubiquitous network society and the latest market situation of electronic commerce. And last it mentions personal information protection, which is becoming one of the big issues of the IT society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]