1. Outline of Telework 2003
(1) Overview of the Workshop
The International Telework Foundation (ITF) has held the International Telework Workshop every year in collaboration with a telework parent organization of each country since 1996. It was held in London, England (1996), Amsterdam, Netherlands (1997), Turku, Finland (1998), Tokyo, Japan (1999), Stockholm, Sweden (2000), Amsterdam, Netherlands (2001), and Badajoz, Spain (2002). The Japan Telework Association (JTA) participated in the International Telework Workshop in Tokyo in 1999 and in Badajoz in 2002.
This year the workshop was held in the Regional Council of Administration of Sao Paulo (CRA-SP) head office in Sao Paulo for two day on August 25 and 26. The hosts were ITF and CRA-SP. CRA-SP is an association in Sao Paulo, whose mission is to promote the improvement of business and systems in business management.
The name of the workshop was Telework 2003 - The 8th International Workshop and Business Conferences on Telework. Its theme was “E-Work and the Social-Economical Development.”.
There were about 60 participants. The paper session took two days and 36 speakers from nine countries presented their papers. The breakdown of the speakers was 19 from Brazil, 7 from Argentina, 3 from Japan, 2 from U.K., and 1 from Malaysia, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland, and Belgium respectively.
The speakers from Japan included Dr. Wendy Spinks, professor at Tokyo University of Science and the president of Japan Telework Society, Dr. Chiyoko Shimozaki, professor at Kobe University of Commerce and the vice president of Japan Telework Society, and Norimasa Yoshida, executive director of JTA and the vice president of Japan Telework Society.
(2) Paper Presentation by Japan Telework Association
This year marks the tenth year since JTA was authorized as a pubic-interest corporation in June 1993. In order to commemorate the anniversary, Shinichiro Tagawa, senior research fellow of JTA and Norimasa Yoshida, executive director of JTA wrote a paper entitled “Activities of Telework Promotion in Japan 1993-2003,” and presented the paper at the 5th annual conference held at Karuizawa Training Center of Nihon University on July 6. The paper was partially modified, translated into English, and sent to program committee of TELEWORK2003 for evaluation. The paper was accepted and presented at the workshop.
(3) Topics of the Paper
The presentation by JTA was at 9:50 on August 25, immediately after the opening ceremony on the first day of the workshop (actually it started at 10:05 since the opening ceremony ran over) and the presentation took 25 minutes (20 minutes for the paper presentation and 5 minutes for the questions and answers). The topics presented were as follows:
- Profile of JTA
- Period division and activities of JTA (Germination Phase 1990-1994, Blooming Phase 1995-2000, Developing Phase 2001 onward)
- Summary of JTA’s activities for 2003
- Introduction of e-Japan strategy phase 2
- Telework population in Japan
- Promotion of Japanese style telework, Organization Oriented Telework, and reengineering of the corporation through telework
- Collaboration between Japan Telework Society and JTA
- International exchange --- award from International Telework Association & Council (ITAC) and a comment from Mr. Gil Gordon, director of ITAC
The moderator for the session was Mr. Silvio Pires de Paulsa, CRA-SP consultant. After the presentation, there were four questions as below. Dr. Spinks helped me from the floor to answer the questions.
- Is the local government involved in JTA?
- Are NGOs involved in JTA?
- I am interested in the association’s activities and would like to join JTA. How do I join?
- What are the requirements for Japanese corporations to joint JTA?
After the presentation, we talked with some people at a coffee break.
- It was a good presentation (several people made this comment).
- Brazil has a Brazilian Society for Telework and Teleactivies (SOBRATT), which is a small and middle size company based organization similar to JTA. However, the organization does not make any suggestions to the government.
- Mr. Augusto Gasper of IBM Brazil said he saw Director Hotta’s name on a list of JTA board of directors and asked us to give him a message written on back of his name card (his message said that he would like to talk with Director Hotta about SOBRATT and JTA).
- The telework population in Brazil is small with about three million people.
- Argentina has not investigated its telework population.
- Brazil has many unemployed people and wants to increase job opportunities through telework.
- Telework is teletrabalho in Portuguese.
- In Brazil some people say e-working in English to express telework.
Immediately after the coffee break, Dr. Spinks delivered her paper entitled “Analysis of the MLIT Survey 2002: The Japanese Telework Population (Sakamoto/Spinks/Shozugawa).” The paper talked about the methodologies and importance of the investigation of Japan’s telework population, which was presented by JTA under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation in March 2003.
I introduced the outline of Japan’s telework population in my presentation. After that, Dr. Spinks explained it with more details. We think such collaboration among the Japanese team gave people a favorable impression.
There was simultaneous English interpretation service. However, there were speakers from various countries and they were using Portuguese, Spanish, and English. It was truly an international workshop.
This year’s secretariat was well prepared. CD-ROMs of the presentation papers were distributed to the participants at the registration on the first day, August 25.
In addition, on August 24 the day before the workshop, a welcome networking reception was held in Columbia Residence Hotel. There the complimentary address of Mr. Kouji Ohboshi, president of JTA, was extended to Mr. Alvaro Mello, chairperson of the workshop (as well as CRA-SP consultant and the president of SOBRATT).
(4) International Telework Workshop Next Year
Next year’s workshop will be held in Crete, Greece from September 6 to 9, 2004. We heard that Dr. Spinks and other people are organizing the International Telework Workshop through new International Telework Academy (ITA http://www.telework-academy.org/). We look forward to it.
2. Future Issues−Telework Promotion Organization in Each Country and International Exchange
As described below, people in charge of telework promotion organizations in countries that attended the workshop have been making proposals to JTA to exchange information with the association in the future. We would like to respond to such a proposal on a timely basis.
(1) Brazil
On August 25 during the workshop, Mr. Alvaro Mello, Chairperson of Brazilian Society for Telework and Teleactivies (SOBRATT) and Mr. Aluzio Lima, the director of the same society (and a consultant of ISOCTI Company) asked me if exchange of information between JTA and SOBARATT would be possible in the future.
(2) Argentina
On September 9 Mr. Marcos Pueyrredon, Director of the Telework Commission in the Electronic Commerce Argentine Chamber (CASE) (also Director of Consulta Group suggested by mail that they would like to exchange information with JTA in the future.
(3) U.K.
On September 5 everyone who submitted a paper written in English received mail from Dr. Paul Jackson, Chairperson of International Telework Foundation, who is also a manager of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) e-Government Forum. The purpose of his mail was to ask people if they would mind if he runs their papers on CIPFA e-Government Forum website (http://www.ipf.co.uk/egov) which only CIPFA members can access. We gave him our approval so that our activities to promote telework in Japan will be made known widely.
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