INTERVIEW WITH TAKESHI UTSUMI
By Parker Rossman
(September 17, 2004)
Can one man with
limited resources accomplish remarkable things in global education? Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., is a passionately dedicated former Fulbright Scholar who has
for some decades devoted himself to experimenting with and demonstrating the
technology that can bring needed learning, health care and perhaps peace to everyone on our planet. He is a founder and ÔVice-president for
Technology and CoordinationÕ of the ÔGlobal University SystemÕ and is co-editor
of a new book about that project, Global Peace Through The Global University
System that has been published at
the University of Tampere, in Finland.
<http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Global_University/Global%20University%20System/UNESCO_Chair_Book/Bk_outline-D13.html>, or
<http://makeashorterlink.com/?M2D252E09>
It includes essays by a former president of Finland;
by the Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs; by a member of the European Union
Commission responsible for education; by the former heads of UNESCO and ITU; by
the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union; by the
Director-General of the International Labor Organization; by the vice-chancellor of the British Open University which serves a couple
of hundred thousand students all over the world; by Marco Antonio Dias of
Brazil, former Director of UNESCOÕs Division of Higher Education and who now is
ÕVice-president for AdministrationÕ of the Global University System; by Joseph
Pelton, former spokesman of INTELSAT and a leading expert on the use of
satellites; and by many other such experts on several continents.
Because of his
conviction that the spread of education was essential for ultimate global
peace, Takeshi Utsumi, beginning as an individual, began building an e-mail
network from the Õbottom-upÕ of people who shared the dream and that began to
join him in experiments and demonstrations of possibilities for using
information technologies to bring affordable essential learning to those parts
of the developing world that have been difficult to reach. So I
interviewed him to ask how the project is progressing.
Rossman: I understand that your
wife, Hisae, has been a supportive partner who has traveled with you in recent
years as you were invited to speak at conferences around the world that have
gradually led to the beginnings of a ÔGlobal University System.Õ In my opinion it may be one of the most
important things happening at the turn of the 21st century.
Utsumi: Marco Antonio Dias of
UNESCO has encouraged me to Ôthink bigÕ about global-scale education Ôwith a
human face.Õ
Rossman: Think how big?
Utsumi: I see several models
as precedents: The Russian and American outer space projects and the vast Human
Genome Project in Biology, for example, have shown the effectiveness of
projects where large numbers of people and organizations have
collaborated. Why, we asked,
should there not be a similarly large project for global electronic distance
education and global healthcare via the Internet? The possibilities of telemedicine have already been
demonstrated successfully. The
encouragement and support of Dias made possible the August 1999 conference at
the University of Tampere in Finland that officially established the Global
University System (GUS) project.
That meeting was made possible by the supports from the World Bank,
National Science Foundation, UNESCO, the International Telecommunications Union
and other influential organizations, such as Soros Foundation, British Council,
etc., to name but a few. The
report of that meeting can be read online at <http://www.uta.fi/%7etitava/EGEDL/>.
Rossman: I understand that GUS
affiliated projects now exist on
all five continents, but that money is your main problem if essential learning
is provided for everyone on the planet.
Utsumi: Well,
the main obstacles are political and cultural. But yes, adequate funding would make possible the creating
and distributing of essential technology to every poor developing world rural
and urban slum community. The
technology exists and will improve and become more affordable with mass
production. At the organizational
meeting we proposed a ÔGlobal Service Trust Fund,Õ hoping that governments,
corporations and foundations might support the project. However, corporations are first
concerned about their stockholders and government budgets are tight. So I have been exploring and pushing
possibilities with Japan.
Rossman: Because you are
Japanese and have influential connections there?Ó
Utsumi: No, because at that time JapanÕs Official Development Assistance fund
(ODA) had the most to give, more than the USAÕs. However, that development money, around ten billion dollars
a year, generally went to countries that Japanese politicians had visited and
made promises. Poor use of these
funds was uncovered that resulted in a major cut in ODA funds. However then, at the July 2000 Okinawa
Summit, Japan pledged fifteen billion dollars to close the digital divide in
developing countries. That pledge
was not matched, as hoped, by other potential contributors, but there were some
good results, including the United Nations Digital Opportunity Task Force
(called DOT Force) and contributions to specific projects to many developing
countries.
Rossman: You played a significant role in getting such funds?
Utsumi: I think and hope
so. Seeing the success of
ÔInternet2Õ in the US that was extended to
universities in Russia, America and Japan, I then approached Dr. Hiroshi Inose,
then the Director-General of JapanÕs ÔNational Center for Science Information
system.Õ He had been given the
Marconi award for achievements in the telecom field and was the leading
authority in Japan on the Internet.
He already knew of my previous efforts that were crucial in three areas;
getting government regulations helped make possible the extension of
packet-switching datacom networking extended from the USA to Japan; the
deregulation of Japanese telecom policies that were limiting the use of e-mail;
and the de-monopolization of Japanese telecom industries that we accomplished
in cooperating with the USA Secretary of Commerce at the time, Malcolm
Baldridge.Ó
Rossman: How did Dr. Inose help?
Utsumi: Around
the time of the Ôfifth generation computer project,Õ the inadequacy of the
project to build an Ôartificial intelligence machineÕ was pointed out by Dr.
Inose in a newspaper article. He said there that since the human
brain was superior to any machine, a more important priority should be the
development of human minds by providing education to excellent, capable
youngsters in developing countries.
I showed that article to the Minister of Education in Japan, an
acquaintance of mine for many years.
The Japanese Prime Minister then pledged another two billion dollars, to
aid education and healthcare in developing countries. I was also encouraged by other projects. For example, the University of the
South Pacific in Fiji is now able to provide education to other nearby islands
because the Japanese government gave $16 million to provide necessary hardware
for connecting nearby Pacific islands with INTELSAT satellite free of
charge. Adding to that, Australia
and New Zealand governments gave one million dollars each for course content
development. ThatÕs the type of
cooperative funding that I hope can make possible more and more GUS projects in
developing countries. Meanwhile
the Japanese Social Development Fund of the World Bank has provided Ôseed
moneyÕ for new projects, such as $750,000 for education system reform in
Ukraine, and Japan Special Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank $750,000
to Uruguay for deploying broadband Internet to schools. So I still have hope for major Japanese
funding that will encourage other nations to provide money also.
Rossman: However, isnÕt it
usually true that government grants do not last long? Projects are started and then funds from elsewhere are
needed after a time to fund new equipment and provide the continuing costs of
satellite connections?
Utsumi: Certainly we also need
the continuing help of for-profit corporations, especially those in the
technology business. It is in
their long-range interest to provide equipment now, for it will build more
business in the long run as education helps economies of developing countries
improve. This is not a wild
idea. For-profit organizations
have, for example, provided free of charge access to broadband wireless
Internet to schools on the island of St. Thomas in the Caribbean. Such projects begin to create a more
affordable so-called ÒGlobal e-Rate.Ó A foundation for future developments was being laid by our
continuing ÒGlobal Lecture HallÕ demonstrations which also initiated the
movement of global e-learning. Many
satellite corporations supported them to span the world since 1980s.
Rossman: And those efforts were
probably responsible for your receiving the ÔLord Perry Award for Excellence in
Distance Education,Õ an award that the previous year had been given to Arthur
C. Clarke, the inventor of satellite communications. I also remember with appreciation your invitation for me to
witness one of your global lecture hall demonstrations at which Wassily
Leontief (a Nobel Laureate in economics) of New
York University lectured the relationships between "Environment and
Development," via inexpensive two-way slow-scan TV, to students at the conference
site of the World Future Studies Federation in Nagoya. Those students could see the economist
and he could see them when they asked questions. The large numbers of such demonstrations and of your other
such projects have gradually developed the interest of educators all over the
world.
Utsumi: Reports of some of
that can be seen in part three, the ÔGlobal e-learning and health careÕ section
of our book that Tapio Varis of the University of Tampere, Finland and W. R.
Klemm of Texas A & M University have co-edited with me; for example,
ÒAlternatives in ÔE-LearningÕ for Health Professionals in Latin America and the
Caribbean,Ó by Pablo Pulido, former Minister of Health of Venezuela and
Executive Director of the Pan American Federation of Associations of Medical
Schools.
Rossman: I
am impressed also by the report on Africa by Professor Nabudere, Executive
Director of the ÒAfrika Study CenterÕ in Uganda.
Utsumi: It was Dr. Inose who
first helped me see that extending learning to the whole world required more
than technological demonstrations and development. Political support, he said, is essential. So Inose encouraged me to approach the
former Minister of Foreign Affairs to suggest $5 billion for ten years. Meanwhile the USA National Science
Foundation provided a billion dollars to fund the development of ÔGRID
technologyÕ that concept I initiated almost three decades ago as very
important. Many business
corporations have so-called ÔPrivate Virtual NetworksÕ so that employees can
videoconference around the globe at any time. We envisage similar systems connecting educational
institutions globally. This can
strengthen scientific research as well as discover and empower gifted young
people everywhere.
Rossman: So
what is next?
Utsumi: Technology beyond what
we can yet imagine, even as we see the emergence of wireless Internet
technology such as the new WiMax
with Ònon-line-of-sightÓ at 70 Mbps with 50 kilometers coverage. A professor at Virginia Tech is planning
to use that technology at very rural/remote villages in Bangladesh. Beyond such projects in many developing
countries, the GUS proposes that first connections be made to all major
universities in various developing countries and from there can be extended to
nearby K-12 schools, hospitals, libraries and NGOs, etc. in their local
communities. Then it is important
that local governments and local citizens help make crucial decisions about
what is to be done in local neighborhoods and schools.
Rossman: Perhaps more important
than the Ôdigital divideÕ would be a cultural divide that must be taken into
account, that even western technology itself often has unfortunate cultural
assumptions written into it.
Utsumi: Professor Tapio Varis, Editor-in-Chief of our book, is the Acting
President of our Global University System, a former Rector of the United
Nations University of Peace in Costa Rica, and world-renowned scholar of peace
education. His paper "Building Higher Humanity with a Global University System"
in our book describes extensively the intercultural issues for mutual
understanding to foster trust among youngsters around the world. Arthur C.
Clarke has pointed out that we are entering an era when human beings are going
to be able to do almost anything they can imagine. Also note the cultural variety that is illustrated by the
authors of our book. The
co-authors and I have made our new book available free of charge on the
Internet, although we hope many people will purchase a print copy of Global
Peace Through The Global University System (ISBN 951-44-5695-5). We consider it to be a step towards the Ôgrand
challengeÕ proposed by Professor Larry Press at a conference in Bangladesh in
May 2004, who asks that the broadband Internet be connected Òto every rural
villageÓ with $15 billion in ten years time. We see that beginning to happen in Bangladesh, in Latin
America, and in such African countries as Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria and
so forth, as working closely with our colleagues there.
Rossman: You see this as an essential step towards world peace? IsnÕt extending education to all an
important step in draining the swamps of ignorance, poverty and injustice that
breed terrorists?
Utusmi; I have in mind a vision larger than that. It is suggested by the title of our book. Towards the end there is a paper-- from
the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, Salerno University in Italy and
Montpellier University in France-- on the implementation of a vision for
infrastructure that will support local communities in cooperative efforts and
Ònew effective pedagogiesÓ along with Òaccess nodes that are adaptable to any
usersÕ personal needs.Ó These
include Òtheir current location, their current interface device, their learning
preferences and special physical needs.Ó
They describe the European UnionÕs Learning GRID infrastructure. That, of course, is just one of many
powerful new technologies that we can expect in the next few decades.
Rossman: And you and your
co-authors see all this as making a major effort towards accomplishing global
peace.
Utsumi: I
reported in the last chapter what I hope for and expect from all such
developments. Accomplishing the
UNESCO objective of a Ôculture of peace,Õ-- permanent peace and the end of war
in coming decades—as requiring Òa new paradigm of global-scale
research.Ó The head of UNESCO has
insisted that global-scale education is crucial to the accomplishment of a
truly peaceful and cooperative world.
Rossman: You once kindly let me
preside a demonstration of global-scale peace-gaming at the conference on
"Crisis Management and Conflict Resolution" by the World Future
Society (WFS) in New York City, in July of 1986. It was one of the largest and perhaps most successful
demonstrations of global gaming/simulation organized so far. The event was a global gaming
simulation sessions on a crisis scenario involving the U.S.-Japan trade and
economy issues. The multimedia
teleconferencing sessions used voice, slow-scan TV, computer text and data,
graphics, and a simulation model.
Nearly 1,500 persons took part, in New York, Tokyo, Honolulu, and at the
World's Fair in Vancouver, B.C. An
echelon economist of the United Nations wrote a game scenario, and a professor
in Tokyo supplied his FUGI model of the world economy.
Noted U.S. economists
(Professor Lester C. Thurow of M.I.T., Provost William Nordhaus of Yale, Mr.
Keith Johnson of Townsend and Greenspan Company) were panelists of this event
and electronically interconnected with Japanese counterparts for three days of
computer-assisted negotiations.
Several hypothetical policies were examined. One question raised by the President Emeritus of American
Arbitration Association was the effect of raising military expenditures in
Japan to the American level while lowering those of the U.S. to the present
Japanese level. Simulation ran
overnight predicted that the balance of trade would thus be even by the year
2000, with necessity of cooperation, rather than competition, by both countries
in the future. This clearly
indicated the cost and dilemma of American's nuclear umbrella protecting
Japan's economic prosperity, thus threatening American's economic prosperity.
Utsumi: This event with combined use of inexpensive delivery systems afforded
an opportunity to see how academic departments might become linked across
national boundaries for the purpose of joint study, research and planetary
problem-solving without expending high cost for satellite video. After this successful sessions, several
former high ranking officers of the U.S./Japanese governmental agencies
expressed their strong interest in a similar multi-media teleconferencing on a
more regular basis to establish an early warning system of the both countries'
ever-closely interwoven economic and trade relationships. Systems analysis for
systemic change at the global level is a precondition for any significant
resolution to today's global-scale problems, as has been advocated by our
GLOSAS/USA (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.)
Project since it was originated in 1972.
Yes, it should involve, in
the near future, using a computer model of all the worldÕs politics and
economies to examine the implications of an action on each of them. We already see the beginning of such
models, such as the Fugi
simulation model of the world in Japan.
This is one thing I mean when I speak of Ôpeace gamingÕ on the scale of
PentagonÕs Ôwar gamesÕ in the last chapter.
This is because I am
convinced that whatever is needed to end war as a way of solving crises will
require large-scale research at universities in many countries that collaborate
in peace gaming experiments and demonstrations. As I say at the end of the book, no one university, group or
national government can do it alone.
The effort to extend learning, healthcare and cooperative research
possibilities to every corner of the planet Òwill require substantial
collaborative contribution of ideas, expertise, technology, money and resources
from multiple sources.Ó Our
proposed globally collaborative environmental peace gaming system can become
Òan educational toolÓ for students in political science and international
affairs. Moreover, such a system
can provide motivation for and become a foundation pillar for a Global
University System (GUS) that will not only provide better education for the
youth of the planet, but that will also promote mutual understanding and peace.
Compared with dominance and
exclusivity of analog telecom, Internet with digitized information enables
sharing valuable telecom media, thus bringing drastic cost reduction –
even a few pennies per minutes telephone calls around the world. In addition to this, now emerging GRID
technology enables collaboration of youngsters for their creating new knowledge
with the use of virtual reality and virtual laboratories in global scale. Our Global University System intends to
fully extend those principles to achieve global peace.
Rossman: You love to quote
Senator Fulbright, who often said that learning together and working
together are the first steps towards world peace.
Utsumi: Since a Fulbright
scholarship changed my life, I once promised Senator Fulbright that I would do
all I could to spread his vision and spirit to every corner of the world with
the use of advanced Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
Rossman: Thank you, Dr. Utsumi,
for your vision and for showing us how much one person can do. Also I thank you for the true story you
tell at the end of your book that says something important about international
education. You tell how during the
Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II, a chief of Filipino
resistance was arrested and taken to a Japanese army camp. His family worried that he would be
beheaded. So they were pleasingly
surprised when he and the captain of the Japanese military police both arrived
back at his house, drunk and joyously singing a Yale University song. They had discovered that they had been
classmates at that American university.
Dr. Parker Rossman
3 Lemmon Drive
Columbia MO 65201-5413
573-443-3256
FAX: 314-876-5812
Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E.
Chairman of GLObal Systems
Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A. (GLOSAS/USA)
Founder and V.P. for
Technology and Coordination of Global University System (GUS)
Laureate of Lord Perry
Award for Excellence in Distance Education
43-23 Colden Street
Flushing, NY 11355-3998,
U.S.A.
Tel: 718-939-0928
http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/
Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676