Sep 2005

-INDEX-
Reports
-Yumi, Chief Executive Director's monthly note
-Toshi, Chief Techinical Director's monthly note
-What's up in Pangaea's Playground? (Activity report)

-----------------------------------
Yumi's monthly note
-----------------------------------
August was a busy month for Pangaea. Visiting Vienna in Austria, I have met a new director at Zoom (Children's Museum in Museum Quarter where I am an advisory board).

Also reunion with Sasha , now works as a researcher at Zoom was realized. She has been very interested in Pangaea since we've first met. Zoom has beautiful facility and well planned exhibit which are made by artist and children. I have given a presentation to Director and staffs.

Since we are looking for regular Pangaea location, to do activities every week, they recommended me to meet with Youth Centers in Vienna. They were very quick to arrange such meeting with director of all Vienna youth centers. I love how quickly things move when people like what they see. That is a big difference from Japan.

Well, any way, I was sitting in front of director next day. He was leaving his office early to go to his summer vacation. We were told that he has only an hour or so. But when meeting was finished, it was well over 3 hours. He liked Pangaea, and said that he will look for an appropriate youth center to start Pangaea next spring. So now during this summer trip, we promised to open one in Nairobi, Kenya and this one in Vienna, Austria. Pretty good job I did. Preparation will begin next January when we also prepare Nairobi. That will be a long visit.

Returning to Japan, only after four days, I was on the way to Seoul, Korea to run the first Pangaea activity. I had such a great time. Although our language is different, I brought guidebook. With gesture, guidebook, pictogram, any help I can get, I tried to get to know Korean children.

They were wonderful. They tried to understand what this woman is trying to communicate. We ate delicious Korean lunch together, and at the end of day, we took photo together with very big smiles. We promised to meet on web cam a week later when we connect Seoul and Tokyo. So we did. On Aug 20, we connected Seoul and Shibuya.

Japanese children greeted with Korean Hello, and Korean children greeted Japanese. Koetsuna, Voice Game which Pangaea developed for an ice break worked perfect. Children enjoyed so much that they wanted to do more!

Then they asked questions and gave comments on Playing cards which all children made a week ago. They used pictograms which Pangaea developed, also some drew their own pictogram. They stood in front of Web Cam and shared these message on projector. To reply, we prepared sketch book, encycropedia, crayons. As I was a week ago, they use everything to communicate. Then I knew that they really want to communicate, and pictogram does work. Also children really listen what another side is trying to say, and when they understand each other, that turned into joy. At the end of two hours, they both waved their hands and promised to meet again. Well, I think I can go on more, but this is it for this month.

Yumi

PS. Many of you know my Pet dog, Hana. She died on Aug/9. I was able to be with her at the last moment. I miss her so much..

-----------------------------------
Toshi's monthly note
-----------------------------------
NPO Pangaea successfully held a significant event connecting children in Shibuya, Tokyo and Seoul, Korea through the Internet in August. I especially would like to write about IT-related topics.

I flied to Seoul and participated in the Japan-Korea joint activity on 21st August as a technical operator from Korean side. At first, Kotaro Ito, a technical leader of Japan, and I were anxious about the Internet connectivity between Seoul and Shibuya.

So, we went through technical rehearsals of the connection over and over between Seoul and the Hatomori elementary school in Shibuya, Japan. But there was nothing to worry about. Because Seoul's internet environment was far more speedy and stable than we expected. Moreover, when using Skype, an IP phone software, there was almost no delay, time lag when sending voices during the call, and we could have a stressless conversation. I was surprised at the Seoul's Internet environment as you can connect to high-speed wireless Internet almost everywhere such as cafes, airports and commercial buildings.

Thanks to the rich Internet environment, we successfully did a "Koetsuna" and communication via a video conferencing system over the Internet at the activity. "Koetsuna" is a real-time network game between two remote locations that NPO Pangaea invented as an icebreaker of an activity. Two groups, one is from Japan and the other is from Korea, play it by screaming "Pangaea !!!" against a microphone for 10 seconds.

On the screen, two photos with faces of both team players are shown that moves according to the voice volume and the team, which has a greater voice volume, wins. Seeing children who were hooked on the game and screaming desperately, other facilitators and children who were waiting were all bursted into a laugh. Everyone looked happy and enjoyed the play.

As the network was very stable, we could see live video images during the play through a Web camera and that made children to feel closer despite the geographical distance. I keep improving "Koetsuna" software to make it operated in a simple and easy way aiming to be used by those who are not so acquainted with IT. This time, I focused on a reform of simplifying a setup operation for saving technical operators' time during preparation, and also making algorithms of network connection and voice level acquisition more efficient.

One more thing that impressed me during my stay in Korea was to see many people gabbing on the cell-phone on a running subway. Because in Japan, there is an increase in the number of subway platforms where cell-phone are available but running trains, especially subways, are still out of cell-phone range. So I was very much amazed by the advanced cell-phone connectivity of Korea in addition to the Internet connectivity. With this kind of favorable situation, an online game is being all the rage in Korea now. Everybody is fascinated by online games. You may feel and see the trend everywhere. For example, I saw lots of life-sized posters of a character in an online game in a platform and online game events were held in a shopping mall with famous game players.

One another thing I would like to mention is that this phenomenon is not only for young male, but irrespective of age or sex. Online game is one of the popular topics for children in Seoul. Apart from the Japan-Korea activity, another significant event in August for me was the IPA grant, the Information-Technology Promotion Agency, Japan. I gave a final presentation and delivered a final product. I'll give you detail information in the next newsletter. Don't miss it !

-----------------------------------
What's up in Pangaea's Playground? (Activity report by Seiji)
-----------------------------------
Setting up Pangaea-cards was completed.

Japan was in charge of Spades and Hearts, Korea was for Clubs, and Kenya was for Diamonds.

Children created a colorful set of cards. The daily life in each country was naturally reflected in their illustrations and photos under the theme of each card, 13 pieces from A to K.

The things in daily life depend on how people live in each country. Each of them is different.

However, it could be the same.

We could see above these in their cards.
On August 21st, Japanese children communicated with Korean children and tried some activities simultaneously, such as greetings in each language, Koetsuna (voice tug of war), and talking with pictorial symbols.

"I'm a little bored for waiting."
"Don't we have any snacks today?"

We sometimes saw children looked like tired or bored.

However, they looked very happy in the group photo, taken at the end.

Looking back this event, I could say it was a nice day!

I'll start to research how we could make better and enjoyable application of exchange work pieces and messages with children researchers from September.

Wish to meet friends there beyond the distance, time, language and social back ground.

Seji Mukai


******************************************************
Please check for details at Pangaea homepage.
Non Profit Organization PANGAEA: http://www.pangaean.org/
For inquiries, e-mail: info*pangaean.org (Please change "*" to "@".)

[Registration/Termination of Subscription]
This e-newsletter is delivered to
*Registered Pangaea activity supporting members
*Pangaea advisors
*Pangaea fellows
*Registered Pangaea volunteer staff
*Anyone who supports Pangaea activity and has contacted to Pangaea President Ms. Mori/Vice-President Mr. Takasaki

If you wish to change your e-mail address or to terminate, please contact us from the following site:

http://www.pangaean.org/common/english/newsletter/change.html


******************************************************
Non Profit Organization PANGAEA
TS building 4F, 2-14-3 Uchikanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0047, Japan
TEL: +81-3-5298-1551 / FAX: +81-3-5298-1552 E-mail:info*pangaean.org (Please change "*" to "@".)

Copyright (c) 2003-2004 NPO PANGAEA. All Rights Reserved.

******************************************************