Nov 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)

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Yumi's monthly note
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Since we started Pangaea, we've been working for "Global Children's Day" as the first goal. We finally have the announcement of Pangaea Global Kick Off at the press conference on November 15th and the Japan-Korea Synchronous Activity on November 20th as a special event.

Because of having tons of things to do for preparation of two big events, October was over as quick as a flash. Even I don't remember what I did at the beginning of the month. It's been a hectic life for me. It all started with my visit to Soul, Korea to find out an event place. It seems to me a long time ago. Anyhow, I found a nice place for our activity and it was a fruitful business trip as usual.

And I had the music activity meeting and the meeting for Viscuit with Mr. Harada, visited a social gathering by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, got press interview from Nikkei Woman, and had my father's first year's memorial service as well. However, the heaviest work was writing a paper for applying a grant.

Running the Non Profit Organization is as same as running a company. The plan and the budget for the coming year is very important, especially the budget. Almost all the Non Profit Organizations have a tough time of this budget. In January, the willful president, such as me, set a goal of a long-term vision of Pangaea, "Will be a Research and Development Lab of Peace Engineering!"

Even if the Pangaea activities are good and for contribution to society, it's quite difficult to raise donations from individuals and corporations. Of course, writing a paper is a hard work, but winning the fund of our activity in an honest way is quite important for the Non Profit Research and Development Organization.

Recently some first-line researchers have an interest in Pangaea. I can see some possibilities of interesting collaborations with them. "Very excited about Pangaea!" I heard same words from two researchers in this week.

All the staffs, Mr. Takasaki and I couldn't come to this first goal without "Being excited". We are impressed with an excited moment, so we can do everyday hard work. Actually the activity place on every week is a refresh place for all of us. My hectic week absolutely disappears when I go to the activity place and have children's smiles with "Wow! Here comes Miss Mori!" To tell the truth, I'm good at drawing Pangaea House with children at the activity place instead of writing a paper at home!

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Toshi's monthly note
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November 20, 2005, the first goal of Pangaea since we started is getting close. In these days, I reviewed lots of old files for writing a paper and an application of a grant. I found a schedule which I made with Miss Mori at MIT Media Lab in 2001, the year Pangaea was set up, from the bottom of my computer. In this schedule, various things were written for 2002 - 2004, such as "Make budget of the first phase", "Launch activity base", etc… However, we wrote just one line, "Hard days of work!", for 2005! Bingo! I just laughed!

We've stepped forward bit by bit with lots of supports, but without stopping. I certainly felt it was absolutely great and I thanked everyone who supported us. Well, the Global Kick Off is just in front of us! We'll have an announcement at the press conference at the Marunouchi Bldg. in Tokyo on November 15th. On November 18th, I'll have a presentation at the IT meeting in Korea. And the Japan-Korea Synchronous Activity will be held on November 20th with media report.

Through with the stage of making a platform from zero, we'll step into the next stage, such as more children from all over the world will use Pangaea technology.

It's not a technical monthly note, but it doesn't mean running out of material. (laugh!) More than 200 people have accessed and tried the Picton Survey, used be the Pictorial Symbol Survey, since last month. New members, Mr. Aoshima from the Graduate School of Cognitive Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University and Miss Yamada from Linguistics Department, International Christian University, have worked busily all the time. The modified version device of music activity will be completed in this week. You'll see how everything goes at the press conference and also in the next newsletter. Don't miss it!

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What's up in Pangaea's Playground? (Activity report by Seiji)
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Participants from both Korea and Japan will be able to see their own Pangaea House on November 20th.

Children researchers at the usual activity place in Tokyo tried and played Pangaea House with a sample. The voice of telling his/her name was coming out as pressing the name plate in the House. As pressing it more, they could hear the rap music.

"Can you come to the Pangaea special event on November 20th?" I asked.
"I really wanna go!" Almost all children answered as raising hand.
I was so happy!

All children can see an image of system of sending and getting messages and work pieces through internet. As recognizing their condition, we, staffs, can image our future activity.

As having the Pangaea announcement at the press conference on November 15th, various things are finalized simply and for the next step.

I really thank for all the children, volunteers, and whoever supported us for last one and a half years.
Please keep continue to see how Pangaea goes.

Seji



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