Distribution of Local Brand Information Chosen by Local Residents
Required Information Retrieved Easily with Natural Language Navigation[3]Ebetsu City, Hokkaido

Establishing a Foundation for Other Local Authorities to Provide ASP Services and Nurture Local Brands

Professor Watanabe says, "We wanted as many regional public organizations as possible to use the Ebetsu Brand Encyclopedia right from the start. We expected that with the numerous talks we had with various parties we had made this desire understood, but unfortunately that does not yet seem to be the case."

As far as Professor Watanabe, who worked hard to establish the use of information technology in business and companies, was concerned, there was no point if a developed system was not used. The Ebetsu Brand Encyclopedia was therefore developed with the use of 100% free open source software right from the beginning, and the natural language navigation system, which Professor Watanabe developed himself, also provided an environment on which it could be used as open source software.

Even using open source software, developing a system alone is a mammoth task, and the local public organizations obtained the cooperation of Ebetsu City to set up a platform provided by the ASP service. The Ebetsu City server had plenty of capacity, so it was possible to set up a Brand Encyclopedia for all towns as long as they provided the contents. The URL of the Ebetsu Brand Encyclopedia is http://www.ebetsu.city-brand.jp/, and it was possible for all towns to share its use and obtain their own URL simply by changing the [ebetsu] part of the address to the name of their own town. With regards to the towns that couldn't afford the cost of implementing a survey on the same scale as Ebetsu City, Professor Watanabe says, "We thought it would be okay for them using existing information of local produce and sightseeing spots, etc. As long as they provided us with the data in the Excel format, they could minimize expenses down to only the costs of data migration and server administration."

Each town was also able to create their own local encyclopedia by changing the design of the web site and uploading the natural language navigation function, and although they would need to prepare their own map data, etc., they could still set themselves up within a minimal time frame and a minimal cost in comparison with starting from scratch.

We believe that the Ebetsu Brand Encyclopedia provided an excellent example for reference purposes from the viewpoint of nurturing the brands of other areas.

Mr. Okawa says, "What should be fostered as local brands? There was a cause for concern that the items that a certain person may chose could result in a variety of problems. However, nobody could complain if we got the local residents to make the selections. As this was an amalgamation of cities, towns and villages, we envisaged arguments over the brands that each local authority wanted to promote. We therefore agreed that the best course to follow was to get the local residents to choose the items to be marked as brands from a viewpoint of fairness and objectivity."

The most important factors were to get the local citizens to make their selections fairly and objectively through a process that required them to choose the brands that most represented their own areas, and to instill them with a sense of awareness of their own area's brands.

So, in what direction with the Ebetsu Brand Encyclopedia develop from now on?

We are now thinking of adding an e-commerce function in which people can purchase the products they have searched for, and once the brand encyclopedias for all areas are up and running we want to set up a Brand Encyclopedia Link Portal. And finally, instead of just information of Ebetsu brands, and are also thinking of establishing a much large Ebetsu Encyclopedia that provides everything anybody could wish to know about Ebetsu.

Mr. Okawa says, "Regional finances are in short supply and the City Hall must provide administrative services with a minimal workforce. If we can gather together all information related to the administrative services available in Ebetsu City, the city's workers can use it as a CRM (Customer Relation Management) system."

Under the concept that services for local residents should enable them to get the information they need when they need it, this is a function that is needed in the very near future.