History

Ten years have elapsed since the original form of CODATA Task Group on the Survey of Data Sources in Asian-Oceanic Countries (CODATA/DSAO) initiated its activities of promoting database activities in Asian-Oceanic countries by publishing an updated and enlarged version of the " CODATA Directory of Asian-Oceanic Sources for Science and Technology" in order to make easier the exchange of data not only within the Asian-Oceanic countries but also between these and other countries.

1. Establishment of the Working Group 

The establishment of the group was originally proposed to the 15th CODATA General Assembly, Ottawa, 1986, as ???Task Group on Internationalization of Data Source in Far-Eastern Countries??? by Prof. Jiro OSUGI, Delegate from Japan, with the cooperation of Prof. GUO Musan, Deligate from China. The objective of the proposed Task Group was to make the data sources hidden beyond the language barrier familiar in other countries and attempt to improve intercommunication worldwide. The proposal stated :

"Although CODATA, being an international organization, aims to act on a worldwide scale, most of the information sources it has inventoried so far are expressed in English and some other "Popular" languages written in roman alphabets. The scientific and technological information in "Ppopular" languages, those which use non-Roman characters in particular, therefore, tend to be hidden and buried beyond the language barrier and are rarely known and utilized by scientists in other language territories. The Far-Eastern countries (China, Japan, and Korea), where Chinese characters are used in the native languages, are typical of such territories. A considerable amount of valuable information including useful data produced in these countries is practically excluded because of the language barrier, particularly in the applied sciences. This is an unfortunate situation for the whole world because any information in science and technology should be the common property of mankind. Familiarizing the world community with such hidden information would be a desiratum in the light of the objectives of CODATA.

The proposal was unfortunately not carried at the General Assembly, the result of voting being 10-11-7 (pros-cons-abstances). The difference between pros and cons was so close, that this plan was proposed again to the 31st Executive Committee Meeting, Paris, in January, 1987, as "Working Group on Data Sources in Far-Eastern Countries", was approved unanimously by the Executive Committee. In such a process, this Group initially started as a Working Group.

2. Upgrading the Task Group

The first meeting of the Working Group was held on 28-30 October 1987, at Science Council of Japan, Tokyo, with twenty participants: essentially from China, Japan, and Korea. Guests from Indonesia and Thailand and Prof. E. F. Westrum, Jr. as Liaison Member were also present. After this meeting, the upgrading of this Working Group to a Task Group was proposed to the 16th General Assembly Meeting. Karlsruhe, 1988, with a new name "Task Group on the Survey of Data Sources in East-Asian Countries". This proposal was adopted at the General Assembly. The second meeting (the first one as a Task Group) was held in Beijing, China on 1-3 November 1988, and was attended by about forty participants.

Since then, the Task Group has been renewed four times at the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th General Assemblies held in 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1996 respectively, and was renamed in 1990 as "Task Group on the survey of Data Sources in Asian-Oceanic Countries" as it is to include the activities in broader area around East Asia.

3. Membership of the Task Group

The chairmanship of the Task Group was first held by Prof. Jiro Osugi, the original proposer of the group, and at his decease in August, 1989, was succeeded by Prof. Mitsuo TASUMI. After the termination of Prof.

TASUMI???s term of office in 1995, the Chairmanship was held temporarily by Prof. Akira TSUGITA, who was appointed as Chairman in 1997. The Vice Chairmanship was held by Prof. JIANG Chuseng up to 1996. It is now held by Dr. Richard SIMPSON and Prof. SUN Honglie. As the official members of the WG and TG, six scientists from China, Korea, and Japan were listed at the beginning. Later the membership was extended to some sixteen scientists from nine nations. At present, the TG is composed of the chairman, two Vice Chairmen, three Honorary Members, eight Members, eleven Consulting Members, and an Executive Committee Liaison. It should be noted that Prof. Edgar F. WESTRUM Jr. has been an active participants as Liaison Member and the editor of the publications from the TG.

4. Achievements of the Task Group

Seven meetings have been held times - two as a WG and five as a TG - as listed in Table 1. In the first meeting, Prof. OSUGI, Chairman, indicated that the objectives of the group are :

  • To exchange information on scopes of databases
  • To prepare a standard format directory
  • To prepare the directory as a service to the world, especially for Asian-Oceanic countries.

These objectives are condensed in two items :
  a. to exchange data in Asian-Oceanic countries with the rest of the world
  b. to encourage data activities in Asian-Oceanic countries

For the purpose of a) above, the group began to compile a directory of the data sources in Asian-Oceanic countries. Questionares were sent to the organizations assumed to operate databases for science and technology in China, Japan, and Korea separately. Care was taken to find the sources scarcely known in other countries because of the language used in describing their data. The replies were collected and compiled in a unified form and were published in a printed form as Publication [2] (Table 2), which comprises the data sources in these three countries.

Work started to update and enlarge the contents of Publication [2] immediately after it was completed. As a result of the endeavors of the TG members with a valuable cooperation of Prof. Edgar F. WESTRUM, Jr., as editor, the Directory was revised to Publication [5], which comprises, in addition to the updated version for China, Japan, and Korea, the data sources in China (Academy located in Taipei), the Philippines and Thailand.

Although the disciplines of data to be covered are by no means different from those in the rest of the world, some have more significance to the Asian-Oceanic scientists. Data for natural resources such as petroleum and forest, rice and environment are the examples. Sub-disciplines which have special interest were sought, and in the 6th meeting the TG set up four subgroups to promote the activities namely: (i) Animal Viruses, (ii) Microbes, (iii) Materials science, and (iv) Fish.

For item b), the TG held symposia accompanied with the TG meetings. In the first meeting, emphasis in the presentations was mainly put on the introduction and intercommunication of status quo in each country (China, Japan, and Korea) and in each discipline, and no printed record of the text of presentations was published. In the 2nd meeting and thereafter, presentations increased both in volume and activeness, and the TG attempted to publish the whole text in a printed form. Thus Publications [1], [3], [4], [6], and [7] were issued successively by CODATA to publicize the activities in the 2nd to 6th meetings.

5. The geographical region

The geographical region which the TG intended to include for its work was initially limited to China, Japan, and Korea because in these countries Chinese characters are used which typically represents the language barrier, and because, two of them already being National Members of CODATA, a nucleus of the project could be formalized without much difficulty. Calls for participation were widely extended in parallel to other countries in the East Asia from the beginning, and as the project progressed the TG could embrace East Asian countries including India and Pakistan, and later Oceanic countries including Australia. The participating nations of the meetings are shown to the extent known in Table 3. There would be no reason why requests of participation from the countries other than Asian-Oceanic should be refused, but it should be cautioned that ungoverned extension might defocus the object of the TG and lead to loss of the raison d???etre of the TG in CODATA.

6. Expectation to increase CODATA National Members

Being involved in a Task Group in CODATA, CODATA/DSAO welcomes the participating countries to become National Members of CODATA. China and Japan, founders of the TG, were National Members of CODATA from the beginning of the Group. Korea, the other founder, applied for membership and became National Member of CODATA in a couple of years. Australia and India, joining the TG later, were already National Members of CODATA. In the course of the development of the TG two new National Members joined CODATA: China (Academy located in Taipei) and Indonesia. Affiliation of two or three more countries are also encouraged and would be hopeful in near future. The increase of National Members should be welcomed because it represents another benefit from the activities of CODATA/DSAO.

7. For the Future

The achievements of the Task Group in these ten years should be highly evaluated and its success should be congratulated. It is hoped that the Task Group could encourage and promote the data activities in Asian-Oceanic countries so that only minor language barriers could finally be recognized there.