Report of Activities           From January to March 2003, as a 21 COE Research Fellow, I researched and built the network environments for the 21 COE program (21COE) and Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies (ASAFAS). As part of this work, I set up new web, mail, groupware, and other servers for 21COE and ASAFAS, and began developing the 21COE web site.           Here I will report on the results of these efforts. Additionally, I will report on some other work I have carried out after March 2003 as a Research Associate. 1. Replacement of the network servers for 21COE and ASAFAS           The total replacement of the network machines had already been planned by Mr. Kitani, the Research Associate in Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), before I began to participate in this project. I was given charge of the replacement of the ASAFAS servers, which use firewalls, mail, groupware, and so on. The replacement work was done from February to April 2003 (the new ASAFAS server began to run in a stable way in September 2003.)           Sun Microsystems Sun Fire V120 (Ultra SPARC III 650 MHz) servers are used for ASAFAS and 21COE. These machines give our network solid performance, so we can maintain the best network conditions with increasing network traffic.            I also upgraded and maintained the software. The server OS was changed from Solaris 2.6 to Solaris 8, and the server programs, mail, web, and security applications were upgraded to the newest versions. These programs are already working. Other applications such as mailing list programs and security programs are also installed but not yet working. We plan to begin using them after maintenance processes.           During this work, I also installed groupware for the publication of research results and communications on research work. All members of ASAFAS will be users of this system. The application is Cybozu Share360v2, and the server machine is a Sun Microsystems Cobalt LX50.           I am now testing this system for data transport from Cybozu Office 3, using in the Division of African Area Studies, and for newly effective subjects we should try the new group ware. I hope that this new groupware will become the favored communication tool among researchers inside and outside ASAFAS. 2. Setting Up the 21COE Web Site          We launched a web site on the 21COE server in March 2003.          I inputted the initial contents and pages, and fixed their format. After the launching of the site, the maintenance staff continues to maintain and modify pages.          On the web site, we carry introductions to the 21COE program, information on meetings, columns "Field work Field talk" in English, the home page of our mail magazine "Integrated Area Studies Information Magazine" (IAS-INFOM), and so on.           Speaking precisely, the Public Relations Section of 21COE prepares the contents, and we, the network administrators, are only responsible for the technical issues involving the server machine and server programs. I will provide here a summary of the 21COE web site. The total number of visitors is 15,600 (Feb. 27, 2004). IAS-INFOM, whose homepage is located on the 21COE web site, has 597 readers ( Feb. 18 2004 .) These contents are very helpful in facilitating information exchanges among Asian and African researchers and the interested public. 3. Continuing Tasks           Here, I will report on work which continues until today. 3.1 Automatic Data Collection System on the WWW           I have tested a web page collecting system planned within 21COE. The purpose of this system is to preserve academic web pages on Asian and African area studies from all over the world, since there is a possibility that they will suddenly become non-accessible. Our plan for the time being is limited to collection. Releasing them to the public is an important issue to consider but will take some care because of copyright problems. From the autumn in 2003, we began test collection work from several sites, and from February in 2004 we also started to test using a dedicated machine and running long term on a continuous basis. 3.2 Mapserver System           Because I had to temporarily manage the mapserver system in CSEAS developed by Dr. Song, a Research Associate of CSEAS, he gave me instruction concerning the system structure, including how to compile, install, and use it. There are plans to integrate the map-picture database of African Area studies developed by Prof. Araki in ASAFAS and the mapserver system. 4. Others           The electronic publication of "African Study Monographs," the AFROLA database, and other computational works are now ongoing. These are not my responsibilities, but I will introduce them as well.