| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
|
|
Since dataset research project in FY2011, METI has been operating a “Recovery and Reconstruction Support Program Database,” a one-stop service site where users can search through a wide variety of support programs operated by the central and local government in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, the experience contributes to gain knowledge and know-how in information sharing among other ministries and local governments for post disaster support.
In coordination with Kobe City, Asukoe launched the first Kosodate Town project in August 2012 utilizing knowledge and know-how accumulated by the government. Since then, a series of Kosodate Town projects have been launched and 70 municipal governments are providing public service information through this service as of December 20, 2013. Eventually, they seek to increase the number to 200 in the future.
The government and Asukoe are working together in developing datasets for childcare as a part of the IMI project and ensuring interoperability with the vocabulary that is used in other childcare service information in Japan. In addition to datasets for childcare, datasets for nursing care service information will be added in the future.
Considering the emerging international standard on information sharing strategies, METI will develop datasets for sightseeing information including museums, temples, and public transportation as a part of the IMI project. METI also considers applying the IMI project to provide information for SMEs. Integrating information provided in Kosodate Town and the one in Mirasapo, METI will examine new services in the future.
With regard to the IMI project, METI decided to expand the range of the project and standardize the information format not only at the dataset level but also at the vocabulary level according to the “New IT Strategy of Japan” in June 2013. The Japanese government will by the end of March 2014 publish an action plan dealing with how it will implement the strategy.
|
|
| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
|
|
METI initially started the promotion of the standardization of the information format, and arranged the comprehensive coordination of a variety of applied services created by the IMI project. Eventually, the standardization of the information format grew into national project and government will create the information exchange framework at a national level
In coordination with METI, the Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA) develops the database used in the public vocabulary framework. The IPA also examines the public vocabulary, including childcare.
NPO Asukoe provides the service to disseminate public childcare service information. Asukoe organizes and implements datasets and vocabulary relating to childcare support systems with the use of the database.
Municipal governments provide public service information relating to childcare. Corporate sponsors provide funding for municipal governments to operate websites and publish booklets.
IT firms such as Microsoft Japan and consulting firms such as Mitsubishi Research Institution provide technical support in the project.
|
| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
|
|
METI
The financial cost to develop the framework (i.e. “dataset project” and “IMI project”) is 43 million yen, and the cost to apply the framework (i.e. “Recovery and Reconstruction Support Program Database”) was 114 million yen.
The human resources for implementing the project are six staff members from METI’s e-government team whose main mission is to promote and enhance open government in Japan. The main members are in charge of other projects relating to open government, geographic systems, national ID, and the government-wide travel expense system.
IPA
The IPA will invest 200 million yen for this project to build the platform in FY2014. Human resources for this project are four staff members in charge of some other projects.
Municipal governments
No financial costs are incurred since corporate sponsors provide funding to cover the cost to run the website, booklets, and personnel expenses for NPO staff members.
Humanitarian costs are low since municipal governments need only to provide and upload information for the website, and staff members from Asukoe work on editing and other logistics operations.
Asukoe
Eight staff members from Asukoe edit a page on the website.
No financial cost is incurred since they can afford their personnel expenses with the funding provided by the corporate sponsors of the project.
Asukoe has total control over budget management for this project.
|
|
| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
|
|
As of December 20, 2013, 70 municipal governments are providing public service information relating to childcare through Kosodate Town. The website in collaboration with Kobe City, for instance, recorded 11,000 page views per month. Kobe City will carry out a questionnaire survey to citizens using the website to improve the service.
A municipal government can reduce the financial cost in developing the website to disseminate their public service information, which costs approximately 6 million yen for the initial cost and 3.6 million yen for annual operational cost.
Seventy municipal governments have provided childcare service information with this service over the past two years, thus this service has contributed to a cost reduction of 924 million yen in total. If 200 municipal governments introduce this service for five years, which Asukoe set as a goal to achieve in the future, the total cost reduction is expected to be 2.5 billion yen.
METI effectively applies the framework developed in this project in various ways; for example, METI installed the framework on the open data portal site “Open Data METI”, Government CIO website, and Mirasapo mentioned above. The METI is considering applying the framework to disaster information in the future.
|
|
| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
|
|
As the Kosodate Town project is implemented at the municipal government level, one of the fundamental indicators of success is the number of municipal governments providing information with Kosodate Town. Another indicator is the result of the questionnaire survey on user satisfaction and the page view record of the website
With regard to IMI, one indicator of success is the number of municipal governments implementing the IMI framework and the number of services utilizing the framework. Another index is the number of vocabulary sets developed in this project.
|
|
| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
|
|
It took time for NPO Asukoe to gain understanding from municipal governments about the whole context of this project since it was the first public service project based on a gratuitous contract with an NPO over the operation and management of the project. As such, Asukoe illustrated the cost benefits of the project.
At the national level, relevant ministries achieved a consensus to develop a public vocabulary which is consistent with international standards and to take actions as a whole-government according to the New IT Strategy under the Abe administration set forth in the Cabinet Decision of June 14, 2013.
In fact, the concept of the standardization of datasets and vocabulary is too complicated and difficult for officials in charge at municipal governments to understand since they are not information system professionals. This framework, however, is deployed as a system behind the public service, thus specialized training to handle this framework is not required for these officials
|