For Immediate Release
Date:   March 2, 2005

Japanese Representatives Explore IIa Success with Interagency Collaboration

Oak Ridge, TN. Representatives from the Japan Science and Technology Agency were in Oak Ridge last week for meetings hosted by Information International Associates. In December, Chikako Maeda, manager, JST Department of Planning and Coordination, and Ritsuko Nakajima, Chief Analyst for the JST Department of Infrastructure, contacted IIa President Bonnie Carroll seeking information about the company’s successful management of the federal interagency collaboration known as CENDI (www.cendi.gov). Carroll has served as Executive Director of CENDI since 1988. JST was exploring CENDI’s success in facilitating collaboration across federal government agencies and also the general workings of the organization.

While the Japanese representatives were in Oak Ridge, the visitors met with representatives of DOE’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information (www.osti.gov), a key CENDI member. Walter Warnick, OSTI Director, currently serves as CENDI Chair. The visitors also met with faculty and students at the University of Tennessee’s School of Information Science. It was through the OSTI-hosted and managed Science.gov web site (www.science.gov) that JST learned about CENDI and IIa. Coincidentally, OSTI also manages the Energy Technology Data Exchange (www.etde.org), a multilateral international program that centrally collects and disseminates energy research and technology information from its 16 member countries. Until recently, Japan was an ETDE member country. The visit by JST representatives presented an opportunity for rekindling discussions about Japan’s membership.

After spending time locally exploring the inner workings of CENDI, Maeda and Nakajima traveled with Carroll to Washington, D.C., to attend the bi-monthly meeting of CENDI. The JST representatives were able to observe a presentation from the National Center for Biotechnology Information and a general counsel roundtable on public/open access and intellectual property issues in the changing information environment.

IIa, headquartered in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, provides information management, systems, and technology services to the government, industry, non-profit and academic organizations, and international entities. In February 2005, company president Carroll was honored with the Department of Interior’s Conservation Service Award.