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Research paper : Realization of a collaboration system for everyone to develop and manage (K. Eto et al.)−96 Synthesiology - English edition Vol.1 No.2 (2008) “accumulation and structuring of knowledge” that were discussed above, we investigated the routine communication method used by our target users. They were mainly telephone, facsimile, cell phone, e-mail, and web browsing. Among these, e-mail and web browsing were communication means of digital information such as text information which is compatible for distribution on the Internet. Since Wiki, whose design philosophy was adopted as described in the previous section, was an extension of web browsing and did not alter the way of using e-mail, it was assumed that a user would use mail in a conventional manner. Therefore, e-mail and Wiki were combined for structuring knowledge and for collaborative work. It was designed as a web system that enabled communication patterns in which the user could freely edit and set convenient rules including the image of the entry page to Wiki. Specifically, the following points were emphasized in the design.・Ease of managementIt can be set up by sending e-mail, and then responding to the mail from the system. Anyone can add or delete members, thereby enabling collaboration with members outside the organization, which was difficult to do with the conventional system. Members of the system and Wiki can be matched so anyone can easily take on managerial work.・Ease of learningStarting with simple communication using e-mail, one can gradually build up a desired information environment.・Accumulation and structuring of knowledgeExchanges of e-mail are accumulated in Wiki, and necessary knowledge structuring and collaboration can be accomplished. Notification about who did what in Wiki is transmitted (distributed by mail).Therefore Wiki and ML that distributed mails to the group were combined. ML is a mechanism whereby e-mail can be sent to several people simultaneously. When a person sends e-mail to the ML, it is then sent to all registered members. ML can be categorized as an asynchronous communication system. There are many server softwares for ML such as fml and majordomo, but a hosting service such as Yahoo Group[13] and freeML[14] is frequently used due to the ease of set-up.When setting up a ML, the user, who will act as the ML manager, sets the mail address for the ML, and then registers the members. In general, participation and withdrawal of members are managed by the ML manager, and participation or withdrawal is done by sending a request to the manager. This endows authority to the manager, and while it enables removal of troublemakers, it also places a heavy responsibility on the manager.Therefore, QuickML[15] was employed as our ML. QuickML is a ML system that enables set-up and operation with simple maneuvers.4.2.2 QuickMLQuickML is a ML management system developed by Satoru Takabayashi and Toshiyuki Masui. It enables easy set-up and operation. In QuickML, all members have authority to determine participation/withdrawal of members, so the problem of placing a burden on a single manager does not occur. Mail sent in by a member is forwarded to all members, so each member will manage the mail as a client.5 Implementation of qwikWeb5.1 Implementation methodFor implementation of qwikWeb, QuickML and Wiki were used as component. Implementation was done so the users would not be conscious of QuickML or conventional Wiki, and the system looked like an ingenious combination of the functions of ML and Wiki to users. In qwikWeb, knowledge structuring was promoted by registering all mails sent to ML as Wiki pages.User can set up ML and Wiki site by simply sending e-mail to the qwikWeb system. First, the user selects a name for ML, and sends e-mail to “name-of-ML@qwik.jp.” If the name is not already used, confirmation mail will be returned. By responding to this mail, ML and Wiki site is set up (Figure 2). If such ML and Wiki sites remain unused for one month or more, they are automatically deleted after issuing warnings. Almost no burden is placed on the user for starting and closing a site, and the user can start-up ML and Wiki by simply throwing in an e-mail.The e-mail sent to the ML is automatically stored in the Wiki site as a new Wiki page. The title of the mail becomes the page name of the Wiki page, and in the case where the same page name already exists, the new mail is added to the end of the already existing Wiki page. Response to that mail is also added on to the end of the Wiki page of the parent mail. The mails within the same Wiki page are displayed divided by date and user name. Related mails are stored on one Wiki Fig. 2 Newly set up Wiki.Exchange on ML directly becomes Wiki page.(24)−

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