The Japan Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine amidst the information technology revolution.

Abstract

An American Internet shopping site announced that electronic book sales surpassed sales of paper versions in May 2011. The site said that it has been selling 105 electronic versions for every 100 printed books (hardcover and paperback) sold beginning in April 2011. Sales of electronic books surpassed sales of hardcover books in July 2010 and outstripped sales of paperbacks 6 months later. It said that sales of electronic books have tripled in 2011 compared to the same time last year and that sales of printed books are also growing. Furthermore, we are now seeing the advent of new services such as digital textbook rentals. Students can choose from among several tens of thousands of textbooks provided by major textbook companies, renting them only for as long as they need them. By renting digital textbooks for short periods of time, students are able to save a lot of money compared with buying paper textbooks at full retail price. Margin annotations and underlines added to rented digital textbooks by the user are saved externally, and they can be displayed again if the user rents the same textbook again or buys it. Current electronic publishing may be at the stage where efforts are focused on converting conventional print media for display on electronic devices. Even at this early stage, some of the shortcomings of conventional books have been overcome. Not only can electronic books be bought online anytime, but there is no need to worry about a book being out of stock or out of print. I think it is fair to say that electronic publishing is now at the stage where digitalization has finally allowed books to boast the same characteristics as web-based media. When discussing this topic hereafter, it will be necessary to keep in mind that more convenient electronic reading devices will be devised in the future, and that electronic books have outstanding functions that printed books will never be able to imitate, and not assume that electronic books will continue to be mere digital copies of printed books and that current electronic reading devices will not evolve. For instance, only still images from ultrasonic diagnostic equipment can be printed in hardbound books, but in the case of electronic reading devices it is possible to display moving images from diagnostic equipment by inserting then into electronic books. Moreover, readers can input text into electronic reading devices and ask the author questions or voice their opinions, and readers can exchange opinions with other people reading the same book via the Internet. In light of this, digitalization of content alone will not be sufficient to sustain electronic publishing. Rather, the various mechanisms designed with print media in mind will have to evolve in concert with the new environment, i.e., the Internet. Let’s take a moment here to consider the work of academic societies. Exchanging ideas within a group of experts, giving back to society as a whole the fruits of its efforts, and promoting an academic discipline have been and will continue to be the key objectives of academic societies. People gather to exchange ideas. A community forms around the latest information, and the existence of the community then brings in even more of the latest research results. This positive chain reaction is the essence of academic society management. How to forge this activity from the standpoint of the latest information technology is a major challenge for academic societies. At the Japan Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine, digital H. Hachiya (&) Department of Mechanical and Control Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan e-mail: hachiya@ctrl.titech.ac.jp