Abstract
This study firstly aims to design and develop a Web-GIS (Geographical Information System) specially tailored to the efficient accumulation, sharing, and communication of regional knowledge by regional residents in regional community. The Web-GIS is a geographical information system which integrates Web-GIS, an SNS (Social Networking Service), and a Wiki in a single system. Secondly, collecting information on regional resources as regional knowledge, the Web-GIS was conducted in the regional community of Chofu city in Tokyo, and was evaluated based on a questionnaire survey to users and a sociometric analysis of log data during operation. The conclusions of this study are summarized in the following three points. (1) The Web-GIS uses a design which ameliorates the three constraints of time, space and human resources, making it possible to design systems in accordance with target cases. After preoperation of the Web-GIS, certain issues were identified in order to redesign it. (2) After operating the Web-GIS to communicate regional knowledge about regional resources in the local community, the system was evaluated based on the results of a questionnaire survey to users in order to identify improvements. The arrangement of transmitted information and display of the information on each user's screen were pointed out as improvements to the system. (3) Based on a sociometric analysis, communication among users was verified. It was also clear that women communicated with more users than men and that a community could be guessed to be built among specified users over the course of time.
