TRIZ Forum: From Readers


Letters from Readers (Feb. - Apr. 2017)

Tomasz Arciszewski (USA), Czeslaw Cempel (Poland), Simon Litvin (USA), Pavel Livotov (ETRIA President), Oliver Mayer (Germany), Michal Halas (Poland), William Hess (USA), Shahid Saleem Arshard (Australia); Toru Nakagawa (OGU)

Min-Gyu Lee (Korea & Finland), Giuseppe Carignani (Italy), Toru Nakagawa (OGU)

Editor: Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.)

See Index Page of 'From the Readers' pages

Posted on Apr. 24, 2017; Updated: Jun. 4, 2017
buttons guide you to the pages written in Japanese.

Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Apr. 24, 2017)

To my thanks, I have been receiving emails occasionally from various readers in Japan and from overseas.  I am going to post some of those communications suitable for open discussions, in the present page.  There are communications in the Japanese page also, though not shown in this English page. 

List of Letters from Readers:

Feb. 14, 2017 ---------------------------------------------- Update of "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" ---------------------
Feb. 16, 2017 Tomasz Arciszewski (USA) Short communication
Mar.  3, 2017 Czeslaw Cempel (Poland) Principles of human culture
Jan. 14, 2017 Simon Litvin (USA) Request for information of TRIZ education at OGU
Mar.  8, 2017 Toru Nakagawa TRIZ Activities in OGU: Research, Education, Application and Proliferation  ==>
Mar. 15, 2017 Toru Nakagawa (=> Many TFC2016 Authors) Request for TFC2016 presentation slides for reviewing
Mar. 21, 2017 Pavel Livotov (ETRIA President) Note on the copyrights issue

Mar. 21, 2017

Toru Nakagawa (=> ETRIA Board)

Plans of writing my Personal Report of ETRIA TFC

Mar. 27, 2017

Toru Nakagawa (=> Many TFC2016 Authors)

Request for permission of my citing some slides in the Introductions

Mar. 27, 2017

Oliver Mayer (Germany)

On the copyrights issue

Mar. 28, 2017

Toru Nakagawa

Explanation on the copyrights issues

Mar. 30, 2017 ---------------------------------------------- Update of "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" ---------------------
Mar. 30, 2017 Michal Halas (Poland) Short communication
Mar. 31, 2017 William Hessler (USA) For more user-friendly design of HP
Apr. 24, 2017 Toru Nakagawa (=> Hessler) Design choices of "TRIZ Home Page in Japan"
Apr. 13, 2017 Shahid Saleem Arshard (Australia) Short communication
     
Followings are added on Jun. 4, 2017  
Apr. 1, 2017 Min-Gyu Lee (Korea and Finland) On Nakagawa's Introduction of Lee's TFC2016 paper
Apr. 13, 2017 Giuseppe Carignani (Italy) TRIZ for Children and their teachers
Apr. 14, 2017 Toru Nakagawa (=> Carignani) Reply

 

Top of this page Update Feb. 14, 2017 S. Litvin Copyrights issues(1) Copyrights issues(2) Update Mar. 30, 2017 W. Hessler HP Design Index of ''From the Readers' pages Japanese page  
 

  Update of "TRIZ Home Page in Japan"  Feb. 14, 2017

Letters from Readers (Dec. 2016 - Jan. 2017).  Personal Report of ETRIA TRIZ Future Conference (TFC 2016) (Oct. 24-27, 2016, in Poland) (Toru Nakagawa) .  Paper: A long-term strategy to spread TRIZ in SMEs (Davide Russo et al. (Italy); Japanese translation: T. Nakagawa) .  

 

   Tomasz Arciszewski (Professor Emeritus at George Mason University, USA) ==> Toru Nakagawa   Feb. 16, 2017

I am most impressed by your website and plan to study it carefully. Congratulations.

You may be also interested in my website at   www.inventiveengineering.info .

Best regards   Tomasz Arciszewski

   Czeslaw Cempel (Poland) ==> Toru Nakagawa   Mar. 3, 2017

I am reminding your application of TRIZ to basic of human culture. Very inspiring thank you.

But I am looking also for other principles, and I can not find such page in English. Maybe I am looking in a wrong way, so if you have a list of principles of human culture, please send it to me as well as the source indication if possible.
With many thanks and many greetings   czesław

   Toru (Apr. 23, 2017):  Sorry but I am not prepared for answering this big question.


  Simon Litvin (USA) ==> Toru Nakagawa   Jan. 14, 2017      TRIZ Education in OGU

Dear Toru,  May I ask you for a favor?

My company GEN TRIZ is currently promoting a system of TRIZ education in several universities in Latin America. Some of them are asking for testimonial letters to convince them that TRIZ is a part of the curriculum in multiple universities all over the globe and demonstrates effective results. I will appreciate if you send to me this kind of testimonial letter basing on your experience in TRIZ education in Osaka Gakuin University.

Thank you and best regards, Simon

   Toru Nakagawa ==>  Simon Litvin   Mar. 8, 2017      TRIZ Activities in OGU: Research, Education, Application and Proliferation

Dear Simon,  Please find the Information Letter attached.
Sorry for my so much delay due to my various backlogs.  Best wishes, Toru

==>  Information Letter:  TRIZ Activities at OGU: Research, Education, Application, and Proliferation (Toru Nakagawa, Mar. 8, 2017).   HTML page , PDF letter   (Posted: Apr. 24, 2017)


   Toru Nakagawa ==>  (Many TFC2016 Authors, individually)    Mar. 15, 2017      Request for TFC2016 Slides

Dear xxxxxx,   I am now working to write a 'Personal Report of ETRIA TFC 2016' for introducing all the presentations (even briefly) to the global TRIZ community, by posting it in "TRIZ Home Page in Japan". The work is delayed much, to my regret, due to my limited time for understanding and writing a review of them one by one.

Could you please send me your file (either PDF or PPT) of your presentation?   Title: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It will help me to understand your presentation easier and better and to write the introduction more appropriately.
Thanking you for your cooperation, Best wishes, Toru Nakagawa

   Pavel Livotov (ETRIA President) ==> Toru Nakagawa   Mar. 21, 2017      Note on Copyrights issues

Dear Toru, many thanks for your E-mail.

As a conference participant you can surely ask authors for the presentations for your personal use.

I hope for your understanding that introducing TFC2016 presentations to the global community by publishing them on "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" needs the agreement with the Conference Organiser (Sebastian Koziolek, here in CC), ETRIA board and of course with the authors of the papers.

With best regards Pavel Livotov

   Toru Nakagawa ==> ETRIA TFC2016 Organizer and ETRIA Board   Mar. 21, 2017    Plan of my Personal Report

Dear ETRIA TFC2016 Organizer and ETRIA Board,

I would like to explain my intention and plan:

(1) I am going to write 'Personal Report of ETRIA TFC2016' in English and to post it in my public Web site "TRIZ Home Page in Japan".

The skeletal page (without the introduction of papers) has been posted on Feb. 14, 2017.

I am now working to write introductions to all the papers by reading them (paper and slides) one by one.
For understanding the papers, presentation slides are helpful. Thus to the Authors whose presentation files are missing in the TFC2016 Organizer's site, I am asking to send me the presentation file for my personal use.
Most of them (15 people) have already sent them to me.

The style of such introduction will be similar to my earlier 'Personal Reports' (of ETRIA TFC 2008)  
In such an introduction I would like to cite a few slides/figures from their paper or presentation file, for easier understanding.
Strictly speaking, I should ask each Authors for their approval of my citing such and such figures in my introduction. But I would like to ask the Authors for their basic approval of my citing a few figures without specifying which ones.

My work of writing 'Personal Report' is delayed much, to my regret. It is a big job. I have done only 1/4 or 1/3 of it at moment.
Writing introductions of all the papers is meaningful, I think. Dropping some without appropriate evaluation would cause complaint of those authors.

(2) I am planning to post several selected TFC2016 papers in my Web site "TRIZ Home Page in Japan".

I have posted the first paper already (on Feb. 14, 2017): "A long-term strategy to spread TRIZ in SMEs" (Davide Russo et al.) In the English page : All the presentation slides (in HTML and PDF) and Link to the paper in the Elsevier site (in future)
In the Japanese page : Full paper and presentation slides in Japanese translation.
I got the Authors' permission for these posts

I would like to post several more papers in a similar way.

(3) I have a question: In the ETRIA portal , an announcement has been posted recently:

Info for the authors of the TFC2016 in Wroclaw: the selected papers presented at the TFC2016 will be submitted for publication in a Springer book 2017 together with the papers of the TFC2017.
Papers not selected for the Springer volume will be published in the Journal of the European TRIZ Association.

Does this mean: 'Selected (good) papers will be published early 2018 in a Springer book (together with selected TFC2017 papers). Thus they are not publicly available for another year?'
When will 'the TFC2016 papers not selected for the Springer volume' be published in the ETRIA Journal?

The current arrangement that ETRIA TFC papers are not allowed to be publicly posted except the Springer book is too strict, I think. Even though the Authors have publicly reported in the conference, the papers are practically closed (i.e., limited to the participants) for half a year or even for year and half.

Please allow the Authors to post their preprint at their own site (or at one site of Author's choice).

I wish your understanding.    Best wishes, Toru Nakagawa


   Toru Nakagawa ==>  Many TFC2016 Authors  (CC: ETRIA Board)    Mar. 27, 2017    

Dear ETRIA TFC 2016 Authors, (CC: ETRIA Board)

Thank you for your presenting your excellent works at ETRIA TFC 2016 last October in Wroclaw.

As you might already know, I posted my 'Personal Report of ETRIA TFC 2016' on Feb. 14, 2017 in my Web site "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" (in a skeletal form) and I am working to enhance it with Introductions to Individual Papers (of all the papers).

I have written Introductions of 6 papers (Category A. Methodology of TRIZ) and 10 papers (Category B. Integral Use of TRIZ with Relevant Methods), including yours.
I am trying to understand your works as much as possible to write the Introductions readable/comprehensive for people working (and also interested) in TRIZ and to guide the readers to your works.

Could you please give me your basic permissions for me to cite several (2 to 12) figures in your paper or slides? (My Introduction is 1-3 pages long in A4 for each.) Please excuse me for not specifying which figures at moment.

I have just temporarily updated the parent page of my 'Personal Report' which includes the list of papers, even though the links to each Introduction is not working at moment.
I am going to upload the Introductions of the 16 papers on March 30, 2017, hopefully. If you have any comments on my Introduction to your work, please contact me.

I am trying to write Introductions of 29 more papers, but my work is much delayed due to my limited time to understand the papers and to write meaningful introductions.

Thanking you for your works and for your approval, in advance,     Best wishes, Toru

   Oliver Mayer (Germany) ==> Toru Nakagawa   Mar. 27, 2017    

Thank you for your request. With the publication at ETRIA 2016 all the rights on the papers and content were transferred to Elsevier, so I cannot give you the right as I don't have them any more - sorry for that.      Best regards O. Mayer

   Toru Nakagawa ==>  Oliver Mayer (CC: ETRIA Board)    Mar. 28, 2017    

Thank you for your message. The copyright issue of ETRIA TFC2016 is delicate.

At the ETRIA Members Meeting of TFC2016, President Pavel Livotov confirmed, on my question, that Presentations slides are allowed to be posted in Web sites under Authors' agreement.

So in your case, I would like to use 2 figures from your Slides #5 and #12, and to suppress using Table 2 of your paper. Please allow me to do this.

It is unfortunate that papers presented at ETRIA TFC 2016 are going to be published by Elsevier (or Springer) only long after the conference, probably in spring NEXT year. I am asking the ETRIA Board for improving the arrangements of the copyrights.           Best wishes, Toru Nakagawa

 


  Update of "TRIZ Home Page in Japan"  Mar. 30, 2017

TRIZ News: Conferences CFP (4 conferences outside Japan; 3 conferences in Japan).  Personal Report of ETRIA TFC 2016: Introductions of All the Individual Papers (Toru Nakagawa) : A. Methodology of TRIZ (6 Papers) ; B. Integral Use of TRIZ with Relevant Methods (11 Papers).

 

   Michal Halas (Poland) ==> Toru Nakagawa   Mar. 30, 2017

Great work you are doing. Thank you Toru.   MicH

   William Hessler (USA) ==> Toru Nakagawa   Mar. 31, 2017    For more user-friendly design of HP

Toru, I talked with you on the Altshuller Institute for TRIZ Studies users group once a while ago. I have been on user's group as well as a member since 2011.

Seems like your website has many interesting sections, papers, articles, and areas of TRIZ information.

It is however VERY difficult to read and there is no flow to the website. I reads like a very long thesis.

Needs updated pictures, images, Profiles of authors, just a refresh from the DOS based look and feel.
I have a very tough time trying to follow news, new information because of the format, and I am probably not the only website visitor that gets that impression.

It looks like if you had a Website upgrade, with updated clear pictures, non-cartoon images, images, links, text, fonts, color you would have a more usable website for your visitors. If you had one landing page and then you either pick a button that says English or Japanese that would clean up many of the extra link icons.

It might be worthwhile to have a website developer or even a proficient IT person, or GoDaddy or even social media student. It would probably be good if that person was proficient in both English and Japanese. Shouldn't cost too much in this day and age.

Just giving you my input so you can help spread the word of TRIZ better.

No need to reply, I know you are super busy.     Regards,     Bill

  Toru Nakagawa ==> William Hessler (USA)   (Apr. 24, 2017)  Design choices of "TRIZ Home Page in Japan"

Thank you very much, Bill.  Your comments on my Web site is indeed valuable. 

I introduced several measures for making my Web site readable and enjoyable, as you are suggesting, but apparently not enough, I understand with your comments. 

There are two main reasons (or excuses) for the appearance of my Web site.  First is my intention to make "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" as the up-to-date and high-quality reference source of TRIZ (and even wider topics), instead of an introductory site.  Second is the limitation of my editing and operating the site all by myself, without enough technical support.

(1a)  TRIZ (and Creative Problem Solving Methodology) is a newly-emerging, big and evolving topic.  There are various methods and various studies/practices/activities on it.  So, of course, it is important to have an introductory Web pages which are easy and enjoyable to read for many beginners.  But pages of such a site need to be orthodox and stable, and hence becomes somewhat obsolete in a few years.  They are not useful enough for people who are studying and using TRIZ seriously and actively.  For such people in advanced levels, up-to-date and high-quality information is necessary in public domains.

(1b) There are different methods and different approaches of research and application of them. They are presented in conferences, published in books/Web sites, taught in seminars, etc.  We should publicize them as widely as possible and should learn them.  Since such papers/articles are coming out in parallel and in quite different scopes and directions, our Web site need to accept them as they emerge, in an apparently random manner and in multiple slots.  Accumulation of such papers and keeping them with active links/indexes are important task for advanced Web sites.  "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" is a repository of numerous, probably around one thousand, HTML articles.

(1c)  For making the articles easy to access, I am operating various means.  See 'An Advice for Searching Pages in This Web Site' in .

(a) Top Page (for New Information (with introductions) within 12 months),
(b) Four Entrance Pages (for Children, for Students, for Engineers, and for Practitioners),
(c) Categorized General Index Pages (Editorial, References, Papers, Forum),
(d) New Information accumulated (for all the pages listed in the chronological order since 1998)
(e) Any relevant pages (for relevant pages backwards, use the links in the texts and in the link tables), and
(f) Site Search with Keywords (by using any keywords).   --- This page has some trouble at moment (Apr. 24, 2017)

(1d) The Four Entrance Pages were built in Oct. 2014, for making this site friendly for four types of visitors.  Selected articles recommendable to such visitors are listed (with a few lines of introductions, each) in a categorized manner (and in chronological order in each category).  There are a large number of selected articles, especially for Engineers and for Practitioners.   Articles for Children are rather few; I wish to have support by authors of articles and coeditors for this type of visitors. 

(1e)  For each article, I have chosen the design of typical/classical papers with figures/graphs.  Most of the pages are made in HTML, instead of PDF, for smooth access on the PC (PDF pages are also attached for clearer/original format).  Each HTML article is formatted for printing in A4.  Side columns, typically used in popular/commercial Web sites, are not used.  Figures/slides are inserted as images of GIF (or JPEG) format with the size adjusted to be able to read the characters. 

(1f)  In my HTML pages I always write the dates of posting and updating, for the purpose of academic claiming of priority/copyrights.  And I am trying to make Japanese pages and English pages in parallel as much as possible. I believe it is useful for us Japanese and for all the people in the world.  The bidirectional translation is a hard work.   Thus there are many pages existing only in Japanese or only in English.  You may feel that the pages written only in Japanese (and mentioned in the English text with link symbols to Japanese pages) are tedious.  But please understand that most of new concepts/activities developed by myself and other Japanese people are first written in Japanese (and hence in Japanese pages).  In the reverse way, many English pages (e.g., the pages of 'Introductions to ETRIA TFC Papers') are not translated into Japanese but are referred in the Japanese pages with brief introductions and links to the English pages. 

(1g)  I recall the message by Valeri Souchkov (May 13, 2015), suggesting me to reconsider the contents and styles of my Web site in the direction to simplify them, just like you, Bill Hessler.  One of his suggestion is the possibility of a Web site suitable to access with mobile phones and tablets. Probably it is a good direction for Introductory Web sites, but not suitable to Advanced Web sites, like TRIZ Home Page in Japan. 

(2a)  I have been operating "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" all by myself since its start (Nov. 1998).  Till 2012 I got technical support by OGU IT staff from time to time, but after my retirement I do not have enough support.  Even so, I am happy that the OGU Web server, where my site is located, has been operated in a very stable and secure manner, and that I already have basic skills necessary to compose Web pages, as you see.

(2b)  I now have several technical difficulties:  The counters of visitors to the Four Entrance Pages are not working properly.  The Site Search Engine is not working after moving to Windows 10.  The Google Analytics for monitoring the visits, though once worked properly for a while, is not working now.  The mail magazines, Update Announcements, are blocked by some users' mail servers being regarded as SPAM mails. ...  I will need to make some efforts to solve these technical problems, hopefully by getting some help. 

(2c) For making my site more user friendly, according to your suggestions, I am now thinking to adopt your following ideas:
Insert more photos (of conference people, beautiful views, flowers, etc.);  Photo (and short profile) of Authors.
I will be happy if you readers and authors would contribute these photos.

(2d)  Most important for a good Web site is to receive/accept good and vivid contributions of articles and communications. 
I very much thank you, Bill, for your comments.  I wish to receive more contributions from various people !


 

   Shahid Saleem Arshard (Australia) ==> Toru Nakagawa   Apr. 13, 2017   

Dear Professor Nakagawa, To my great regret, I did not see my gmail account "xxxx" for some time. When I checked it out this morning, I found your TRIZ Homepage Japan March 31, 2017, issue an absolute eye-opener.

The amount of your editorial and creative output is phenomenal. The Kordegree of painstaking translation and graphics is far and above anything being done elsewhere on this planet.

It does seem insincere that I should only email you a couple of lines every now and then without contributing anything at all of substance. I am very aware of that.
With my sincere thanks and best wishes for the continued good health of Madame Masako and yourself,      Shahid

 


Followings are added on Jun. 4, 2017

 

   Min-Gyu Lee (Korea and Finland) ==> Toru Nakagawa   Apr. 1, 2017    On Nakagawa's Introduction of Lee's TFC2016 paper

Thank you for your interest in and recommendation for my paper on FA+.

1. I'm surprised at your energy and ability to understand most of the papers down to the very details and subtle aspects and their relation with former researches and also by your huge efforts to prepare on line summary for 30~40 papers. I already knew about you and your famous TRIZ homepage but having a more close observation, I'm stunned and overwhelmed by the amount of efforts and the quality of the output . Thank you for keeping this good and important activities for people in the world.

2. About your remark about the work of Davide Russo and Stefano Duci (2013) : I got acquainted with this research while preparing my paper on FA+ that you reviewed. Their method surely can be called as a modern systemized version of SFA and Inventive Standards. I think if my method more focuses on the more front and middle steps of the problem solving process their method focuses more on middle and later steps of the problem solving. I also have plans to develop the method further to include the later steps (moving from Model solutions to more concrete, detailed ideas.) ... Anyway I will try to look once more in more detail if there are something to learn or to use for my next research. And I will also try to learn your method better.  ...

4. I hope, when I grew older I could be living like you - visiting conferences and keep learning what I enjoy - researching, sharing new findings and interacting with people.

I hope to see you in Finland during TFC2017. Take care of your health. Sincerely.


 

   Giuseppe Carignani (Italy) ==> Toru Nakagawa   Apr. 13, 2017    TRIZ for Children and their teachers

Dear Toru, how are you? I don't know if you remember me - we met just twice at two Etria TRIZ Future conferences, in 2010 in Bergamo, Italy and 2011 in Dublin. Ireland. In particular, I remember your talk about weeding, showing how TRIZ can be useful for everyday life.

This email for asking your advice: I will give a lecture to some teachers at primary and secondary school, and I am wondering if you know about any TRIZ resources (e.g. software tools) available on the web that could be useful for young learners (from first to eight graders for example). In particular I believe the nine-boxes could be a nice starting tools.

I'm looking forward to receiving your answer. Thank you in advance, and take care!

  Toru Nakagawa  ==> William Hessler (USA)   Apr. 14, 2017

Dear Giuseppe, Thank you for your message. I just checked your photo and profile in LinkedIn.

I myself have not had a chance to talk to children and their teachers.

Could you please check one of the four Entrance pages of my Web site "TRIZ Home Page in Japan": Let's enjoy 'Think & Try' ! (for Children and Highschool students)    There are several articles good for children and highschool students, and many more for teachers and parents.

However, what I really wanted to write is not actually done yet. I just show its outline (in the pink box) as:
    (1) Everything is interesting!    (2) Watch and find it!    (3) Think 'Why?'.    (4) Learn how it works.
    (5) Understand the function.     (6) Think for yourself.   (7) Imagine the ideal.    (8) Collect different examples.
    (9) Try to devise something new!    (10) Information for teachers and parents.

I am sure you can talk to the teachers in your own words. Best wishes, Toru

 

 

Top of this page Update Feb. 14, 2017 S. Litvin Copyrights issues(1) Copyrights issues(2) Update Mar. 30, 2017 W. Hessler HP Design Index of ''From the Readers' pages Japanese page  

 

General Index  (A) Editorial (B) References Links News & activities Software tools (C) Papers, case studies, articles, Lectures, course materials (D) Forum General Index 
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Last updated on Jun. 4, 2017.     Access point:  Editor: nakagawa@ogu.ac.jp