Anyone who has seen Monty Python’s “Brazil”, or read Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” should know very well how the absurdity and terror of too much paper work could do to one’s psyche. Well, that won’t happen at TKU. With its new “Documentation Management System,” which was launched on 3/14, no more piles of paper, no more countless slips of yellow tag paper, and no more worries about losing one’s seal. This web-based system allows all university staff and faculty members to have access to documents regardless of time and place. There is also a digital signature system based on the Citizen Digital Certificate (CDC) developed by the Ministry of Interior that enables people concerned to sign documents on line. The university also ensures that a highly secure verify mechanism is at work to guard authenticity, should the person concerned does not have the CDC on him or her. Apart from this feature, this DMS is equipped with many functions such as notepad, preview, drafting, and registration. With these functions, there is no more hassle of physically delivering paper work.

Above all, this system allows greater transparency and speedy accessibility, which in turn will boost overall efficiency of running the university, Dr. Flora Chang, the President of TKU, points out. “It’s high time to digitalize our office work,” Huang Ming-da, the Director of Information Processing Center, pledges. His center will develop better e-tools to facilitate this process. One project in the pipeline is to install more and better scanners so that documents can be stored electronically. The days of being buried under piles of paper seem to be over. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )