- Port KL1/Pimos to stock hardware (both Unix workstations and commercially 
available parallel computers, including the recently emerging small-scale symmetric 
multiprocessors. I believe even a PC version of a mini-system can be quite useful for 
teaching and exploratory purposes.) 

- Initiate some standardization effort for concurrent logic 
  programming languages and systems. 

- Provide specification and documentation for the software. 

- Make the software widely available, with a GNU-like distribution policy. 

- Provide teaching material, tutorials, and consulting services 
  for users who wish to use the software. 

- Provide research grants for research groups who are interested in 
  applying and/or improving ICOT's concurrent logic programming system. 

Since the last point has raised considerable interest, I would like to elaborate on it. 

I think that applications are best developed by people who care about them. There 
are research groups around the world who are interested in developing applications 
using parallel computers. ICOT can more fully achieve its goal of international contri-
bution and impact by supporting such groups and encouraging them to use ICOT's con-
current logic programming system. Fostering an active user's community for ICOT's 
system will have many positive impacts. First, it will require ICOT to clean-up, fully 
specify, and document its system. User's feedback will suggest improvements, and the 
body of knowledge accumulated by users of the system will help the development of 
future applications, and suggest ways to evaluate and improve the system. 

I suggest that research groups involved in such activity will be offered grants for 
periods of 2-3 years each, for the sum of about ¥10M a year. Grants should be of-
fered to academic and research institutions on the basis of the scientific merit of the 
research proposal. The fact that such grants are available can be easily publicized 
to the international research community through electronic bulletin boards and other 
means, inviting grant applications, which include a research proposal and a budget 
proposal. The applications can be ranked using external referees, and the best ones 
will be selected by a committee. The research agreement could either state the results 
of the research be put in the public domain, or that they belong, independently, to 
the funding agency (ICOT), and the institute carrying out the project. Under such an 
agreement ICOT can, if it so chooses, put the results in the public domain. 

The return on investment for say, 50 such grants, meaning ¥500M a year, will be 


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