175 Development of User-Participation-type Communication tools for revitalization of local communities using MapServer Introduction Recently, making the hazard map, the region community map and etc by collaborative work with neighboring residents is popularly practiced as one of the approaches of the anticrime activity and town planning in our country. So, various regional information-sharing (neighborhood reputation restaurant, historic site spot and etc...) is proceeded. In this case, to support the development of the region information collecting and sharing system through the Net will provide effective method for neighboring residents. However, it is very difficult for the participation resident to construct the tool of the information management combined with map information such as GIS technology. Because, to develop the the mapping tool such as WebGIS require high cost for software purchases and annual maintenance as well as technical expertness and know-how. Poupose With these points as background, in this study, we provide commuication tools for collecting and sharing various regional information using FOSS WebGIS and DBMS - MapServer and PostgreSQL-. Contents Users have access to advanced mapping systems as GIS client on the Net using MapServer. And the digital camera and GPS locator-equipped mobile-phone are combined as a data input and a transmission device from the outside. The new POI(Point-Of-Interetst) data as regional information and photographic image of current situation that were collected by users with mobile-phone in hand are sent to the database server through the e-mail and these data are displayed on the GIS map in real-time. Conclusion We can be achieved some merits follow through the development of the communication tools baed on FOSS. 1. The neighboring residents collecs the latest information change from day to day , and they can be shared on the Net. 2. This communication tools can be expected to lead to the community strengthening in the region as one of the new media. 3. GIS software introduce and maintenance cost reduction for users. FOSS4G2006 - Free And Open Source Software for Geoinformatics Session 15 : Organizational empowerment through Open GIS Kei SAITO kei@uds.se.shibaura-it.ac.jp Michihiko SHINOZAKI sinozaki@shibaura-it.ac.jp Shinji CHIBA sinzy@pivot.co.jp Kei SAITO kei@uds.se.shibaura-it.ac.jp <MaKaC.conference.ContributionType object at 0xb36f0aec>