IFIP General Assembly, 4 – 5 September 2001, Natal, Brazil

IFIP IT Conference, 31 August and 1 September, Natal

GA members from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Chile, France, Slovenia and South Africa talked about the IT organization and activities in their respective countries and responded to numerous questions. Representatives of 9 IFIP Technical Committees delivered the following presentations:

• "Foundations of Computer Science"
• "TC2 Today - Software: Theory & Practice"
• "The State-and-Trend in the Education Area"
• "The State-and-Trend in the Digital Product Creation Area"
• "Quality of Service in IP Networks"
• "Information Systems"
• "30 years of 'Relationships between Computers and Society' Curricula"
• "Dependability: Concepts, State-of-the-art, Challenges" and
• "Recent Developments in Information Security"

The IT conference was attended by representatives of the Brazilian academic community and IFIP GA representatives. In future, IFIP will consider similar conferences in conjunction with its GA and Council meetings.

[Member society reports to GA 2001 are at http://www.ifip.or.at/minutes/ga2001.htm]

At the Members' Forum on 3 September the President of the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC) talked about the activities of SBC which was founded in 1978 and currently forms a network of 12 regional chapters and 16 Special Interest Groups. SBC publishes a Journal in English and is involved in curriculum development, organization of annual conferences, workshops and publications. The President of the Slovenian Society "Informatika" presented his society and stressed the importance of international cooperation in the IT field. He and his colleagues from Austria, Hungary and Italy thanked IFIP for the IT STAR initiative [http://www.ifip.or.at/it-star]. The Hungarian member society will celebrate in 2003 the anniversary of its patron, John von Neumann, and IFIP is invited to take an active part.

The IFIP Gateway Project and the ongoing plans to hold an IFIP Conference on "Meeting Global IT Skills Needs - The Role of the IT Professional" in June 2002 in the UK were considered as important initiatives for IFIP and its member societies.

The Chilean Computer Science Society, the Lithuanian Computer Society, the Sultan Qaboos University of Oman and the Computer Society of Zimbabwe were admitted as IFIP Full Members.

Mr. Kurt Bauknecht, past President for the period 1995-1998, was unanimously elected as IFIP Honorary Member.

Messrs. Klaus Brunnstein (DE), Ricardo Reis (BR) and Prins Ralston (AU) were elected as IFIP Vice Presidents by acclamation. Messrs. Khakhar (SE) and Johnson (UK), resp. Treasurer and Secretary, were re-elected for a further term.

Mrs. Qinsheng Wang (CN) and Messrs. Anselmo del Moral (ES), Jose Granado (PT), Niko Schlamberger (SI) and Basie von Solms (ZA) were elected as Trustees.

The new EB and Council composition is available at http://www.ifip.or.at/bulletin/b_counci.htm

The newly appointed Chairs and members of IFIP’s Standing and Ad hoc committees are listed at http://www.ifip.or.at/bulletin/b_commit.htm

General Assembly approved the 2000 accounts. The Final Result, after Special Funds Provision, is an increase in IFIP's General Fund of 66 K EUR. GA reviewed the 2001 income and expenses and approved the 2002 Budget, which includes 446 K EUR on the income side and 375 K EUR as expenses.

The TC reports to GA 2001 are available at http://www.ifip.or.at/minutes/ga2001.htm and contain attendance statistics. TC Chairs are looking forward to active representation from all IFIP member societies, which are encouraged to periodically review their TC membership and to nominate representatives, when appropriate.

Technical Assembly decided to:

• Provisionally accept the establishment of a new TC 5 WG on "COoperation infrastructure for Virtual Enterprises and electronic business" (COVE). Its aims and
• scope should be prepared.
• Provisionally approve a WG 8.4 on "E-Business: Multi-disciplinary research and practice". Its name, aims and scope should be revised to address TC-8 related issues.
• Approve revised aims and scope of WG 8.8 "Smart Cards":
• Approve new aims and scope of WG 9.6 / WG 11.7 "IT Misuse and the Law"
• Accept the establishment, aims and scope of a new WG 9.8 "Women and Information Technology" (formerly SIG 9.1.1)
• Approve the name change of WG 11.3 from "Database Security" to "Data and Application Security". Revised aims and scope should be submitted to next TA.
• Approve the name change of WG 13.3 to "Human-Computer Interaction and Disability".

The Entertainment Computing Task Force under the Committee for Cooperation with Industry (CCI) will hold an International Workshop on Entertainment Computing (IWEC) in May 2002 in Japan. CCI will assist WCC 2002 in promoting industry and requested GA to consider a new project on Futurology.

GA accepted a TA resolution about the efficient support of the IFIP Secretariat to TC related activities. GA 2001 adopted an IFIP Statement on Electronic Voting, which will be publicized on the IFIP web-site and by the IFIP Newsletter.

16th World Computer Congress, 21–25 August 2000, Beijing: GA thanked the Chinese organizers for their efforts in making Congress 2000 a great success.

17th World Computer Congress, August 25-30, 2002, Montreal: [http://www.wcc2002.org]: The ongoing preparations were reported. the IPC and OC presentations are posted at http://www.ifip.or.at/minutes/ga2001.htm

18th World Computer Congress, August 2004, Toulouse: GA regretted the unfortunate situation in the Middle East and was grateful to IPA for its understanding of the concern of GA members about holding WCC 2004 in Jerusalem. Consequently, GA agreed to reconsider the bids from Cape Town and Toulouse to host WCC 2004. Following two rounds of voting GA selected Toulouse as the venue of IFIP Congress 2004. A Press Release of the French Minister of Research was issued on this occasion and is available at http://www.recherche.gouv.fr/discours/2001/cong2004.htm

GA 2001 endorsed 40 new IFIP Silver Core Awards and 7 new IFIP Outstanding Service Awards. The lists of this year's awardees are available at http://www.ifip.or.at/bulletin/b_silver.htm and http://www.ifip.or.at/bulletin/b_osa.htm

In early August 2001 the IFIP Events Facilitator had registered 63 events for the current year. The IFIP Events Calendar is located at http://www.ifip.or.at/cal_even.htm

For the whole of 2001 Kluwer expects to publish 23 IFIP books [The Publisher's report is posted at http://www.ifip.or.at/minutes/ga2001.htm]

IFIP Digital Library (DL) Project: GA requested EB to prepare a concept and specification of an initial version as soon as possible. Contact will be established with potential providers of services on ways and means to support an IFIP DL in economically feasible ways with the goal to supplement IFIP's traditional publication with ICT-based mechanisms and to develop a new revenue stream. A Report on the DL will be presented to GA 2002 with alternative solutions, time schedule for implementation, costs and potential revenues, benefits for IFIP and its member societies, risks of solutions and how to overcome them.

The Marketing Committee presented a paper on Marketing Guidelines [ref. http://www.ifip.or.at/minutes/ga2001.htm ] intended to be used by IFIP volunteers. Soon after GA 2001 the "This is IFIP" leaflet will be updated and distributed in hard copy.

The IFIP-UNESCO relations have experienced a positive development. A summit meeting of IFIP and UNESCO officials was held in January 2001 [ref. http://www.ifip.or.at/mail/msg00004.html] and was followed by an invitation to IFIP to join a coalition of organizations on information and communication technologies [ref. http://www.ifip.or.at/mail/msg00007.html]. A UNESCO report to GA 2001 on "Information Society in Latin America and UNESCO's Programmes" is available at http://www.ifip.or.at/minutes/ga2001.htm. The IFIP President and the IFIP Executive Director will take part in the forthcoming UNESCO General Conference in October 2001 in Paris.

GA agreed to proceed with the establishment of a biannual series of international conferences "IFIP World Information Technology Forum" (WITFOR) addressing IT issues in developing countries and countries in transition. The first conference is planned for late August 2003 in Vilnius, Lithuania.

IFIP is grateful to the Brazilian Computer Society and the University of Natal for the excellent organization and generous arrangements during the IFIP General Assembly 2001 meetings in Natal.

2. ACTION LIST

IFIP General Assembly, 4-5 September 2001, Natal, Brazil

WHO	WHAT
All	Refer to the C 2001 Minutes and GA 2001 Action Lists and follow-up on outstanding commitments
GA reps., TC and WG Chairs	Continue to revise TC (and WG, resp. by TC and WG Chairs) membership, consider new nominations and advise Secretariat of changes in membership incl. contact information as soon as they occur
Member Societies	Establish more visible links to the IFIP URL and develop the local pages of the "Gateway project". Promote IFIP and distribute information about IFIP activities among members
EB, PC	Specify the details for the implementation of the IFIP Digital Library project. Consider implications and procedure for posting online IFIP proceedings one year after their publication
EB	Monitor preparations for IFIP conference on Professionalism and WITFOR
Lee, Kamae	Progress the organization of the Workshop on Entertainment Computing, May 2002 in cooperation with the TC Chairs
EB, Secretary	Complete the revision of the Standing Orders and supplements
All budget holders	Exercise careful financial control
Past President, TC 3 Chair	Progress planning of the IFIP Conference on professional development with CEPIS and SEARCC
TA, CCI, TC Chairs	Consider interaction between TCs and WGs on emerging "hot issues". Ensure there is a concerted input in the organization of events on such topics
TC Chairs	Implement TA decisions
PC, TC Chairs	Further define and proactively assert IFIP’s Publication Policy
Past President, DCSC	Progress organization of World IT FORum
MC	Organize printing and distribution of the "This is IFIP" leaflet
Treasurer	Produce a report on the Special Activities Fund
TC and WG Chairs	Inform Member societies of countries in which business meetings are planned and invite the respective GA representatives to attend these meetings. Encourage members to report to their societies about TC and WG activities
Secretariat, Newsletter Editor	Provide visibility to the IFIP position paper on electronic voting
Secretariat	Update PowerPoint presentation and other online information to assist GA representatives in their reporting to Member societies
TC and WG Chairs, Secretariat	Ensure that the forms for all IFIP Events are processed and recorded in the Events database
Secretariat	Continue to remind of the IFIP URL and the availability of online information and documents
Secretariat	Maintain a target list of potential IFIP Members

IFIP General Assembly, 4 – 5 September 2001, Natal, Brazil

Members Present
Argentina	C. Berdichevsky
Austria	W. Grafendorfer	Vice-President
Belgium	R. de Caluwe
Brazil	R. Reis	Vice-President
Canada	G. Boynton
Czech Republic	J. Dolezal
Denmark	P. Bollerslev	President
France & TC10	J.-C. Laprie
Germany	K. Brunnstein
Greece	S. Katsikas
Hungary	B. Domolki
India	R. Srinivasan
Israel	M. Gottlieb
Italy	A. Frisiani
Japan	T. Miura	Vice-President
Korea	D. Kim
Netherlands & TC 11	L. Strous
Norway	G. Gregersen
Portugal	J. Granado
Slovenia	N. Schlamberger
S. Africa	B. von Solms
Spain	A. del Moral
Sweden	D. Khakhar	Treasurer
Switzerland	R. Morel
UK & CEPIS	R. Johnson	Secretary
US based ACM	R. Aiken	President Elect
US based IEEE CS	J. Lee
Ind. Member	J. Rosenfeld


Members represented by Proxy
Finland R. Kurki-Suonio Proxy to R. Aiken
Poland Z. Bubnicki Proxy to R. Aiken

TC Chairs Present (in addition to those listed above)
TC 2	A. Haeberer
TC 3	B. Samways
TC 5	G. Olling
TC 6	A. Casaca
TC 8 Chair-Elect	D. Roode
TC 9	J. Berleur
Observers Present
CLEI, Chile	M. Solar
Japan	T. Ishida
Japan	M. Yoshizawa
Lithuania	R. Gudauskas
WCC 2002/ IPC Chair	J. Wibe
UNESCO	C. Menezes
Kluwer	Y. Lambert
IFIP Secretariat
P. Nedkov	Executive Director
D. Hayden	Events Facilitator

 

Apologies
Hon. Member	P. Bobillier
Hon. Member	A. Goldsworthy
Hon. Member	A. Melbye
Hon. Member	G. Morris
Hon. Member	A. Rolstadas
Hon. Member	B. Sendov
Hon. Member	R. Tanaka
Hon. Member	H. Zemanek
Australia	P. Ralston
Bulgaria	K. Boyanov
China	M. Zhou
China	Q. Wang
Finland	R. Kurki-Suonio
Poland	Z. Bubnicki
Ireland	D. Dolan
Singapore	M. Tsang
TC1 Chair	G. Ausiello
TC7 Chair	I. Lasiecka
TC 8 Chair	B. Glasson
TC 12 Chair	B. Neumann
TC 13 Chair	J. Hammond
Iceland	A. Kristjansdottir
Zimbabwe	L. Gudza
INFORMS	M. Saltzman
WCC2000 IPC	B. Wah

go to the next part