August 1, 2001

Submitted by Dipak Khakhar, GA member for Sweden and Ola Vettergren, CEO on behalf of Dataföreningen i Sverige, DF

Society has some 38.000 members, and is organised in 6 branches and 4 Special Interest Groups.

Courses, seminars, conferences and education is organised in a separate wholly owned company, DF Kompetens with a turnover of 5 M Euro.

Activities of each of the branches and SIGs during 2000 have been of different categories, such as half or one-day conferences, 2-3 days courses, projects, special interest clubs, lunch meetings and study visits. Total number of activities is over 120 and number of projects in progress is about 20. Reports from the projects are available to the members of the society.

The Society is very active in offering the "ECDL, European Computer Driving License" for PC users. Since late 1996 some 200.000 people have joined the ECDL concept. This project is carried out in co-operation with CEPIS. The special interest groups for Telecommunication (SIG COM, 1000 members) and Information Security (SIG SYS 2.500 members) are very active.

DF recognises that IFIP plays an important role within IT communities internationally. However, following aspects may help IFIP to improve its influence world-wide:

1. Majority of members in Technical Committees are from academic fields. Although they perform an excellent work, DF recommends that participation in TCs from industries should actively be encouraged.
2. There is an increasing concern regarding benefits of being member of IFIP. There is a danger of widening the gap between IFIP and its members. IFIP should take active measures to involve member societies in different activities of IFIP. IFIP should also initiate projects that would actively involve member societies, and hence giving members return on their investments.
3. If IFIP is to continue its role as one of the major federation within its field it should actively work for membership from more countries, especially developing countries. Activities in these countries will help narrowing IT-gap between developing and developed countries. Activities in developing countries are considered to be a very important task.