Indian Member Society Demonstrates a New Level of Hospitality
Those in IFIP who have attended many Councils and General Assemblies (GAs) have been
the grateful recipients of hospitality extended by various national computer societies and
other IFIP Member organizations. There may be no one, however, who can recall hospitality
as extensive and gracious as that provided by the Computer Society of India (CSI) to the
participants in the March Council meeting in Goa. Not only was an excursion or party held
each day of the Council, but a superhuman effort was made to help the participants in
every way possible - from making hotel and travel reservations to repairing damaged PCs.
The CSI representative to IFIP, Dr. S. Ramani, an IFIP trustee, was always present,
attending Council meetings and offering assistance. His second in command, Mr. George
Arakal, and his large staff were equally helpful. We cannot thank them sufficiently.
Such generosity poses a problem for IFIP - namely, that other Member societies that
host Councils or GAs may not be able to provide even a fraction of the social events
offered by CSI. That was why the IFIP Executive Board established a guideline a few years
ago to the effect that hosts should organize at most one simple reception. That guideline,
however, has been ignored repeatedly. Although it is unlikely that any future host will
match the social program provided by the CSI, we are confident that they will try to
achieve the standard of helpfulness and courtesy established by Dr. Ramani, Mr. Arakal,
and their staff.
In this world, there are VIPs, VVIPs, IPs, and simply Ps. The Indian hosts made us all
feel like VVIPs.
Organizations from Armenia and Slovenia Join
IFIP welcomes two new Full Members. The National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of
Armenia, which was formally admitted to Membership in IFIP in 1995, has now satisfied all
the requirements. The Slovenian society INFORMATIKA was admitted by the 1998 General
Assembly (GA) in Budapest (but technically must still fulfill the requirement of
attendance at a GA by a representative). We present here information about both new
Members.
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia
The Institute for Informatics and
Automation Problems is one of 42 scientific research organizations constituting the
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. The Institute is the newly
admitted Member of IFIP. It was founded in 1957 to work in the area of computer science
and information technologies. The main fields of activity of the Institute are automata
theory and computer aided design, theory of algorithms and automated design of programs,
pattern recognition systems and distributed processing, artificial intelligence and
management support systems, mathematical logic and automated logical deduction, digital
signal and image processing, algebraic coding theory, information theory and statistics,
linear programming, theory of graphs, software engineering, and telecommunications and
networking. The Institute cooperates with fellow organizations in Belgium, Finland,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, the UK,
Ukraine, and the US.
Its parent organization, the Academy, was founded in November 1943, from the Armenian
branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which was organized in 1935. The Academy is a
scientific, self-governing state organization, which unites Academy members with the
scientific staffs of affiliated scientific and research institutions. The Academy promotes
and carries out fundamental and applied research in different scientific fields, as well
as coordinating research carried out throughout Armenia. It is an official scientific
consultant to the highest governing bodies of Armenia. It is financed primarily from the
state budget, although additional finances come from different state and private
foundations, as well as from contracts between the Academy and other organizations in
Armenia and abroad.
Slovenian Society INFORMATIKA
The Slovenian society INFORMATIKA is a
nonprofit society of individuals from various areas of information technology and
information sciences-in business, academia, and administration-who care to exchange their
experience with each other as well as make it publicly available. Membership is not
restricted to Slovenian citizens. The Society has a president, two vice-presidents, an
Advisory Board, and an Executive Board. The members of the Advisory Board represent the
major Slovenian users and providers of information technology goods and services. The
Society was established in 1976. At present, it has about 300 members.
The Society publishes a quarterly professional journal, Uporabna informatika (Applied
Informatics), and a scientific periodical, Informatica. Another opportunity to exchange
opinions, achievements, and information is provided by an annual conference, Dnevi
slovenske informatike (The Days of Slovenian Informatics), which began in the late 1970s
and has since succeeded in earning the reputation of being the most comprehensive event of
the year in the field of information sciences in Slovenia. It is a national conference
with an international participation, and notable guest speakers are invited. Over 400
participants registered for the 1998 Conference.
Good news with respect to IFIP publications was reported to the March Council in India.
The new IFIP publisher, Kluwer Academic Publishers, has agreed to reduce the guaranteed
"lead time" for IFIP books to 12 weeks - from the time of delivery of perfect
camera-ready copy to the publisher to the time of delivery of the printed books anywhere
in the world. Also, Kluwer has hired an Assistant Editor, Ms. Yana Lambert (US), with
responsibility solely for IFIP books. Her contact information is
Mr. Scott Delman (left), representative
of Kluwer Academic Publishers, presents IFIP books to Dr. S. Ramani, Indian representative
to IFIP, at Council.
Ms. Yana Lambert
Kluwer Academic Publishers
101 Philip Drive
Assinippi Park
Norwell, MA 02061, USA
tel: +1 781-871-6600, ext. 304
fax: +1 781-871-7507
e-mail: yana.lambert@wkap.com
She is preparing guidelines for authors and editors, which should be available soon.
Also, royalty income for 1999 is expected to exceed that for 1998. It was also pointed out
that very few potential IFIP books have been turned down by the publisher owing to
insufficient anticipated sales.
There were "some bumps along the road" as the production and distribution of
the IFIP book series was integrated into Kluwer's North American office in Boston, and,
unfortunately, a few proceedings were not printed in time for their conferences. Because
of positive steps being taken by Kluwer, however, it is expected that these problems are
well in our past.
Despite the problems, 29 IFIP books were published in 1998, only 3 fewer than the
number anticipated. Sales (consequently, royalties earned) in 1998 were significantly less
than those for 1997 (by 20%), owing in part to lack of promotion of IFIP books during the
transition to Kluwer from the prior publisher, Chapman & Hall, which was purchased by
Kluwer last year. Mr. Scott Delman (US), the Kluwer representative, expressed the hope
that some of these missed sales will be made up as a result of more aggressive marketing.
(Kluwer plans to actively promote the sale of IFIP books in the institutional library
market in North America - a market largely untapped by Chapman & Hall.) Between 25 and
30 IFIP books are expected to be published in 1999.
Finally, it was reported that the journal of the Technical Committee on Education
(TC3), Education and Information Technology, has attracted fewer subscribers than planned.
The editorial team has been reorganized, and further discussions are taking place between
IFIP and Kluwer to ensure that the journal fulfils its potential.
Some interesting information can be gleaned from the publisher's report on 1998 sales
of "frontlist" books (published in 1998) and "backlist" books.
Approximately 4700 frontlist books were sold - 3300 as bulk sales of proceedings to event
organizers and 1300 as individual sales. Approximately 1800 backlist books were sold. The
leaders in total sales were TC6 (Communication Systems) with 2100 books and TC5 (Computer
Applications in Technology) with 1700 books, the total being more than half of all IFIP
books sold. The biggest sellers in terms of individual sales were Data Mining and Reverse
Engineering, edited by Spaccapietra and Maryanski, and Protocol Test Specification, edited
by Mizuno, both with sales between 80 and 90. Further information on IFIP books published
by Kluwer can be found on the Kluwer Web page at http://www.wkap.com/ifip .
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