-----Original Message----- From: owner-ifip_ga@ifip.or.at [mailto:owner-ifip_ga@ifip.or.at]On Behalf Of Plamen Nedkov Sent: segunda-feira, 18 de Marco de 2002 14:52 To: all Subject: [IFIP] Council 2002 Highlights: A foregone conclusion :-)
Dear All,
The Slovenian Society Informatika, host of IFIP's March Council meeting in Bled, 4-7 March, gave an excellent example of how to market the IFIP brand in Slovenia and at the same time to promote its activities in IFIP. On 5 March, during a unique session dedicated to ICT in Slovenia three distinguished professors briefed Council participants on recent developments. That evening, the Deputy Minister for the Information Society hosted a reception and at the Council Opening ceremony next morning, Dr. Pavel GANTAR, Minister of the Information Society, cordially welcomed Council participants and highlighted the achievements and challenges of his Ministry in paving the road towards the Information Society.
The natural beauty of the Bled region also helped our hosts market their country. Our hotel offered excellent conference and recreation facilities and all participants had A ROOM WITH A VIEW overlooking the crystal clear waters of the lake, with the island and its church, cuddled in the midst of snowcapped mountains. The email and Internet access in Bled were superb and the people so friendly that it was hard even for the most capricious IFIP participants to find an excuse to complain.
IFIP conducted its Council and related meetings on such a marvelous intellectual and natural backdrop and we are happy to report the highlights in telegraphic style. There are good news and not so good news:
1. Auerbach Award: EB selected the 5th Auerbach award recipient but s/he is not to be disclosed until August 2002 so as to add an element of surprise during our Congress in Montreal. [To whet your appetite here is a tiny leak for your guesswork: the recipient years ago served as an IPC chair of an IFIP congress, is a shooting star in the theoretical field and sports the most impeccably groomed hair we have seen :-)]
2. Events http://www.ifip.or.at/cal_even.htm#act : Despite the declining 2001 numbers of conference attendees reported by other organizations, IFIP did quite well during 2001 and was involved in 64 events. IFIP conference proceeds had increased by so 60% compared to the year 2000. The excellent work of the IFIP Event facilitator certainly contributed to this result.
Council decided to update the Event guidelines and forms related to sponsorship and in particular to convert the sponsorship fee which was previously calculated in CHF into EUR. The new levels are 4 EUR per participant per day for working conferences and 8 EUR for open conferences. The updated guidelines and forms are already uploaded at http://www.ifip.or.at/events/evforms.htm for TCs, WGs and IFIP event organizers to take note of and use.
The Congress in Montreal will be the premium IFIP event in 2002. There are good news with regard to tutorials, workshops and the various elements that will need to be integrated into the program. The not-so-good news is that the number of paper submissions are not as high as expected - just over 400 papers - but there will be no compromise with regard to the stringent review and selection procedures. The IPC and OC hope to compensate the low numbers with a high quality program. 2 Keynote speakers were reported: Dr. Abdul Waheed Khan [IN], Assistant Director General of UNESCO and Dr. Keiji Tachikawa [JP], President of NTT DoCoMo and soon after Council one more keynoter, Mr. Mike Lazaridis of RIM [CA], joined their company.
During Council, a note was received from UNESCO confirming previous arrangements for a joint IFIP-UNESCO team to work in preparing a Declaration on Youth in the Infosociety: Roles, Needs, Aspirations and relevant Policies. The draft declaration will be presented to a Congress plenary for endorsement. GA immediately after Congress will have another chance to review the document which, when agreed, will be a joint IFIP-UNESCO contribution to the World Summit for the Information Society in December 2003 in Geneva.
A joint IPC/OC meeting later in March in Montreal which will finalize the program and arrangements and kick-start the final phase of intensive Congress promotion. The IFIP Executive Director in cooperation with the Congress OC and DCSC will work to put together a Congress participation support plan for participants from developing countries based on the IFIP Voucher scheme http://www.ifip.or.at/minutes/C99/C99_part6.htm#a1 , free registrations and eventual financial support from other organizations.
Preparations for Congress 2004 are proceeding according to plans but are not given high publicity so as to keep the IFIP community focused on the Montreal Congress. There is a lot of backstage work and a representative French delegation will be in Montreal to launch the publicity campaign of IFIP's Congress in Toulouse.
Other major IFIP forthcoming events include:
The WITFOR Conference (World IT Forum) and GA in August 2003 in Vilnius, Lithuania. Some 600 participants would be expected to be at WITFOR which is supported by the government of Lithuania and hopefully will receive the support of UNESCO, the World Bank and other organizations.
While significantly smaller in participation numbers (about 50 participants are expected), the IFIP Conference on "Global IT Skills Needs - The Role of IT Professionalism" will convene from 25 - 27 October 2002 in London and promises to give IFIP a major presence in the debate on IT professionalism, occupational skills framework and assessment of individual professional skills.
The second IFIP TC6/TC8/TC11 I3E Conference [e-commerce, e-business & e-government] - http://www.ifip.or.at/mail/msg00117.html - will be held in Lisbon, Portugal 7-9 October 2002. The first I3E conference was held in Zurich in October 2001 and Council participants were very grateful to Prof. Kurt Bauknecht who, despite the difficulties caused by the Swiss Air crisis immediately before the conference opening, was able to ensure sufficient sponsorship and good organization for a successful launching of this important new conference series.
The Committee for Cooperation with Industry reported on an important activity -- the forthcoming Workshop on Entertainment Computing -http://www.ifip.or.at/mail/msg00115.html - scheduled for 14-17 May 2002 in Makuhary, Japan.
3. Publications http://www.ifip.or.at/public.htm : Publications under the IFIP-Kluwer agreement continue on a high level though the performance is somewhat reduced compared to the previous year. In 2001, 23 books were published and a decrease in Kluwer revenues was reported. It was further reported that 13 books were scheduled for publication with Kluwer in the first half of 2002 and at least 12 other titles are expected to be published in the second half of the year.
The essential elements of an eventual IFIP Digital Library (DL) were discussed including a number of options for IFIP to consider. Arguments, including issues related to costs, bring in the forefront of considerations the possibility that the future IFIP publisher will also undertake the role of DL service provider or that an IFIP member society running an established DL will considered as a DL service provider. Council requested the DL Task Force to continue with its investigations so as to have at GA 2002 a sound recommendation for GA decision.
4. Technical Assembly and Technical Committees http://www.ifip.or.at//tcs.htm : A new group -- WG 6.9 on "Communication Systems in Developing Countries" -- was tentatively approved pending a redefinition of its Aims and scope to explicitly focus on technical aspects. All TC reports will be provided on-line along with the Council Minutes and our member societies are encouraged to constantly review their representation.
5. Finances: It was reported that IFIP's performance with regard to income from conferences and publications during 2001 was better than the previous year. At the same time, the 2001 expenses which were tightly monitored were slightly lower than those in 2000. In general the financial performance during 2001 was quite satisfactory and IFIP had continued the established tradition of sound performance since 1995.
The only disturbing factor is that the IFIP Portfolio investment produced a loss of 85 K EUR. Optically, this is a considerate sum for the IFIP economy and both the Treasurer and FC Chair assured Council that the financial loss of 4.2% is lower than the US and European market indexes whose depreciation in 2001 was -6% (Dow Jones) and -16,5% (DAX). Besides, it was a "paper value" loss which could be compensated by an improved portfolio performance in future.
6. Elections: At GA 2002 there will be elections for an IFIP President, at least 2 IFIP Vice-Presidents and at least 2 Trustees. Calls for nominations will be distributed in May 2002 and all pertinent details will be provided. GA 2002 will elect a President for the outstanding partial 2 year period (2002 - 2004) vacated with the resignation of the13th elected President]. At GA 2003, an IFIP President-Elect will be elected and that person will assume the Presidentship in 2004 for a full 3 year period which will hopefully return IFIP to the normal presidential pattern of office.
7. CONCLUSION: see P.S. note below!
These are the main issues as we see them. The official record of Council's deliberations will be provided in the Council 2002 Minutes. After the Minutes are out we intend to focus on some of the issues that were raised during Council and deserve further attention.
The Delivery Co.
P.S. FOREGONE CONCLUSION :-)
(A) The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
(B) On the other hand, the French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
(C) The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
(D) The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
(E) Conclusion: Eat & drink what you like. It's speaking English that kills you!
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Plamen Nedkov Executive Director, IFIP Hofstrasse 3, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria Tel: +43 2236 73616 Fax: +43 2236 736169 http://www.ifip.org/