The
mission of the
International Federation for
Information Processing (IFIP) is to be the leading, truly international,
apolitical organisation which encourages and assists in the
development,
exploitation, and
application of
Information Technology for the benefit of all people.
IFIP is a federation of
national level
entities, one per
country, each with
responsibility for information processing within their respective countries.
The aims of IFIP are:
The principal elements are:
- To stimulate, encourage and participate in research, development and application of IT and to foster international cooperation in these activities.
- To provide a meeting place where national IT societies can discuss and plan courses of action on issues in our field that are of international significance.
- To promote international cooperation directly and through national IT societies in a free environment between individuals, national and international governmental bodies and kindred scientific and professional organizations.
- To pay special attention to the needs of developing countries and to assist them in appropriate ways to secure the optimum benefit from the application of IT.
- To promote professionalism, incorporating high standards of ethics and conduct, among all IT practitioners.
- To provide a forum for assessing the social consequences of IT applications.
- to campaign for the safe and beneficial development and use of IT and the protection of people from abuse through its improper application.
- To foster and facilitate co-operation between academics, the IT industry and governmental bodies and to seek to represent the interest of users.
- To provide a vehicle for work on the international aspects of IT development and application, including the necessary preparation for the generation of international standards.
- To contribute to the formulation of the programs for education and training needed by IT practitioners, users and the public at large.
Congresses and Conferences
The
flagship IFIP event is the World Computer Congress which is currently held every two years.
The first IFIP Congress was held in
Rome in 1960.
The most recent Congress was held in
Montreal in August of 2002 and the seventeenth Congress is scheduled to be held in
Toulouse,
France in 2004.
A relatively new feature of IFIP Congresses is that they have become a number of parallel independent conferences, each dealing with a different subject area.
In addition to the Congresses, IFIP hosts about four major technical conferences (including ones on Production Engineering, Security, Computers in Education and Human Computer Interaction) and about seventy five other substantial events per year.
Organization
IFIP is governed by a General Assembly.
It meets annually and consists of one
representative from each member organization.
The General Assembly elects the Executive Board and between three and eight
Trustees.
The General Assembly is also authorized to
establish subordinate organizations including the Technical Assembly, Standing Committees, Technical Committees (TC), the Activity Management Board and, as required,
Ad Hoc Committees.
The IFIP Council consists of an Executive Board and Trustees.
The Executive Board consists of the President, past-President, four Vice-Presidents, the Secretary and the Treasurer.
The Council administers IFIP and has the authority to make any decision not specifically reserved by the IFIP Statutes and Bylaws to the General Assembly.
The Technical Assembly reviews and guides existing technical work and initiates new work.
It is also responsible for overseeing the Technical Committees and creating/dissolving Working Groups (WG).
Standing Committees are creatures of the General Assembly and are directly involved in the business of the General Assembly.
Currently existing Standing Committees include a Finance Committee and an Admissions Committee.
Technical Committees are created and mandated by the General Assembly.
Each member organization appoints a representative to each Technical Committee and the Technical Committees are primarily responsible for advising the Technical Assembly and overseeing the Working Groups within their area of interest.
Working Groups are established by the Technical Assembly upon the advise of a Technical Committee.
The members of the Working Groups are appointed by the chairman of the corresponding Technical Committee and need not be members of IFIP member organizations (they are, in general, leading technical experts in the Working Group's scope).
The Activity Management Board manages IFIP's technical activities.
It has authority to approve, review and monitor planned activities, stimulate new initiatives and advise other IFIP bodies as appropriate.
Technical Committees and Working Groups
As of 2002/12/15 (missing numbers represent disbanded TCs and/or WGs)
- TC1: Foundations of Computer Science
- WG 1.1 Continuous Algorithms and Complexity
- WG 1.2 Descriptional Complexity
- WG 1.3 Foundations of System Specification
- WG 1.4 Computational Learning Theory
- WG 1.5 Cellular Automata and Machines
- WG 1.6 Term Rewriting
- WG 1.7 Theoretical Foundations of Security Analysis and Design
TC 2: Software: Theory and Practice
- WG 2.1 Algorithmic Languages and Calculi
- WG 2.2 Formal Description of Programming Concepts
- WG 2.3 Programming Methodology
- WG 2.4 Software Implementation Technology
- WG 2.5 Numerical Software
- WG 2.6 Database
- WG 2.7(= WG 13.4) User Interface Engineering
- WG 2.8 Functional Programming
- WG 2.9 Software Requirements Engineering
- WG 2.10 Software Architecture
TC 3: Education
- WG 3.1 Informatics and ICT in Secondary Education
- WG 3.2 Informatics and ICT in Higher Education
- WG 3.3 Research on Education Applications of Information Technologies
- WG 3.4 IT-Professional and Vocational Education in IT
- WG 3.5 Informatics in Elementary Education
- WG 3.6 Distance Learning
- WG 3.7 Information Technology in Educational Management
TC 5: Computer Applications in Technology
- WG 5.2 Computer-Aided Design
- WG 5.3 Computer-Aided Manufacturing
- WG 5.5 Cooperation Infrastructure for Virtual Enterprises and electronic business (COVE)
- WG 5.6 Maritime Industries
- WG 5.7 Integration in Production Management
- WG 5.10 Computer Graphics and Virtual Worlds
- WG 5.11 Computers and Environment
- WG 5.12 Architectures for Enterprise Integration
TC 6: Communication Systems
- WG 6.1 Architectures and Protocols for Distributed Systems
- WG 6.2 Network and Internetwork Architectures
- WG 6.3 Performance of Communication Systems
- WG 6.4 Internet Applications Engineering
- WG 6.6 Management of Networks and Distributed Systems
- WG 6.7 Smart Networks
- WG 6.8 Wireless Communications
- WG 6.10 Photonic Networking
- WG 6.11 Electronic Commerce - Communication Systems
TC 7: System Modelling and Optimization
- WG 7.1 Modelling and Simulation
- WG 7.2 Computational Techniques in Distributed Systems
- WG 7.3 Computer System Modelling
- WG 7.4 Discrete Optimization
- WG 7.5 Reliability and Optimization of Structural Systems
- WG 7.6 Optimization-Based Computer-Aided Modelling and Design
- WG 7.7 Stochastic Optimization
TC 8: Information Systems
- WG 8.1 Design and Evaluation of Information Systems
- WG 8.2 Interaction of Information Systems and the Organization
- WG 8.3 Decision Support Systems
- WG 8.4 E-Business: Multi-disciplinary research and practice
- WG 8.5 Information Systems in Public Administration
- WG 8.6 Transfer and Diffusion of Information Technology
- WG 8.8 Smart Cards
TC 9: Relationship between Computers and Society
- WG 9.1 Computers and Work
- WG 9.2 Social Accountability
- WG 9.3 Home Oriented Informatics and Telematics
- WG 9.4 Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries
- WG 9.5 Applications and Social Implications of Virtual Worlds
- WG 9.6(= WG 11.7) Information Technology: Misuse and the Law
- WG 9.7 History of Computing
- WG 9.8 Women and Information Technology
TC 10: Computer Systems Technology
- WG 10.1 Computer-Aided Systems Theory
- WG 10.3 Concurrent Systems
- WG 10.4 Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance
- WG 10.5 Design and Engineering of Electronic Systems
TC 11: Security and Protection in IP Systems
- WG 11.1 Information Security Management
- WG 11.2 Small System Security
- WG 11.3 Data and Application Security
- WG 11.4 Network Security
- WG 11.5 Systems Integrity and Control
- WG 11.7(= WG 9.6) Information Technology: Misuse and the Law
- WG 11.8 Information Security Education
TC 12: Artificial Intelligence
- WG 12.5 Knowledge-Oriented Development of Applications
- WG 12.6 Intelligent Information Management
TC 13: Human-Computer Interaction
- WG 13.1 Education in HCI and HCI Curricula
- WG 13.2 Methodology for User-Centred System Design
- WG 13.3 Human-Computer Interaction and Disability
- WG 13.4(= WG 2.7) User Interface Engineering
- WG 13.5 Human Error, Safety and System Development
The (very brief) origins of IFIP
The first International Conference on Information Processing (ICIP) was held on June 13-23, 1959 in Paris.
The driving force behind this conference was
Isaac Auerbach.
The conference resulted in the realization of another of Auerbach's ideas - the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).
Created under the
auspices of
UNESCO, IFIP came into existence on January 1, 1960.
Isaac Auerbach served as the president of IFIP from its founding to 1965.
Contact Information
Web site:
http://www.ifip.or.at/
Address:
IFIP Secretariat
Hofstrasse 3
A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Telephone: +43 2236 73616
Facsimile: +43 2236 736169
E-mail: ifip@ifip.or.at
References
- the above list of principal aims and the above list of Technical Committees and Working Groups are taken essentially verbatim from
the PDF file titled This is IFIP located at http://www.ifip.or.at/pdf/this_is_IFIP.pdf (last accessed from Google's cache 2002/12/15 as site was down)
- the web page IFIP IN PERSPECTIVE located at http://www.ifip.or.at/perspect.htm (last accessed from Google's cache 2002/12/15 as site was down)
- the web page The Isaac L. Auerbach Award located at http://www.ifip.or.at/36years/afunka.html (accessed from Google's cache 2002/12/15 as site was down)
- the web page IFIP - A Perspective located at http://www.ifip.or.at/36years/a36zemop.html (accessed from Google's cache 2002/12/15 as site was down)
- the web page IFIP STATUTES AND BYLAWS located at http://www.ifip.or.at/s&b.htm (accessed from Google's cache 2002/12/15 as site was down)
- the web page titled IFIP 8.6 (a description of WG 8.6) located at http://www.isi.salford.ac.uk/ifip/about_ifip.html (last accessed 2002/12/15)
- the web page Bemer meets Europe located at http://www.bobbemer.com/EUROPE.HTM (last accessed 2002/12/15)