mercredi 14 janvier 2004, par Morel Raymond
The Swiss IFIP Committee is a Working Group ("Arbeitsgruppe") of the SVI/FSI. Its members are the Swiss delegates to the IFIP General Assembly and to the IFIP Technical Committees. It meets once a year to discuss the annual reports of the TC rep’s, past and future activities, participation in Swiss associations and events, issues with IFIP and its TC’s, etc.. This paper describes the IFIP Federation and its various bodies, various aspects of the Swiss participation and contributions to IFIP, the associated amount of efforts and tries to emphasise the value for Switzerland of this participation.
IFIP is a non-governmental, non-profit umbrella organisation for national societies working in the field of information processing. It was established in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO as an aftermath of the first World Computer Congress held in Paris in 1959. Today, IFIP has several types of Members and maintains friendly connections to specialised agencies of the UN system and non-governmental organisations.
Technical work, which is the heart of IFIP’s activity, is managed by a series of Technical Committees. Each of these committees has two major types of activities : Events and Publications.
IFIP’s mission 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.
Its mission is : 1. To stimulate, encourage and participate in research, development and application of Information Technology (IT) and to foster international co-operation in these activities.
2. To provide a meeting place where national IT Societies can discuss and plan courses of action on issues in our field which are of international significance and thereby to forge increasingly strong links between them and with IFIP.
3. To promote international co-operation directly and through national IT Societies in a free environment between individuals, national and international governmental bodies and kindred scientific and professional organisations.
4. 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.
5. To promote professionalism, incorporating high standards of ethics and conduct, among all IT practitioners.
6. 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.
7. To foster and facilitate co-operation between academics, the IT industry and governmental bodies and to seek to represent the interest of users.
8. To provide a vehicle for work on the international aspects of IT development and application including the necessary preparatory work for the generation of international standards.
9. To contribute to the formulation of the education and training needed by IT practitioners, users and the public at large.
IFIP traces its roots to the very first major international conference on computers and computing which was held in Paris in 1959 under the auspices of UNESCO. Representatives of the main computer societies active in computing got together at that meeting to explore ways of building on the achievements of the conference. As a result thirteen national computer societies agreed to found in 1960 an international federation and named it IFIP - the International Federation for Information Processing.
IFIP’s principal aims are to foster international co-operation, to stimulate research, development and applications and to encourage education and the dissemination and exchange of information on all aspects of computing and communication.
IFIP’s creation was well timed. In the 1960s there began a veritable explosion in the growth of the computer industry and in the application of its products. Within the life-span of IFIP information technology (as it is widely known today) has become a potent instrument affecting people in everything from their education and work to their leisure and in their homes. It is a powerful tool in science and engineering, in commerce and industry, in education and administration and in entertainment.
Today IFIP has 48 national organisations as Full Members, 3 Corresponding Members and 10 Affiliate Members, representing countries from all regions of the world and international organisations.
A General Assembly of all its Members and TC Chairs takes place annually and has overall responsibility for all of IFIP’s strategy, finance and activities. It elects a President, four Vice-presidents, a Treasurer, a Secretary and eight Trustees who together form the IFIP Council which meets twice a year.
At the heart of IFIP lie its Technical Committees that, between them, count on the active participation of some two thousand people world-wide. There are twelve such Committees. Each Technical committee is, in effect, a management team responsible for a given field of activity and for the work of from three to nine Working Groups, a total of 81. These Groups work in a variety of ways to share experience and to develop their specialised knowledge. These include open conferences, smaller working conferences, seminars and tutorials, circulated papers and, increasingly, as befits our subject, electronic conferencing and e-mail.
Many IFIP events are linked to publications and there are annually some 30 to 40 IFIP books.
A vital element of IFIP’s communication with its Members and with all who participate in its work is the IFIP Newsletter published quarterly in both hard copy and electronic form (http://www.ifip.or.at/newsl.html).
IFIP enjoys friendly co-operation with a number of international organisations. First among these is UNESCO with which IFIP maintains a formal consultative relationship. UNESCO has commissioned from IFIP several projects and supports the participation of some people from developing countries in IFIP events. IFIP is a Scientific Associate of ICSU (International Council of Scientific Unions). There are four international federations with which IFIP collaborates : - IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control), - IMACS (International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation), - IFORS (International Federation of Operational Research Societies) and - IMEKO (International Measurement Confederation).
The Federation is governed by a General Assembly, which meets once a year and consists of one representative from each Member organisation, The General Assembly decides on all important matters, such as general policy, the program of activities, admissions, elections and budget. The day-to-day work of IFIP is directed by the Executive Board : President, Vice-presidents, Secretary and Treasurer, who are elected by the General Assembly. The Council (Executive Board and up to eight Trustees elected from the General Assembly), meets twice a year and takes decisions which become necessary between General Assembly meetings.
There are Aims shared by all or most Committees which are not subject specific.
They are as follows :
1. To establish and maintain liaison with national and international organisations with allied interests and to foster co-operative action, collaborative research and information exchange.
2. To identify subjects and priorities for research, to stimulate theoretical work on fundamental issues and to foster fundamental research which will underpin future development.
3. To provide a forum for professionals with a view to promoting the study, collection, exchange and dissemination of ideas, information and research findings and thereby to promote the state of the art.
4. To seek and use the most effective ways of disseminating information about our work including the organisation of conferences, workshops and symposia and the timely production of relevant publications.
5. To have special regard for the needs of developing countries and to seek practicable ways of working with them.
6. To encourage communication and to promote interaction between users, practitioners and researchers.
7. To foster interdisciplinary work and, in particular, to collaborate with other Technical Committees and Working Groups.
As the Swiss member of IFIP, SVI/FSI appoints its delegates to the various IFIP bodies : the General Assembly and the Technical Committees. The IFIP site : http://www.ifip.org provides detailed information on IFIP, its objectives, its organisation, its Technical Committees and Working Groups, its activities, etc..
The Swiss delegates are appointed for a period of 4 years renewable by periods of 2 years. The names of the Swiss TC and Working Groups representatives are published on the SVI/FSI Web site (http://www.svifsi.ch/ifip-2.html).
Main functions of a Swiss IFIP TC representative :
For more information : (ttp ://www.svifsi.ch/ifip-4.html).
General Assembly :
TC 2 - Software : Theory and Practice :
TC 3 - Education :
TC 5 - Computer Applications in Technology :
TC 6 - Communication Systems :
TC 7 - System Modelling and Optimization :
TC 8 - Information Systems :
TC 9 - Computers and Society :
TC 10 - Computer Systems Technology :
TC 11 - Security and Protection in Information Processing systems :
TC 13 - Human-Computer Interaction :
IFIP Honorary Members :
Each IFIP TC (Technical Committee) has from three to nine Working Groups, the members of which are persons experienced in the WG subject. They are not elected by SVI/FSI but chosen by the WG’s for their competence. Today 55 specialists from Swiss Academia and industry are participating in 11 TC’s and 28 WG’s.
The current list of WG members residing in Switzerland is on :
http://www.svifsi.ch/ifip-2.html
Remark : The above does not include the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) which was formed out of the former IFIP TC 4 in 1979 and which has activities of its own.
The nomination for the currently open position : TC 1 Foundations of Computer Science was closed and the TC 1 delegate will be announced soon. The Procedure for nomination of Swiss delegates to IFIP is available at : http://www.svifsi.ch/ifip-7."
Switzerland is one of the founders of IFIP : it was one of the thirteen national societies (at this time the Swiss Federation of Automatic Control) which had agreed to join the Federation and ratified its statutes by January 1960. The Swiss association was represented by A.P.Speiser who was elected Secretary-Treasurer of IFIP.
Switzerland has not only been a founder of IFIP but has contributed towards IFIP objectives and activities without interruption since its creation through the personal involvement of its representatives :
The WG members are individual specialists accepted by the WG’s for their expertise (there is no country limitation on their number).
The personal involvement and the efforts of these specialists contribute, through their international contacts with leading experts, to acquiring and bringing to Switzerland knowledge on new technology developments and strategies discussed within IFIP Working Groups. They are the ambassadors of Switzerland to the TC’s and WG’s and contribute to the maintenance and improvement of the Swiss international image.
This is especially true in areas such as Education, Communications (infrastructure, financial access, etc..), Security, Software, Human aspects, etc.. which present important potential for Switzerland. Support for these international activities is therefore very important to allow the continuation of an active Swiss participation in the international IFIP activities in all areas of ICT.
The Swiss Committee for IFIP is thankful to the SATW, SARIT and, of course, to the employers of the IFIP delegates ; without such support they could not pursue their mission. We have tried in the next section to evaluate the overall effort represented by the activities of the delegates to IFIP functions. One important aspect : even not part of the European Community, we have always been very present and active in IFIP.
In order to get an evaluation of the importance of resources spent by IFIP delegates to TC’s and WG’s a survey was made several times and repeated recently. The delegates were asked how much they were spending annually in :
The numbers vary significantly ; for example, the time spent varies from 5 to 50 days/year. The maximum happens when the TC rep has several IFIP functions (for example Council Member, TC Officer, etc..) or when in charge of organising an IFIP event in Switzerland.
The average time was 30 h/y in 1993, 23 in 1996, 28 in 1997. In 2002 it was 20 h and the estimate is again 20 h for 2003.
For 2002 the resulting average numbers are the following :
Total expenses per TC representative : 15.1 kfr/person/year
We have today 55 specialists from Swiss Academia and industry participating in 11 TC’s and 28 WG’s. This represents a total Swiss effort of approximately 830’000 Fr/year of which 99 kfr for airline tickets. These activities would of course not be possible without the IFIP delegates employers. They however tend to restrict allowing "free time" to their employees for obvious reasons. They are of course encouraged when at least the airline tickets for the TC delegates (although a small part of the total) are in principle supported by SATW (via SVI/FSI) and SARIT. Both organisations have to be thanked for their valuable support.
It must be noted however that no support is provided to the members of Working Groups. Their expenses have therefore to be totally covered by their employer.
The current status (tickets paid for the TC delegates) allows some freedom in the nomination of TC rep’s. The reduction of such support would mean to restrict the selection of new TC rep’s to persons fully supported by their employers (a questionable solution !) or to drop the Swiss representation to some Technical Committees.
The support by employers to their employees international activities is a very important contribution for the whole Switzerland : they contribute to the Swiss reputation and image, to fruitful international experience exchange and to allow valuable information to be brought back to Switzerland, etc.. They therefore deserve our most sincere thanks for their valuable contributions.
Besides their current activities (reported in their annual reports) such as participation to their TC meetings, the TC representatives were particularly active in 2002 either by holding a TC executive position or in organising important events.
This section gives an overview of the most important activities and events. The annual meeting took place in Bern on March 14, 2002 attended by seven members. Prof. G.Schatz, President Swiss Science and Technology, participated in our meeting and conducted an interesting open discussion with the group.
New members were welcomed : Mrs StÈphanie Teufel (TC 11), Marc Junet (TC 8) and Markus Stolze (TC 13). Added to the recent nominations in 2000 and 2001 they will no doubt bring a new breath to the committee for the years to come.
Several members hold active staff positions in the IFIP TC’s :
All these people deserve our sincere thanks for their invaluable personal involvement.
In addition to these specific IFIP related activities, several members are actively engaged in other scientific organisations. Some of them are mentioned here after :
In Annex : the list of IFIP events in Switzerland since 1980.
PAB, 15.08.2003
Diffusion :
SATW, SARIT, SVI/FSI, ICTsuisse and SIC (Swiss IFIP Committee)