Australian Computer Society
President's Report to Council
February 1997
I last reported in September 1996.
At that time I had just sent photos from
a hot air balloon over Canberra to
promote IFIP96. Below are a list of the more notable public activities. In between these there
was the usual chairing of ACS Management Committee meetings and daily queries from the press and
organisations.Please note the web version of this document at URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20001002030912/http://www.tomw.net.au/twcl97a.htm includes hypertext links to more detailed information about the topics mentioned.
This was a major event for the ACS and I was one of the many who had put in hard work for it over several years.
My only formal role at the actual conference was to thank the dignitaries at the
opening ceremony. To keep myself busy I took electronic photos for
the daily on-line newspaper and
for a virtual landcare visit. I became the stand-in chair for one session, after accidentally wandering into
the wrong room.
At the end of the congress I gave a World Net Workshop,
with Senator Lundy. IFIP's General Assembly was held after the congress and I was invited to
give an address. While the
PR
for IFIP'96 was upbeat and the organisation worked well, overall it was not a particularly exciting event,
nor a financial success for ACS. There may be no place for conventional conferences in the on-line future.
- First was a meeting of the IT
Discipline Research Strategy Project, 18 October 1996.
The ACS is contributing a modest amount of money to the project, as well as myself on the
Steering Committee and
Dr. Bernard Robertson-Dunn on the working party. There should be a progress report
released in the next two weeks.
- Interact 96 ran from Thursday 24 to Sunday 26 October 1996 in Melbourne. This combined a multimedia orientated product exhibition, seminars for the general public and several industry association conferences. I was invited to speak on The New Digital Economy a Lifestyle Futures Forum and was interviewed on-line.
- 29 October I gave a short presentation on Electronic Mail in the Document Management World to the AIIM 1996 Conference in Canberra
- 12 to 27 November I visited the UK
for a meeting on Internet and professional
licensing issues with major world IT societies.
I ended up chairing one of the resulting working parties).
Also I visited the University
and related IT research organisations in of Cambridge. While in the UK I attended an
ACS Remote meeting
and the launch of the Internet Society of Australia via the 'net.
- I chaired the first day of the NSW 1996 Conference on 3 December and helped celebrate the 30th birthday at the ACS dinner the next day.
- My last ACS duty for the year was to give the first
multimedia
address to the
National Press Club in Canberra, 11 December.
1997
For 1997 I propose to concentrate on two priorities:- Industry development: It is not enough for Australia to have a well trained body of IT professionals, we also need an industry for them to work in. The ACS made a submission to the Information Industries Taskforce, as one of a number of measures to boost Australian IT industry. As I explained at the national press club, the Federal Government's current approach to the IT industry is fragmented. In 1997 the ACS should work on a co-ordinated strategy for development of the Australian IT industry.
- On-line working: While we have made some progress in the ACS with on-line publishing and on-line working (and are ahead of our overseas counterparts), progress has not been fast enough. During 1997 the ACS should aim to make the full range of its services available on-line to members and experiment with new services exploiting the new possibilities.
President
13 February 1997
See also: