THE AUSTRIAN COMPUTER SOCIETY

When President Auerbach appointed Heinz Zemanek in 1962 Chairman of IFIP TC 2 on programming languages, Austria was not yet an IFIP member. In order to remedy is slightly illegal status, a solution in analogy to the Austrian IFAC member organization was sought and found: a small committee was composed in Vienna within the framework of the Austrian Productivity Center. This center was an institution created after an American initiative ( during occupation time, i.e. before 1955 ) and based on the cooperation of the Federal Trade Unions and the Employer's Association; the center offered the meeting room for the committee and was ready to pay the IFIP membership dues. By 1964 this committee became the Austrian IFIP member association with Heinz Zemanek as chairman and IFIP representative.

It was a pragmatic but not a really satisfactory solution. A genuine Austrian Computer Society would have been the appropriate solution, but time was not yet ripe. In September 1971 the Austrian Association for Electrical Engineering (ÖVE = Österreichischer Verband für Elektrotechnik ) offered to start a substructure for computing, but Heinz Zemanek realized that the needs went beyond electronic engineering. Punched card using book-keepers and economists did not fit to an electrical engineering sub-structure: and there was already an association, ADV ( Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Datenverarbeitung ) that had originated as organization of punched card users.

The experiences in other IFIP member organizations were the basis for the founding idea of an Austrian Computer Society which would have a double nature, namely a roof structure gathering all interested associations interested in computer theory and application - a federation of associations - and a member society at once. Because a roof structure would lack the pool of personalities from which to get active and directly interested federation officers. AFIPS was a warning example where the representatives of the constituent societies like IEEE, ACM and ADPM were always guided more by their "domestic" interests than by the needs of the federation AFIPS itself.

So in 1972 Heinz Zemanek a "proponents committee" that should start that double natured Computer Society. But at the foundation meeting in contrast to the opinions expressed before, the majority of the proponents argued against the foundation and the meeting ended as a total flop. Allright: the existing IFIP Member Body would continue; Heinz Zemanek did not need a Computer Society for his personal purposes; he had wanted to promote the Austrian information processing community. Two years later, the competent governmental officer, Sektions-Chef Dr. Norbert Rozsenich recognized that an Austrian society would improve the situation considerably. He triggered Heinz Zemanek to make a second attempt, and indeed this second effort, under some governmental pressure ( and their offers ) the founding meeting was successful. Since 4 MAR 1975 there exists an Austrian Computer Society, and Heinz Zemanek was the founding president ( but due to his transfer to Germany after becoming IBM Fellow, he had to resign in 1976 ).

Since the foundation in 1975 the objective of the Austrian Computer Society is the comprehensive and interdisciplinary promotion of information processing, with due regard to its effects on man and society.

In fulfilling this objective, the Society today performs several primary functions:

• It serves as an umbrella organization of associations, organizations, and institutions in Austria involved in information processing. 29 institutional members and two sub-divisions are at this time institutional members of OCG.

• It represents Austria in IFIP and in similar regional associations ( e.g. CEPIS and IMIA - the International Medical Informatics Association ).

• It has a joint membership agreement with ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) and is an affiliate member of the IEEE Computer Society.

• It cooperates with computer societies in other European countries. Cooperation agreements have been signed with CSCI ( Czech Republic ), GCS ( Greece), GI ( Germany ), NJSzT ( Hungary ), SCG ( Slovak Republic ) and SI ( Switzerland ). Together with these partners OCG has organized many conferences, workshops and other events. With the John von Neumann Society ( NJSzT ), for instance, the annual informatics conference CON has been organized since 10 years. NJSzT is, together with OCG, organizer of the 15th IFIP World Computer Congress in Vienna and Budapest in September 1998.

• It provides members with services, information and consultation.

• It promotes research and development projects, especially those of interdisciplinary nature, on the national and on the international level. Since Austria is a member of the European Union, OCG tries to play an active role as partner organization in research projects of the EU.

• It has established 21 Working Groups dealing with specialized aspects in the field of information processing.

• It organizes international conferences and congresses, and helps its member institutions to organize such events. Conferences of OCG often deal with interdisciplinary topics: The ICCHP ( International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs ) for instance aims at forging links between the areas of research and development in computer science, rehabilitation technology, medicine, architecture and social sciences. Since 1989 the conference was organized five times till 1996. Another example is the International Conference on Intellectual Property Rights and New Technologies -- Know Right. In 1995 this conference has been a platform for communication and discussion between computer scientists and experts in law and justice.

At present, the Austrian Computer Society has approximately 750 individual members and more than 30 supporting members. OCG provides the members with monthly mailings including information about national and international events such as conferences and congresses. OCG publishes its own Journal "Computer Kommunikativ", which appears six times a year. More than 90 volumes have been published in OCG's scientific book series, "OCG Schriftenreihe". Members also have the advantage of obtaining reduced participation fees for conferences organized or supported by the Austrian Computer Society or any other of its institutional members.

As Austrian representative in IFIP the Austrian Computer Society aims at playing an active role within this organization: More than 30 Austrian computer scientists and experts are working within the IFIP bodies, the Technical Committees and Working Groups. Professor Zemanek, the Founder of the OCG, is Honorary Member of IFIP and IFIP Historian. Walter Grafendorfer, Secretary General of OCG, presently is trustee and chairman of the activity management board. The Austrian Computer Society also supported IFIP in relocating the IFIP Secretariat from Geneva to Laxenburg near Vienna. It arranged contracts between IFIP and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science, Research and the Arts, leading to a favorable agreement for IFIP that is able to reduce the expenses for the Secretariat. The Austrian Government granted a 15-years financial support for the IFIP Secretariat.