Swedish Information Processing Society (SIPS)
Swedish Information Processing Society, SIPS (Swedish: Dataföreningen i Sverige) is a new society with an old tradition. It started its operation on 1 January 1990. It was formed by merger of three major societies in Sweden. These were Svenska Dataföreningen (SDF), Svenska Samfundet för Informationsbehandling (SSI) and Riksdataförbundet (RDF).
Svenska Dataföreningen (SDF)
SDF was formed in Gothenburg in November 1949 by 46 "Punch-Card-Manager" as a club where the managers can meet, exchange and discuss topics of common interests. The club which later became SDF was called HOLLERITH CLUB and open only for the user of IBM-equipment. In 1953 the club was open for the users of other equipment and renamed to "HÅLKORTSKLUBBEN" (Punch-Cards Club). On 2 November 1959, at the celebration of 10-years anniversary in Stockholm the Society was called to Society For Rational Data Processing (Föreningen för Rationell Databehandling). On 2 December 1963 the name of the society was changed again. This time it was called Svenska Dataföreningen (SDF).
At the annual meeting in Gothenburg on 28 September 1989 a motion was carried to dissolve SDF and together with SSI and RDF form a new society. At the extra annual meeting on 16 October 1989 this motion was confirmed once more.
Svenska Samfundet för Informationsbehandling (SSI)
SSI was formed on 30 May 1959 in Karlskrona at Nordic Symposium on Use of Mathematics Machines (Nord-SAM). Nord-SAM series became later a famous series of Nordic congresses, NordDATA. One of the major reasons of forming SSI was to create an organisation that can represent Sweden in IFIP. SSI has been representing Sweden in IFIP until 1988. Since 1988 SSI started sharing its representation to IFIP with SDF.
From 1959-1967, the president of SSI was Prof. Börje Langefors. This also reflects that SSI was at the beginning mainly an organisation of academic community whereas SDF was for people from industries. However, during the years this difference has been diminishing and both societies were having similar kinds of activities.
Most significant episode in SSI history is merger of SSI with The National Society of System Developer (Systemutvecklarnas Riksförening, SUR). SUR was formed on 15 November 1968 at a conference in Stockholm. It was formed as a result of a number of unsatisfied people who regarded that neither SDF nor SSI were showing any significant interest in the problems dealing with system development. SUR merged only after a couple of years with SSI.
On 28 September 1989 at an extra ordinary annual meeting in Stockholm a motion was carried that SSI will be part of a new society from 1 January 1990. This motion was confirmed once more at another meeting on 16 October.
Riksdataförbundet (RDF)
RDF has a different history compare to SDF and SSI. Both SDF and SSI were formed by individuals working with information processing. However, RDF was formed from a company, SERVI-DATA AB. SERVI-DATA was established in 1969 by a number of large enterprises in Sweden and Statskontoret, an organisation for forming information processing strategies for the government.
RDF was formed in 1974 as an organisation to build a bridge between different data processing users. Members of RDF were SDF, SSI, companies and different public authorities. SERVI-DATA had two partners, RDF had 80% of shares and Statkontoret kept remaining 20%.
On 16 October at a board meeting of RDF made decision to be part of a new society from 1 January 1990. All three organisations, that is RDF, SDF and SSI made their decision for merging into one society on the same day.
Dataföreningen i Sverige (DF)
Swedish Information Processing Society (SIPS)
Goal
Goals of SIPS are:
Category membership No. of members Fee (SEK) ------------------------------------------------- Individual 9200 250 Organisations 252 Variable Students 1100 100
Society's Major Activities
The Society is organised in six chapters and two Special Interests Groups.
The everyday activities of the Society is carried out by these subsidiaries. However, the projects in different areas are generally administrated by the Society. Each year, there are more than 80 events such as conference, seminars and courses, are organised by the society as whole.
Publications
The Society has 2-4 pages every week with information about its activities in "Computer Sweden".
The members of the Society receives "Computer Sweden" free-of-charge.
Affiliations to other bodies