by Mr. Zachary Rolnik (US)* and Ms. Yana Lambert (US)**
Kluwer Academic Publishers (KAP) is the scientific publishing division of Wolters Kluwer, a leading international publishing group with companies in 26 countries and corporate offices in Amsterdam. In 1998, KAP acquired the publishing assets of Thomson Science (Chapman & Hall), then the primary IFIP publisher, and purchased Plenum Publishing Corporation, thereby expanding its presence in the scientific marketplace.
KAP, with offices in Boston (US), Dordrecht (NL), and New York (US), operates on a world-wide basis, publishing scientific research at the postgraduate level in the English language. The principal areas include biosciences, business and economics, engineering, humanities and social sciences, mathematics, medicine, and the natural sciences. Products are in the form of books, journals, and electronic products. Kluwer On-Line, a new Internet-based subscription product, was commercially launched in 1999. This provides integrated access to KAP’s journal content in a fully-electronic environment. KAP publishes more than 600 scholarly journals and 800 books per annum, making it one of the major scientific publishers in the market.
IFIP-Related Activities
The publishing activities associated with IFIP are based in the Boston offices. IFIP conference proceedings, while published under the IFIP umbrella, are slotted into specific marketing programs consistent with their subject matter, thereby allowing KAP to promote the works to both the general IFIP audience and subject-specific niche markets.
Kluwer guarantees a 12-week production schedule for IFIP books, from receipt of a completely-formatted, camera-ready manuscript to delivery of the books anywhere in the world. To facilitate the preparation of camera-ready manuscripts, Kluwer provides electronic style files and templates to IFIP volume editors and contributing authors; these style files and templates are available on Kluwer’s IFIP Web site, http://www.wkap.com/ifip .
In addition, Ms. Yana Lambert (US), the KAP Editor for IFIP, has recently completed comprehensive "IFIP Editor Guidelines," which detail the publication process, step by step. These Guidelines are currently under review by IFIP’s Publications Committee chair, Dr. Roger Johnson (GB); they should be available on Kluwer’s IFIP Web site by the time this Newsletter is published.
In addition, we are working closely with IFIP to "re-launch" "Education and Information Technologies," the official journal of the IFIP Technical Committee on Education (TC3). A new brochure has recently been mailed to several thousand potential subscribers, and additional mailings are planned for the fall of 1999 and beyond. It is hoped that a substantial price reduction, to $60 for individual subscriptions, will generate many new subscriptions to the journal.
Mr. Zachary Rolnik (Vice-President and Director of KAP-Boston) and Ms. Yana Lambert will present the Publisher’s Report to the IFIP General Assembly in Kuala Lumpur and will be available for individual meetings with Technical Committee and Working Group chairs during the General Assembly.
* Vice-President and Managing Director of Kluwer Academic Publishers-Boston ** Kluwer Editor for IFIP
In November 1998, the IFIP Working Group on Computer Graphics and Virtual Worlds (WG5.10) organized a three-day workshop on Modelling and Motion Capture Techniques for Virtual Environments (CAPTECH’99) in Geneva, Switzerland. The topic of the conference was ongoing research in data capture and interpretation. The goals of capturing real world data in order to perceive, understand and interpret the data and to react to it in a suitable way are currently important research problems. Once captured, the data is treated either to make the invisible visible, to understand a particular phenomenon so as to formulate an appropriate reaction, to integrate various kinds of information in a new multimedia format, or to satisfy other requirements.
The conference included six sessions of presented papers and two discussion panels: The State of the Art in Capturing Technologies and The Virtual Amusement Park. The Geneva Computer Animation’98 Film Festival highlighted the evening of November 27th.
New information technologies are changing every sector of society and transforming women's work and women's lives. We are seeing significant changes from women's traditional work to work based on modern technology; from communicating within personal communities to virtual communities; from traditional job gendering to new perspectives on "who does what." In order to follow these trends and chart new courses of action, the IFIP Working Group on Computers and Work (WG9.1) has held six conferences on Women, Work, and Computerization (WWC). The seventh in the series, with the theme Charting a Course to the Future, will be held 8-11 June 2000 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Participants will be challenged to identify the ways information technology constrains and contributes to women's equality, to examine the way women's professional and personal lives are being transformed in the information economy, and to plot a course to the future for women and computer technologies.
For further information, please contact the individual named in the Calls for Papers column.
Conference Held in Italy
by Laura Semini (IT) and Gianluigi Zavattaro (IT)
The third IFIP International Conference on Formal Methods for Open Object-Based Distributed Systems (FMOODS’99) was held 15-18 February in Florence, Italy. The event was the third in a conference series that was initiated in Paris, France, in March 1996 and continued in Canterbury, UK, in July 1997. The purpose of the Conferences is to explicitly focus on the interactions among three important and related fields: formal methods, distributed systems, and object-based technology. The interest in the convergence of these three fields was emphasized by the choice of the invited speakers, of the tutorial lecturers, and of the regular papers presented at the Conference. For instance, the three tutorials, presented by Pamela Zave, Luca Cardelli, and Cosimo Laneve (IT), described new trends in the formal specification of telecommunication services, the foundations for wide-area distributed systems, and an overview of the calculi for object-oriented languages, respectively.
The technical contributions consisted of 5 invited papers, 19 regular papers, and 7 short papers, selected from among 52 submissions. The Conference was partitioned into several sessions, covering the following topics: Languages, Semantics, Java and Coordination, Object Composition and Reuse, Telecommunications, Formal Methods, and Emerging Standards. Also, a panel on CORBA (the emerging standard for distributed platforms), with a tutorial flavor, was organized.
Five invited talks were presented: Oscar Nierstrasz (CH) discussed PICCOLA, a language inspired by a new model based on "glue agents," which has the aim of supporting the flexible composition of applications from software components. Sriram Sankar (US) described new trends in the realization of tools permitting the integration of formal methods inside the process of development of Java programs. Remo Pareschi (IT) described new techniques for workflow applications and showed their possible use. Howard Bowman (GB) and John Derrick (GB) described their results on the investigation of the junction between state-based and behavioural specification techniques. Finally, Naoki Kobayashi (JP) presented new ideas regarding an alternative non-operational approach for the specification of distributed objects based on linear logic.
The Conference was well attended, with close to 85 participants. The social event consisted of a visit to the Astrophysics Observatory of Arcetri, located very close to the house of Galileo Galilei.
The Conference was supported by the IFIP Technical Committee on Communication Systems (TC6) and its Working Group on Architecture and Protocols for Computer Networks (WG6.1). It was organized by the Universities of Florence and Bologna. The proceedings, edited by Paolo Ciancarini (IT), Alessandro Fantechi (IT), and Roberto Gorrieri (IT), were recently published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, the IFIP publisher. Mr. Gorrieri and Paolo Ciancarini (IT) chaired the International Program Committee, while Mr. Fantechi chaired the Organizing Committee.
Prof. Jozef Gruska (CZ), the founding chair of the IFIP Technical Committee on Foundations of Computer Science (TC1), has just completed his latest book, Quantum Computing. The publisher, McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., describes the book, which was released in May, as follows:
In quantum computing, we witness an exciting and very promising merging of two of the deepest and most successful scientific and technological developments of this century: quantum physics and computer science. Despite the experimental developments in quantum computing being in their infancy, there have already been a variety of concepts, models, methods and results obtained at the theoretical level that clearly have lasting value, and these form the main subject of the book. The book provides elements of knowledge from quantum physics and theoretical computer science, two areas of importance for understanding the basic developments in quantum computing, and concentrates on the presentation of concepts, models, methods and results mainly from a computing point of view. No previous knowledge of quantum mechanics is required.
Further information on the book can be found on the Web at http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/gruska , where additional material on quantum computing is continually updated by the author.
In 1989, Prof. Gruska convinced the IFIP Technical Assembly to form a Specialist Group (SG) on Theoretical Computer Science, which he chaired. He was the first chair of TC1 when the SG became a TC, and he served until 1995. At present, he is Professor of Computer Science at Masaryk University, Brno, The Czech Republic. He has held visiting professorships in many universities in North America and Europe and has been a member of international organizations in computer science. A biographical sketch can be found in the March 1997 IFIP Newsletter (page 2).
by Prof. Subbaih Arunachalam (IN)
We often find interesting articles in the newsletter of the IFIP Working Group on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries (WG9.4). The most recent issue of that newsletter (April 1999) contained the following article by Prof. Subbaih Arunachalam (IN), who argues that information technology is widening the gulf between scholars in developing countries and those in the developed world. Although it is not clear whether the current problem is substantively different from cases in which developing countries cannot afford the expensive equipment necessary to carry out certain experiments in the physical sciences, for example, the author makes a clear case that a problem does exist. We have printed the bulk of the article here*; the full text can be found at http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/~subhash/current.htm .
Information is key to the growth of knowledge, and dissemination of information is crucial for scientific enterprise. In pre-independent India, when scientists of the caliber of C.V. Raman, Meghnad Saha, J.C. Bose and S.N. Bose made their first-rate contributions to knowledge, the main vehicle for transmission of knowledge was the scholarly journal, and there were far fewer journals then than now. Scientists around the world were almost at the same level as far as accessing information was concerned. True, most journals were published in Europe, and Raman and his Indian colleagues received the journal issues a few months later than their European colleagues -- the time it took for the boat to cross the seas.
Journals Are Too Expensive
Today there is a tremendous proliferation of journals, and many of them, especially those published by commercial firms, are out of reach, even for libraries in the West. It is heartening to know that the Association of Special Libraries in the United States is collaborating with like-minded societies to publish less-expensive, quality journals to save scientists from being held to ransom by greedy private publishers. The best academic science library in India, the one at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, receives only 1,562 serials, including the ones received gratis and "on exchange." In contrast, in the United States and possibly Europe, many university libraries subscribe to upwards of 40,000 serials. Thanks to the rising value of the US dollar and pound sterling on international currency markets and dramatic increases in subscription prices of journals and databases, libraries in India and other developing countries have been forced to reduce the number of journals and secondary services they receive.
The situation in Africa is particularly bad. A Nigerian professor [is quoted as saying,] "When you call some of us scientists, we laugh at ourselves. We know we can no longer make contributions to science. I do not know what my colleagues in Kenya or London have found, for example. So I cannot carry out an experiment and believe I am on the path to an original contribution to the sciences. If I have been giving generations of students the same notes for the past ten years, I should not call myself a scientist."...
Limited Access to the Internet
Physicists have gone one step further; they circulate preprints through the Los Alamos e-Print archives long before they appear in print in refereed journals. This service, unlike subscribed journals, is absolutely free to anyone who can access it. Free it may be, but in reality most developing country scientists are excluded. To access information in cyber space, one first needs access to the corresponding electronic technology. Often, technology diffuses rather slowly, and even today most scientists and scholars in developing countries do not have access to the new information and communication technologies. As a result, the performance of researchers can be (and is) affected, not because they are poor physicists or chemists but because they are not connected to electronic information networks....
Most developing countries, especially those with large populations, do not have the necessary infrastructure (computer terminals, networks, communication channels, bandwidth, etc.) to contribute as equal partners in the worldwide enterprise of knowledge production and dissemination. According to Bruce Girard, former director of Latin America’s community radio Pulsar, 95% of all computers in the world are in the developed nations; ten developed nations, accounting for only 20% of the world’s population, have three-quarters of the world’s telephone lines. Teledensity in India is about 1.8 lines per 100 persons. Till 1994, it was less than one per hundred persons. In contrast, however, teledensity in the United States and Canada is more than 60 per 100 inhabitants. To make matters worse, most of India’s telephones are concentrated in metropolitan cities. Many scientists do not have a telephone on their desks. Those who have often cannot make calls outside their towns, let alone overseas. Many universities do not have e-mail or Internet facilities. Some have only 1.2- or 2.4-kilobytes-per-second connections. With such low bandwidths and poor terrestrial telephone connections, one can at best send and receive e-mail messages but cannot surf the net or do on-line searches on the Internet....
Scholars from DCs Are Excluded
A growing number of journals, especially in the fields of science, technology and medicine, now receive and review manuscripts by e-mail, and some journals are available only in electronic form. Editors of such international journals will naturally be reluctant to use referees from developing countries, even if they are extraordinarily competent in their fields, simply because it may be extremely difficult to reach them electronically. Nor for that matter will developing country scientists be able to publish their work in these electronic journals. Prof. Arunachalam pointed out that while the financial community in India has its own communication network, scholars lack such facilities and are not likely to have them soon.
The speedy transition to electronic publishing will make it much easier for scientists and scholars in the developed countries to interact with colleagues and members of their "invisible colleges." [i.e., colleagues not located in proximity -- Editor] This is already reflected in the enormous increase in recent years in the percentage of papers resulting from cross-country collaboration involving authors from advanced countries.... My major worry is that the low level of information and communication technologies in the developing countries would lead to the progressive exclusion of a majority of their scientists and scholars from the collective international discourse that is essential for active participation in all fields of research. Even now, when much publishing still takes place in print, participation by India and other developing countries in high-impact journals...is abysmally low. The already existing gulf in the levels of science and technology performed in the developed and the poorer countries will be widened further, which could lead to increased levels of brain drain....
The author noted that India can afford to invest in the necessary infrastructure, and that plans have been discussed for some time. He concluded with the following:
But what is actually happening is disheartening. Different agencies in the telecom sector, which have to implement and deliver, are quarreling with one another. Indeed, this is a characteristic of developing countries: it often takes far too much time for things to happen or to translate something from the realm of the possible to reality. As for differential pricing, both publishers of primary journals and database producers are reluctant to embrace such measures. In one rare exception, the Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, offers Science Citation Index at 50% discount to most developing country subscribers. Even so, it is perceived as too costly!
Given these circumstances, I would not be surprised if very soon the gulf between the scientifically advanced nations and the others widens even further, reducing further the role of the developing countries in the enterprise of knowledge production, dissemination and utilization. Do I sound pessimistic? So did Toni Morrison [who said that nobody seems to care to write about issues concerning black people -- Editor].
* © Subbaih Arunachalam
The Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS), an Affiliate Member of IFIP, with 29 member societies in 24 countries throughout Europe, and an aggregate membership of over 150 000, has released two policy statements. Because they are of interest to the IFIP community at large, we print them here; however, IFIP does not endorse them in any way.
A Citizen’s Charter in the Information Society
The Information Society, in general, and Electronic Commerce, in particular, offer many exceptional opportunities and challenges for today’s and future generations. Therefore, they deserve encouragement as well as global protection -- both legal and technical -- so as to ensure that they will enjoy the highest possible level of confidence.
At the same time, information and communication technology provides a technical driving force that causes fundamental changes in society. It especially changes the way people acquire and use material and nonmaterial goods, i.e., products, services and information about these. It also changes the way people express themselves and make decisions.
The new technology facilitates easy acquisition, distribution and use (as well as misuse) of great amounts of information. This situation requires a new look at the checks and balances. The traditional means of maintaining "level playing fields" in commerce either have to be modified so that they work in the new environment or have to be replaced by better solutions. Also, new skills and talents are needed, so as to make proper use of the opportunities offered.
Regulation concerning this field should consider the following aspects, which are direct results of the fundamental societal changes caused (that truly make an Information Society):
It is the responsibility of governments and international government alliances to protect citizens from breaches of the above principles, especially in areas where other governments’ activities endanger the citizens. It is not easy to decide what national government forces can achieve in the virtual world, but clear areas for government responsibility and appropriate action include:
Electronic Commerce
[This position statement begins with a general discussion of the importance of e-commerce, followed by definitions, among which is the following.]
There is no generally accepted definition of "e-commerce." As viewed by CEPIS, e-commerce comprises all marketing and sales or free provision of goods and services of which some part is arranged via a private or a public electronic network. Typical examples are the use of chipcards for payments or for the storage and transmission of medical data, advertising and selling tangible or intangible goods and services via the Internet, placing banking and stock exchange orders via specialised nets, and connection to sundry information services on public cable nets.
[The definitions are followed by the reasoning supporting the recommendations. We print the recommendations here.]
In summary, CEPIS considers e-commerce a desirable development, given appropriate governmental and societal regulation and discipline. Specifically, the development of appropriate standards and generally accepted codes of good practice and codes of conduct are recommended. Associated with these should be the institution of competent complaint boards and other forms of assistance.
The full text of the CEPIS statement on e-commerce can be found on the Web at http://www.cepis.org/mission/ecomfull.htm .
For further information, one can contact CEPIS at the following addresses:
We regret to announce the death, on July 8, of Prof. José Cuena (ES). He was
a longtime contributor to IFIP, most recently as the chair of the Working Group on
Knowledge-Oriented Development of Applications (WG12.5) and the Spanish representative to
the Technical Committee on Artificial Intelligence (TC12). He was chair of the
International Program Committee for the Information Technology and Knowledge Systems
(IT&KNOWS) conference, which was one of the seven component conferences of IFIP
Congress ’98. At the time of his death, he was a coeditor of a book based upon that
conference (see the article). Also, until his last days, he
was actively engaged as a track chair in the preparation of IIP2000, the TC12 conference
within IFIP Congress 2000 in Beijing.
In 1998, Prof. Cuena received the IFIP Silver Core Award for his contributions to the Federation.
With José Cuena, IFIP and TC12 lose a valuable member who has contributed much to the development of the TC and to the integration of artificial intelligence in IFIP.
The IFIP Newsletter will now accept advertisements that are appropriate for this publication. The quarterly Newsletter is mailed worldwide, free of charge, to over 3000 members of the IFIP community, as well as to 44 Member society headquarters, organizers of IFIP events, and other recipients. It is also available on-line at the Web address http://www.ifip.or.at/newsletters/newsl.html.
Potential advertisers can get further details, including rates and schedule, from the IFIP Secretariat.
Seventh IFIP WG9.1 Conference on Women, Work and Computerization -- WWC 2000
8-11 June 2000, Vancouver, BC, Canada
papers due: 30 Sep 1999
contact: Deborah Kirby
IFIP--WWC 2000
c/o School of Communication
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada V5A 1S6
tel: +01 604 291.3764
fax: +01 604 291.4024
e-mail: wwc2000@sfu.ca or dkirby@sfu.ca
URL: http://www.sfu.ca/~wwc2000/
IFIP WG9.3 International Working Conference on IT at Home: Virtual Influences on
Everyday Life -- HOIT2000
28-30 Jun 2000, Wolverhampton, UK
expression of interest due: 11 Oct 1999
contact: HOIT2000@scit.wlv.ac.uk
URL: http://hoit2000.scit.wlv.ac.uk/
International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs -- ICCHP 2000
17-21 Jul 2000, Karlsruhe, Germany
abstracts due: 1 Nov 1999
contract: Joachim Klaus
Universität Karlsruhe (TH)
D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany
fax: +49-721-608-69 73 77
e-mail: joachim_klaus@ira.uka.de
URL: http://szswww.ira.uka.de/icchp2000.html
Sixteenth World Computer Congress (IFIP Congress 2000)
21-25 Aug 2000, Beijing, Chinab
papers due: 16 Jan 2000
contact: Li Xiaoming
Dept. of Computer Science and Technology
Peking University
Beijing 100871, China
tel: +86-10-62756231
fax: +86-10-62751792
Will event organizers please send calls for papers to both the IFIP Secretariat and the Newsletter editor. Note that calls cannot be listed in this column until the events have been approved by IFIP.