Steve Diamond for IEEE Division VIII Director

President’s Message: Looking Forward

Computer Magazine, December 2003

Stephen L. Diamond

DOI Bookmark: http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MC.2003.10084

What we call the beginning is often the end.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
– T.S. Eliot

My goals as IEEE Computer Society President were to strengthen four fundamental factors that ensure the Society’s ability to provide our members with high-quality products and services: an active corps of volunteers, a dedicated staff, a vibrant volunteer/staff partnership, and the financial resources to turn potential into reality. To achieve these goals, my strategy was to

• improve the effectiveness of Society operations;
• broaden our understanding of members, customers, and competitors;
• increase the involvement of volunteer leadership; and
• improve our relationship with the IEEE.

As my final report as Society president, this message is intended to review the progress we have made toward the goals I outlined in January and to brief you on the status of our strategic initiatives and activities. As 2003 comes to a close, we can look back with a sense of accomplishment in the face of a very challenging year for both the profession and the Society.

In 2004, we will continue to face significant challenges, both external and within the IEEE. Given the Society’s strong foundation and the team that you have elected to lead the Society next year, I am optimistic that we will meet those challenges.

Major New Initiatives

We continued to pursue the goals outlined in the 2001 Strategic Plan to position the Society as a “total information provider” in computing technology. The goal of the TIP initiative is to provide state-of-the-art electronic services that support computing professionals and to add value to technical information.

This year, under the leadership of Past President Willis King, we created the new Electronic Products and Services Board to increase the focus on the TIP initiative. We improved our Computer Society Digital Library by deploying a more robust Autonomy search engine, enabling users to submit more advanced search queries. We also added ACM bibliographic metadata to our indices, allowing simultaneous searching of both our CSDL and ACM content.

The Distance Learning Campus continues to be a popular member benefit. In response to member requests, courses in management skills were added to the catalog in 2003.

Thanks to the efforts of the Distance Learning Committee, chaired by Past President Jim Aylor and supported by Assistant Publisher Dick Price, the Society negotiated another continuing education member benefit with Books 24×7, a leading provider of Web-based digital technical and business reference content. In 2004, members will have access at no additional charge to 100 best-in-class online technical reference books from leading technical publishers, with the option of purchasing larger e-book packages at a greatly discounted price.

The Distance Learning and Books 24×7 programs underscore our commitment to providing members with powerful tools to advance their professional skills and knowledge.

Another component of the TIP initiative is the development of Web portals for the Society’s technical interest areas. In 2003, we deployed a new portal and content management platform to create the infrastructure for Web-based communities and to facilitate improvements to the Society’s Web site.

With the assistance of Director of Information Technology Bob Care, the Web Redesign Committee, chaired by Kathleen Swigger, is undertaking a redesign of our Web site. The first community to be built using the new platform will be the Software Engineering Portal, scheduled to launch in 2004, which is intended to help software practitioners keep abreast of developments in their field.

Other New Initiatives

We undertook several initiatives in 2003 that focused on improving the Society’s operational effectiveness. The broad scope of the Society’s TIP initiative and other operations demanded a better system for project prioritization and management. John Keaton, Manager of Research and Planning, worked with the volunteer leadership to roll out an online project management system and procedures, and we are already seeing the benefits of a more disciplined approach to developing, planning, and controlling projects.

Deployment of a Prophix-based budgeting and reporting tool has improved our financial management capabilities. The Prophix tool, which is compatible with our Oracle accounting system, will increase our effectiveness and efficiency in budgeting, reporting, and managing operations. Prophix will provide volunteer leaders and staff with the ability to monitor, analyze, and manage the Society in real time based on actual performance to plan and trends.

Under the leadership of VP of Publications Rangachar Kasturi and Publisher Angela Burgess, our publications staff and volunteers have launched four important initiatives:

• creation of a “Periodical Scorecard” with a performance summary providing clear metrics for online and print publication financials, based on measures such as usage, submissions, and citations;
• redesign of the Proceedings production workflow for improved efficiency for print and electronic production;
• reduction in the delay between transaction article submission to publication time; and
• reassessment of our current magazine portfolio in light of today’s digital publishing environment.

As part of my effort to increase the involvement of volunteer leaders in Society management, the Executive Committee participated in the initial rounds of evaluating and prioritizing the many worthwhile projects competing for Society resources. Three additional full-day meetings were added in 2003 to allow the Executive Committee more time to focus on Society management and strategic planning.

Finally, President-Elect Carl Chang and the Planning Committee are engaged in a full-scale planning effort for our SP-5 Strategic Plan. Building on previous strategic plans, the 2004 revision will define the Society’s overall direction for the next three years.

Program Area Accomplishments

Our current strategic plan directs the Society to improve its nimbleness in developing new products and to seek partnerships to enhance member services. Based upon this strategic directive, the Society launched new products and forged relationships with affiliate organizations to support its programs.

We are partnering with other societies to launch publications in two rapidly developing technical areas: IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing and the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. In 2003, we launched DS Online, the IEEE’s first official online-only journal. As an indication of its quality as a peer-reviewed e-journal, DSO will be included in both our digital library and IEEE Xplore.

Past President and current Professional Practices Committee Chair Leonard Tripp was the founder of our Certified Software Development Professional program. This year, the CSDP Training Committee, chaired by Stephen Seidman, created an online exam preparation course, which was launched in late 2003. We established a successful partnership with the Software Technology Conference to bring training and the CSDP exam to the conference site. Comarketing arrangements for CSDP were negotiated with the Computer Society of India, the Chinese Computer Federation, and the Shanghai Software Association. Almost 200 individuals took the CSDP exam in 2003, and the number of certified software professionals increased to more than 350.

The Society received a major funding commitment from Microsoft to support our undergraduate Computer Society International Design Competition, chaired by Alan Clements, through 2006. ABB also renewed its CSIDC funding commitment for another two years. CSIDC attracted twice as many team applications for the 2003 competition as for 2002.

We have continued to provide support for chapters under the direction of VP for Chapter Activities Murali Varanasi, particularly the popular Distinguished Visitors Program. VP for Technical Activities Yervant Zorian has encouraged our 42 technical councils, committees, and task forces to explore new services and extend their outreach to additional IEEE regions.

During 2003, Executive Director David Hennage and I met with several of our affiliate societies to strengthen our relationships and to develop additional markets for Society products. At the invitation of the Information Processing Society of Japan, in April I delivered a keynote address at their annual meeting in Tokyo, focused on our new Society services. We met with customers and potential customers throughout Japan to promote CSDP and our electronic Computer Society Library Subscription Plan (CSLSP-e) packages.

Under the auspices of the Awards Committee, chaired by Oscar Garcia, at the International Symposium on Autonomous Decentralized Systems in Pisa, I presented the 2001 and 2002 Tsutomu Kanai Awards, one of the Society’s most prestigious technical awards, to Alfred Z. Spector and Past President Stephen S. Yau, respectively.

In October, I gave an invited keynote address in Frankfurt at Informatik 2003, the annual meeting of Gesellschaft fuer Informatik, on major dislocations facing professional societies. We also met with representatives from GI to discuss extending our current affiliate agreement for member digital library services. Our trip included visits to the Society’s Budapest Service Center and to potential customers in the Czech Republic.

Other Accomplishments

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of Director of Administration Vi Doan and the marketing staff, CSDL subscriptions and sales of the Computer Society Library Subscription Plan for institutional subscribers continue to grow. Due to our increased emphasis on marketing to university consortia, the Society will end the year with 206 CSLSP subscribers, up nearly 30 percent from 2002.

Our Conferences and Tutorials Board, chaired by VP Christina Schober, was responsible for organizing nearly 150 Society conferences in 2003. CS Press published proceedings for 168 conferences for a total of 174 volumes and 71,282 pages.

Under the leadership of First VP for Educational Activities Deborah Scherrer, the first full public draft of “Computing CurriculumSoftware Engineering Volume” of Computing Curricula 2001 was produced and circulated for comment in September. SWEBOK Executive Editor and VP of Standards Activities Jim Moore prepared the final revisions to the 2004 Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge for publication.

To improve our understanding of our competitive environment, we conducted several surveys of members, nonmembers, and other customers to solicit their opinions on our products and services. One important survey was conducted to learn customers’ expectations for enhancements to our digital library. As a result of that feedback, we reprioritized planned improvements to the CSDL, and we will offer more personalization and other requested features in the future.

Although the global economy continues to present major challenges, we expect to achieve a small net surplus from operations for 2003 through targeted expense reductions and increased attention to revenue generation. Thanks to the efforts of the Finance Committee, chaired by Second VP for Finance and Treasurer Wolfgang Giloi; your Executive Committee; Debra Evans, Manager of Finance and Accounting; and the staff, I anticipate that our 2004 budget will also be very close to breakevendespite major pressure on our revenue streams and the $3.4 million in budgeted infrastructure charges from central IEEE.

IEEE Relations

Our efforts to improve our financial and working relationship with the central IEEE continue on several fronts, with mixed results. I initiated a dialog with the IEEE’s past, present, and future presidents to improve our communications and to search for common ground in the best interests of the Society and the IEEE. Central IEEE provided new initiative funding for DS Online, the Software Engineering Portal, and the CSDP online training course.

We continue to address other IEEE issues that will otherwise constrain the Society’s ability to deliver quality products and services to our members or will diminish our finances. In cooperation with our IEEE Division Directors, Guylaine Pollock and Jim Isaak, and Director-Elect Gene Hoffnagle, members of the Society’s Executive Committee and other key volunteers actively participate on a continuing basis in IEEE Technical Activities Board committees on publications, finance, management, and strategic planning to represent our views on key issues.

In 2003, our priority IEEE issues were proposed changes in the revenue distribution formula for the IEEE Electronic Library (IEL) and the central IEEE’s efforts to drive consolidation of Society electronic services such as our digital library and facilities. The impact of the originally proposed IEL distribution formula alone could have meant more than a $1 million reduction in the Society’s bottom line beginning in 2004 or 2005.

Through research, careful analysis, and advocacy, we have so far been able to eliminate, mitigate, or delay the impact of this and several other changes, which we believe would damage both the Society and the IEEE. But many challenges remain, requiring the Society’s leadership to be deeply involved, proactive, and vigilant within the IEEE.

Appreciation

As Society president, I work closely and on a daily basis with Past President Willis King, President-Elect Carl Chang, Executive Director David Hennage, and Associate Executive Director Anne Marie Kelly. Without such a strong, capable, and dedicated team, no president could be successful. Working with such a team, serving as your president has been a pleasure.

I am indebted to our Executive Committee and Board of Governors for their dedication and unflagging support. I want to particularly acknowledge Willis King for his wisdom, generosity, and dedication in guiding the Society over the years.

Conclusion

Finally, I am grateful for the support and contributions of our nearly 100,000 Society members, 18,000 volunteers, and the 124 staff members who partner with them. They are the real authors of our Society’s accomplishments. By improving our operations and infrastructure, expanding volunteer involvement, and reaching out to members and customers, we have built on an already strong foundation to position the Society for further accomplishment in the future.

Stephen L. Diamond is president and CEO of Picosoft Inc., a marketing, business development, strategic planning, and standards consulting firm.