History Committee

Overview: The IEEE CIS maintains a standing history committee that reports to the VP for Education. The composition of the committee for calendar year 2012 is shown in Table 1.

 Table 1. The IEEE CIS History Committee for 2012:

Mission: The charge of the history committee is to create, maintain and update a running history of the important events associated with the Society. The history center is the focus of our repository for historical records, and can be accessed at https://history.ieee-cis.sightworks.net/.

Operation: Records at the history center are open files. Any contributor can make contributions to our historical records at any time. Volunteered contributions, updates, corrections and suggestions are welcome. Contributors are encouraged to submit their suggestions to the chair of the history committee, who will present them to the committee at its next meeting. Contributions will be added to our records upon recommendation by the history committee, and approval by the administrative committee of the society.

Contents: Two types of information are currently available through links from our website:

 (1) Annual data Sheets are downloadable pdf files that encapsulate the most important events of the society in written form. Here you will find information about the administrative structure and officers of the society; members of the standing and technical committees; a listing of the conferences and conference records sponsored by the society; references for archival publications, newsletters and books; a listing of the awards and prizes made by the society; short descriptions of the most important actions taken by the administrative (AdCom) and executive (ExCom) committees; and anecdotes about actions and events of general historical interest to the membership of the IEEE CIS. Each file has a glossary, and possibly, some citations for publications mentioned in the text for that year. Table 2 is a list of currently available annual data sheets.

Table 2. Annual Data Sheets available in 2012

(2) Oral histories are either oral or video recordings of interviews with various people who have been important to the development of the Society, its aims and goals. Table 3 lists the video interviews that are currently available.

 Table 3. Oral history video interviews available in 2012

 Activities in 2012: The history committee will sponsor two events at the IEEE CIS WCCI that is will be held in Brisbane, Australia June 10-15, 2012.  We will have a history corner collocated with the IEEE CIS booth in the posters area of the conference, and will set up some stations there that visitors can use to view the oral histories listed in Table 3. And we have organized an 80 minute history panel session at the conference that will be held from 16:10 to 17:30 pm on Tuesday, June 12.  Please visit these events, and catch up on the past, the present, and the future