August 1996 € Volume 23 € Number 4
INFORMS Subdivisions Report
With this issue of OR/MS Today, INFORMS is initiating a series of
articles describing the activities of the various subdivisions of the Institute:
societies, sections, chapters, student chapters and fora. We hope this will
provide information to our members for choosing subdivisions in which to
become active. Most of the leadership of INFORMS started their volunteering
in subdivisions. This is a great way to get involved and make a difference
in the organization.
Conference Within a Conference
The 1996 Washington meeting served as the site for the first INFORMS "Conference
Within a Conference" sponsored by a subdivision. The College on Information
Systems (CIS) and the College on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) cooperated
to provide two days of leading-edge speakers and topics. Mike Shaw and Hasan
Pirkul organized the conference and are to be commended for a superb job.
Two hundred people registered for the mini-conference, which required paying
a special fee in addition to the INFORMS registration.
The feedback from attendees has been enthusiastic and positive. Many said
that this mini-conference was one of the most valuable activities they had
ever attended at a national conference.
Keynote speakers for the mini-conference included Bezalel Gavish (Vanderbilt),
John Little (MIT and the first president of INFORMS) and John King (UC-Irvine
and editor-in-chief of Information Systems Research). Gavish discussed
the merger of the telecommunications and computing fields and the impact
that this merger will have on society. Little presented his position on
the marketing information revolution that he sees currently taking place.
King discussed the foundations and value of understanding infrastructure
in connection with communications and information technology. In each keynote
session, the participants found many points to expand on and raise issues
about. All sessions were lively, well attended and provocative.
Shaw and Pirkul edited a proceedings for the mini-conference, which includes
all papers presented and abstracts of the panel sessions. The proceedings
were refereed, therefore, papers appearing in it can be counted toward refereed
publications for tenure committees.
This CIS and CAI cooperative effort is just one of the many valuable activities
these two subdivisions provide for their members. The College on Information
Systems, founded in 1961, publishes a regular newsletter, "MIS Interfaces,"
covering current College events, people news, calls for papers, upcoming
important conferences in the field, and a directory of member electronic
addresses. This newsletter has served as an important communication device
as well as a mechanism for bringing the information systems community together.
Starting with the fall 1996 issue, the newsletter will be modified to include
"Research-in-Progress," reports on relevant conferences and a
book review section.
Another important publication of CIS is an electronic one -- the CIS Home
Page. This site, currently under construction, will include an expanded
version of the newsletter, including extensive people news and the member
electronic address book. This information can be regularly updated and will
always be available on the Web. The URL is http://acs.tamu.edu/~sen/informs-cis.html.
CIS Activities
CIS has been active in conferences as well. The College was a founding sponsor
of ICIS, which has become the premiere academic research conference in I/S
and has sponsored ICIS doctoral students and the student reception. In addition,
the College has always sponsored sessions at national meetings and launched
and ran the highly successful Decision Support Systems (DSS) conferences
for 12 years. The DSS conferences were unique in their day as the one conference
that teamed academic state-of-the-art research with industry practice. More
recently, CIS has sponsored the WITS Conference held in conjunction the
ICIS in 1995 and will do so again in 1996. Future plans include sponsorship
of CIST. With all this experience, it is no wonder that the current "Conference
Within a Conference" was a success.
In the publishing area, CIS has also made history in launching and sponsoring
Information Systems Research, one of the premier research journals
in the field of information technology. Under the editorship of John King,
ISR is continuing to grow and evolve as does the ever-changing information
technology arena.
CIS has also served as a training ground for people who go on to higher
volunteer positions. Some of its illustrious alumni include John C. Henderson,
area editor for Management Science; William King, former president
of TIMS and founder of AIS; Jane Fedorowicz, a chair of the DSS Conference
and INFORMS Council member; David Schilling, founder and former chair of
the College on Location Analysis; Christine Bullen, former TIMS vice president
and current candidate for INFORMS vice president of Technology; and Paul
Gray, a chair of DSS and former president of TIMS.
Under the current leadership of Arun Sen (Texas A&M), the College faces
new challenges as the field of information technology becomes entangled
in the World Wide Web. The field is evolving and growing quickly, and in
ways that no one predicted. This makes this area challenging, but exciting,
and an important one to be active in these days. We look forward to many
more events and people from CIS in the headlines of the information technology
field.
CAI Focuses on Publications
The College on Artificial Intelligence, dating from 1984, has focused on
publication as a key communication vehicle for people interested in artificial
intelligence topics. The College newsletter has consistently maintained
high quality in its content and format. Each newsletter spotlights articles
in leading-edge research, upcoming conferences, calls for papers and new
books. In October, CAI published a comprehensive membership directory, including
lists of officers, special interest group chairs, international liaisons,
the advisory committee, the industrial board, the editorial board and the
complete bylaws.
The College on Artificial Intelligence has an Industrial Board made up of
people from industry who are working with artificial intelligence and the
application of its concepts. CAI officers believe that this is a critical
link between research and practice, and an important part of their value
to members.
The World Wide Web Home Page for CAI is located at http://raider.mgmt.purdue.edu/MIS/caims/caims.html.
The home page includes general information about CAI, such as membership
lists, officers, chairs of special interest groups and past newsletters.
The "Conference Within a Conference" marks the first CAI major
effort in meeting sponsorship and bodes well for the future efforts in this
arena. In the past, CAI has sponsored workshops at national meetings. In
April 1995, at the national meeting in Los Angeles, CAI held the Workshop
on Enterprise Modeling and Knowledge Management. It was well attended and
successful. Under the leadership of Mike Shaw, CAI plans to continue the
delivery of creative services to its members.
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