Nominees for President-Elect

Sorel Reisman

Position statement. Times are bad, things are tough, and we all wonder where our careers will be in the next few years. Whether we are practitioners or academics, it’s a certainty that they will be different. When you elect me president of the Computer Society, I will bring the vision, experience, and discipline necessary to lead us through these troubled times into the uncharted future.

Over the past few years, the Society has been preparing for that future. We’ve defined a new strategic plan, restructured our staff and volunteer organizations, built a new technical infrastructure, and refocused our mission to be the best “provider of technical information for the world’s computing professionals.” In my leadership roles, particularly as vice president in charge of the Electronic Products and Services Board and currently as vice president of the Publications Board, I have significantly contributed to these activities. In 2009, I received the Computer Society’s Outstanding Contribution Award from the president “For outstanding contributions and offering vision and leadership in advancing the IEEE Computer Society web design in the 21st century.”

At the recent Board of Governors meeting, I presented my white paper, “Strategic Directions for the IEEE Computer Society Publications Board,” proposing the use of our revitalized website as the platform for topic-focused, professional, social networking portals. These will be the foundation of a new membership subscription model that will give you more choices when you renew your membership. You’ll be able, via personalized, customizable, “special interest group” portals, to select/view aggregated content from our publications and conferences. Then, with rich social networking tools, you will be able to collaborate with colleagues around the world.

Regardless of where you are in your career or where you live and work, you deserve a president who cares about improving your professional life; provides you with membership options; understands your publication, education, and training needs; wants us all to be part of a vital organization; and will move us into the future. With me as president, you will have all that, and more.

Please visit www.sorelreisman.com to learn more about me, my thoughts, and my plans.

Biography. Sorel Reisman directs the international, higher education consortium, Merlot, and is a professor of information systems at California State University, Fullerton. He has held management positions at IBM, Toshiba, and EMI. He is an IEEE senior member and is the vice president in charge of the Computer Society Publications Board. Reisman has served as vice president of the Electronic Products and Services Board and as a member of the Transformation and Planning and Membership Committees.

Reisman was a member of the Publications Board; chair of the Magazines Operations Committee; editorial board member for IEEE Software; founding board member of IEEE MultiMedia and IT Professional; and author of the IT Pro column, The Ivory Tower. He is a member of the IEEE Education Society, Publication Services and Products Board, TAB Periodicals Committee, and a reviewer for Transactions on Education. Reisman has presented or published more than 50 articles and authored the books Multimedia Computing: Preparing for the 21st Century and Electronic Learning Communities—Current Issues and Best Practices. He is an advisory board member of the Merlot African Network and a liaison to the international digital library consortium, GLOBE. Reisman received a BS in electrical engineering and an MA and a PhD in computer applications from the University of Toronto.

For further information, visit www.sorelreisman.com.

Jon Rokne

Position statement. The Computer Society is facing opportunities and challenges in a number of areas.

Membership. Developing new membership benefits is a high priority in view of declining membership. This might include further incentives to attract new student members. Retaining student members as full members is also an issue that needs attention.

Accreditation. Accreditation services have been developed for the computing community by the Computer Society. I will work toward acceptance and recognition of these accreditation efforts and enlist the help of IEEE-USA in gaining government support for accreditation within the USA.

Literacy. The Computer Society can seize the opportunity to provide educational material that supports the development of increased computer literacy.

Conferences. Conferences provide the main forum for in-person member contacts and in-person exchange of technical information. They are a vital component of Computer Society activities. Maintaining the viability of the conference program is therefore a priority.

Internationalization. I consider it a priority to engage the international membership of the Computer Society more effectively in Society activities. One way of doing this would be to create online communities to discuss issues of interest to Computer Society members.

Publications. One of the main incentives for joining the Computer Society has been its publishing program. Members typically can subscribe to IEEE and Society publications at a significantly reduced cost. The CSDL and IEL electronic libraries have made individual subscription incentives of less value to many members due to institutional subscriptions. I would therefore encourage the development of new publishing initiatives that lead to member retention.

Open access. Open access has clear benefits for Computer Society members and the community in general since it results in more freely available information. The challenge is to make open access economically viable.

IEEE. I would encourage cooperation within the Technical Activities Board and with other major IEEE boards. I also advocate that the Computer Society avail itself of services offered by the IEEE when they are advantageous to the Computer Society.

An expanded discussion of these topics is found at www3.telus.net/public/jrokne/public.html.

Biography. Jon Rokne is a member of the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors, a member of the Publications Board, and a member of the Audit Committee for the Society. He is also the vice president of the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board (PSPB) and a member of the IEEE Board of Governors.

Rokne has completed two terms as vice president of publications for the IEEE Computer Society and has served as a member of PSPB, PSPB Financial Committee, and PSPB Operations Committee, also chairing a PSPB subcommittee on publications conduct.

A Computer Society Golden Core member, Rokne has served as a member of the Publications Board, chair of the Transactions Operations Committee, and chair of an ad hoc committee for ReadyNotes.

Rokne is a professor and former chair of the computer science department at the University of Calgary. He has published extensively in mathematics, including three jointly authored books. His main interests are interval analysis, global optimization, and computer graphics. Rokne has published in the areas of physically and biologically based computer simulations on leaves, auroras, ball lightning, and one jointly authored book, Light Interaction with Plants. In 2003, he organized the Pacific Graphics conference.

For further information, visit www3.telus.net/public/jrokne/public.html.