24 November 1996, Cambridge UK - The world's leading computer societies have agreed to investigate ways of making their publications and research outcomes globally accessible.

Six of the largest and most active computer societies met in Windsor, UK, last weekend to explore international cooperation in four key areas: Electronic Publishing, Networking, Legal Issues and Professional Licencing and Certification.

The 15,000-strong Australian Computer Society was represented at the meeting by the President, Tom Worthington.

He believes the computer societies are in the vanguard of organisations planning new uses of the internet and attributes this partly to the fact that they have many members working in areas which are global in scope.

In agreeing to provide global access to their various publications, the societies aim to benefit the entire IT community, with the results also made available to those societies which did not attend the meeting.

"This presents a significant challenge as it needs to address the technical, legal and security issues as part of the proposal," said Joe DeBlasi, Executive Director of ACM.

"However, we believe that sufficient work has been done within these member organisations that we have a real opportunity to develop a global program."

The Societies represented at the meeting were:

ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)

ACS (Australian Computer Society)

BCS (British Computer Society)

IPSJ (Information Processing Society of Japan)

CEPIS (Council of European Professional Informatics Societies)

GI (Gesellschaft fuer Informatik)

Mr Worthington will report on the Windsor meeting at the opening of the ACS Conference "Information Systems: Driving Radical Change" , on 3 December 1996 in Sydney. This will be followed by the Society's 30th Anniversary Gala Dinner.

This media release is located on the Web at: http://www.acs.org.au/news/global.htm

See also: "Cambridge live from a Double Decker Bus"

ENDS

Media Enquiries:

Tom Worthington, ACS President, Phone: 0374 171238 International: +44 374171238 (in UK 12-27 Nov.), Email: tomw@acslink.net.au

Caroline New, Caroline New Public Relations, Tel: +612 9630 2108, Mobile: 0411 889 456, Email: cnew@acslink.net.au