July 1, 1997 - June 30, 1998

Submitted by Peter J. Denning, Chair

1.Basic Information
2.Project Summary
3.New Strategic Publications Plan
Appendix A

1. Basic Information 1.1 Members of the Board Peter J. Denning, Chair William Arms Hal Berghel Jacques Cohen  Marvin Israel Christine Montgomery Peter Wegner Gio Wiederhold David Wise Ronald Boisvert James Cohoon Carol Hutchins Lorrie Cranor Joe Halpern July 1, 1992 - Junne 30, 1998 November, 1993 – June 30, 1998 July 1, 1994 – June 30, 1998 July 1, 1992 – June 30, 1998 July 1, 1992 – June 30, 1998 July 1, 1992 – June 30, 1998 July 1, 1994 – June 30, 1998 July 1, 1992 – June 30, 1998 November 1, 1994 – October 31, 1998 July 1, 1995 – June 30, 1998 January, 1997 – January, 1999 January, 1997 – December 31, 1999 April, 1997 – March 31, 2000 April, 1997 – March 31, 2000 1.2 Standing Committees Three standing committees are currently specified in Bylaw 14: Editorial, Planning, and Business Affairs. The Publications Board itself is handling all the policy and planning issues that used to be delegated to these committees, and has delegated to the staff the monitoring and tracking of business and financial operations. Consequently these committees are all vacant.    1.3 Ad hoc Committees A) Computing  Research Repository A Committee headed by Joe Halpern was formed to investigate how ACM might set up a preprint server, similar to what was done in the physics community. The members of this committee are: Joe Halpern, Cornell, Chair; Ron Boisvert, NIST; James Cohoon, Virginia; Jon Doyle, MIT; Ed Fox VPI&SU; Jim Gray, Microsoft; Carl Lagoze, Cornell; Bernard Lang, INRIA, France; Rebecca Lasher, Stanford; Mike Lesk, Bellcore; Steve Minton, ISI; Hermann Maurer, Graz, Austria; Andrew Odlyzko, AT&T; Michael O’Donnell, Chicago; Bernard Rous, ACM; Jerry Saltzer, MIT; Erik Sandewall, Linkoping, Sweden; Stuart Shieber, Harvard; Jeff Ullman, Stanford; Ian Whitten, Waikato, NZ. This group  engineered a partnership  between  ACM, NCSTRL, and LANL to create a 'Computing Research Repository'.  ACM is providing the leadership, access to the CS research community, and linkages with the  ACM Digital Library.  NCSTRL is providing an open protocol (Dienst) that permits internet users to access any one of a network of servers supporting the repository.  LANL is hosting the repository, allowing it to take advantage of their powerful software for submission, notification, and search. Since they also host repositories for physics and mathematics, this should form the beginning of a major interdisciplinary repository of documents. Other partners may join  the group later.  ACM and NCSTRL are Exploring possible partnerships in research to further the capabilities of the repository and create smooth pathways from it into formal publication. B) Copyright Policy Revision A Committee headed by David Wise was formed to revise the Copyright Policy to reflect the experience gained from the Digital Library and other initiatives over the past year. The other members of the Committee are: Ron Boisvert, Joe Halpern, and Barbara Simons. A draft revision was approved by the board. The final version was scheduled for release in late Summer 1998. C) Publications Board Information Director: Ron Boisvert Activities this year consisted of : developing procedures for integration into the Digital Library of articles accepted for publication in ACM journals; providing advice to staff and volunteers on technical issues related to the Digital Library; helping to maintain the ACM Publications Web Site; providing liaison between volunteer Information Directors and ACM Staff;  and informing new Editors-in-Chief and journal Information Directors about their responsibilities with respect to journal web sites.   1.4 EDITORS-IN-CHIEF An ad hoc search committee is formed every time there is an EiC vacancy, Normally, each committee includes a Publications Board member, the outgoing EiC, and at least one other person knowledgeable in the field. The (staff) Publisher of the Transactions is an ex-officio member of all EiC search committees. In the past year SIGs have been working actively with us in forming these committees and conducting the searches, much to the benefit of the transactions involved.  [ Top of page ] 2.0 Project Summary A) Journals 1. New Editors-in-Chief Appointments Jonathan Grudin (TOCHI)  9/1/97 – 8/31/00 Larry Peterson (TOCS) 7/1/98 – 6/30/01 Lynellen Perry (Crossroads) 7/1/98 – 6/30/01 Editor-in-Chief Reappointments   Peter Wegner and Marvin Israel (Surveys)  1/98 – 12/31/00 Tim Hopkins (CALGO)  7/1/97 – 6/30/00 Axel van Lamsweerde (TOSEM) 1/1/98 – 12/31/00 2. As a result of converting the journals composition to our in-house system, a number of journal issues have been delayed. Staff has indicated that all delays as a result of this conversion will be made up by the end of December 1998. As of June 30, 1998, seven of the fifteen ACM periodicals were being produced through the inhouse system. 3. In order to reduce the publications backlog for TODAES, SIGDA has provided funding for an additional 200 pages to be published in FY98.  B. Digital Library 1. The ACM Digital Library was launched. It opened  in July 1997 as a demo free and open to the world. In January 1998, it went “live” in the sense that ACM began charging for full-text access. As of the end of June 1998,  there were approximately 15,000 regular and student member subscribers. The board expects further significant growth in Digital Library subscriptions. The real test of the value of the library will be seen when members renew their subscriptions. The Board expects significant drops in subscriptions to the print versions of the transactions and journals. 2. A number of library consortia have expressed interest in access to the DL. Negotiations have been successfully concluded with the University of California consortium, Hewlett-Packard Research Libraries consortium, and the Korea Research Institute Consortium. Currently, there are discussions with nine other consortia. The Board has endorsed the general principle of widening the number of people who have access to the Digital Library by licensing to consortia and possibly aggregates.    C. ACM Press Books 1. The following titles appeared: “The year 2000 Software Problem” by C. Jones; “Internet Besieged: Countering Cyberspace Scofflaws” by D.E. Denning and P.J. Denning; “Software Process Improvement” by S. Zahran; “Wizards and Their Wonders” by C. Morgan. 2. The follow-up book to ACM97 (working title: “Talking to the Machine”) Edited by Peter J. Denning, started production. This volume will contain the ACM97 presentations, all commentaries by James Burke, photographs from the expo, a forward by ACM97 Chair Bob Metcalfe, and a set of reflections from Editor Peter Denning. Copernicus Press (an imprint of Springer-Verlag) will market it with the newly released paperback edition of Beyond Calculation.    D. Magazines The first issue of  the new SIGART Bulletin came out in December 1997. This was a collaboration between SIGART and the magazine staff to create a magazine that would be appealing to current SIGART members, and to attract new members. The issue was received very well by the SIGART membership, and the collaboration is continuing for subsequent issues.   E. PUP (Professional Update Program) The prototype module of the Professional Update Program (formerly Professional Knowledge Program) was linked to the ACM web site together with a call for comments and participation. Several proposals were received. Denning, Arms, Mandelbaum, and DeBlasi  met with the principals of UOL, Inc. (University Online, a commercial organization) to discuss possible partnerships in the distribution and marketing of PUPS. Initial market evaluations suggest that even the material in the prototype is too advanced for most beginners (the material being drawn from established technical and research literature). The PUP needs to incorporate a great deal of material for beginners, and the prototype needs to be considered “immediate”. The program will be jointly designed and managed by the Publications and Education Boards.   F. Publications/SIG Relationship The Publications Board worked with several SIGs on the naming of Editor-in-Chief search committees, and candidates. The Board solicited the input of  SIG Chairs in the pricing and access policies of the digital library. The Board also met with the SIG Chairs and clarified some issues regarding the posting of  ACM/SIG materials on servers. After consultation with the SIG Board, the Publications Board has added some key elements to the new three-year plan that will be joint SIG/Pub initiatives. One initiative is to assist SIGs that want to start Track 2 magazines to do so as expeditiously as possible. The other is to take advantage of the Digital Library  to streamline the process of starting new research journals (which don’t have to be printed, but will become sections of the digital library).   G. General lines of business being pursued 1. The Board is  pursuing new channels of distribution of the ACM books. It has directed Staff to talk with amazon.com, Springer-Verlag, and a number of international book distributors. 2. The Board has approved Staff entering into negotiations with an organization for the purpose of enhancing Computing Reviews. 3. We will be aggressively pursuing opportunities to provide publishing and Digital Library services to other nonprofit organizations. [ Top of page ] 3.0 New Strategic Publications Plan The Board has developed a draft of a new plan that addresses what directions the Digital Library and other publications services should develop in the coming years. The main categories of initiatives are: Electronic Publishing Infrastructure International Track2/SIGs PUP Licensing  Personal ACM DL Content and Services Copyright Research (Track 1) Computing Reviews View a diagram of the plan. Milestones for FY 99 include developing at least two more PKP modules, further collaboration and communication with the SIGs, and starting up at least one new magazine. [ Top of page ] APPENDIX A: Publications Board Decisions and Action Items  - FY98 All items have been completed. The Board agreed that a more explicit policy on the privacy of ACM member/customer information needed to be developed. L. Cranor volunteered to develop such a policy in conjunction with the Membership Activities Board.  Jim Cohoon to draft an FAQ regarding policies on posting of ACM/SIG material on servers, and disseminate to SIG Chairs. Denning to post his presentation on Virtual Communities on the web, and inform SIG Chairs of URL J. Cohen to speak with A. Tucker regarding Tucker’s taking on responsibility for PKP. Mandelbaum to send Publications Board URL of PKP information and solicit comments. Publications Board approved the following clarifications to the Interim Policies for Posting of  Digital Works: All SIG-sponsored proceedings are part of the ACM Digital Library SIGs can put their proceedings in their server areas (either on acm.org or another server), and regulate access. The SIG Program Coordinator must be notified of this; and the Program Coordinator will so inform other ACM units. SIGs can declare their proceedings open to members, or the world; this amounts to a unit price of $0 in the Digital Library. The individual SIG Executive Committee can set the price. If a SIG makes its proceedings open, the current year’s proceedings will go into the Digital Library immediately. SIG Newsletters cannot go into the Digital Library at least until the issues of copyright and author permissions have been resolved. The Publications Board reaffirmed the existing advertising policy, and also directed that each issue of CACM carry the policy. The Board approved ACM entering into negotiations with AIS (Association for Information Systems) for the purpose of ACM providing certain publishing and other services to them. The Board approved the expenditure  of $10,000 to the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) Committee. This is for Membership Dues and voting rights. Bernard Rous will be the representative to the Committee. The Board approved the proposal for a Preprint Server for Computer Science research purposes.  The Board approved the set of prices proposed by ACM Headquarters for the Digital Library access by members and libraries. The Board approved in principle the concept of expanding Computing Reviews by collaborating with an outside organization. The Board appointed the following Editors-in-Chief: Jonathan Grudin – TOCHI Larry Peterson – TOCS Lynellen Perry – Crossroads The Board reappointed the following Editors-in-Chief:   Peter Wegner and Marvin Israel - Surveys Tim Hopkins – CALGO Axel van Lamsweerde – TOSEM