THE PRESIDENT'S PAGE

Moving Forward: ComSoc in 2006–2007

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Nim Cheung

     It is a great honor and privilege for me to serve as President of the Society in 2006 and 2007, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to write this inaugural message. During the next two years, the telecom industry is predicted to enjoy a healthy recovery after years of decline. Thanks to the leadership of my predecessor Dr. Curtis Siller and his talented team of volunteer and staff leaders, ComSoc has weathered a historical downturn and emerged as a vibrant organization. I deeply appreciate the guidance and mentoring by Curtis, and above all his humor and friendship. Under his presidency ComSoc continued to be the organization of choice for communications and related professionals throughout the world. The quality and technical contents of our publications and conferences remain unparalleled in our professional community. Curtis has spearheaded a wide range of innovations in our Society's activities. Among the numerous accomplishments that come to my mind are the creation of the CCNC, SECON, and DySPAN conferences, and CommOntology in our digital library. In the area of fiscal planning, I am glad to report that under the steady guiding hands of Curtis and his predecessors, ComSoc is expected to achieve a balanced budget for the first time in five years. Our Society is well on its way toward a solid fiscal foundation. On behalf of all ComSoc members and staff, I want to thank Curtis for a job well done.
      In this column I would like to give an overview of ComSoc's strategic directions and key initiatives over the next two years. In 1998–1999 I served as Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee under our former president Tom Plevyak. Tom and I outlined the following strategic elements for incorporation into the Society's operating plan in 1998: Increase ComSoc's membership and the size of the virtual ComSoc community.

      These strategic elements were built on top of the long established foundation of ComSoc's professional values, diverse volunteerism, and sound financial policy. It is remarkable to observe that these strategic elements are still valid and applicable today despite the dramatic changes in technologies and business climates over the past eight years.
      As I ponder over ComSoc's activities over the next two years, I am excited by the new opportunities presented to us in conferences, publications, technical activities, membership development, and society relations. The following summarizes the key directions our Society will take in these areas during the next two years. Because of space limitations, I can only give a very brief introduction and will necessarily omit many other important initiatives. We will provide you with more complete descriptions in future articles that I plan to co-author with ComSoc's vice presidents and other leaders.

Conferences

ComSoc derives the largest portion of its operating expenses from sponsoring and co-sponsoring some 50 conferences around the world. Of these, OFC-NFOEC and MILCOM have the highest attendance and revenues, primarily because of their well run trade shows and strong industry participation. In 2005 OFC acquired the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC) to strengthen its service provider programming, while MILCOM broke all records in attendance, number of papers submitted and presented, number of tutorial participants, and number of exhibitors. In 2006 and 2007, these two conferences will continue to maintain their high degree of customer focus and technical relevance.
      ComSoc's two flagship conferences, IEEE GLOBECOM and ICC, continue to do well in international and North American venues. Starting in 2006, the oversight and guidance of these two conferences will be shifted from the IEEE GLOBECOM-ICC Committee (GICC) to two newly formed committees, the IEEE GLOBECOM/ICC Management and Strategic Committee (GIMS), and IEEE GLOBECOM/ICC Technical Content Committee (GITC). GIMS is responsible for overseeing operational and management aspects, while GITC is responsible for technical program developments.
      We plan to introduce two new components to IEEE GLOBECOM 2006 in San Francisco to attract industry participation. The first is the introduction of the IEEE Communications EXPO, a mid-size trade show to serve the technical community of Silicon Valley, California, and the Pacific Rim. The second is the creation of the ACCESS '06 Telecommunications Business Forum, a multidiscipline executive forum focused on the wide range of "last mile" access technologies being pursued in our industry. Topics of the forum include technology and business issues surrounding the introduction of fiber, cable, copper, broadband over power line, and the plethora of broadband wireless access technologies.
      ComSoc will also present a wide range of exciting programs in our major conferences of INFOCOM, WCNC, NOMS, IM and PIMRC. Our highly successful INFOCOM will celebrate its 25th Anniversary in Barcelona in April 2006, an important milestone in our Society's leadership in computer communications. Over the past two years, ComSoc started three highly successful conferences: CCNC, SECON, and DySPAN. CCNC and SECON have been covered in prior President's Messages. DySPAN is a new symposium on dynamic spectrum access that brings together the technologists designing and building these novel devices with the spectrum policy community charged with re-architecting the legal environment for managing spectrum in the 21st century. During the next two years, ComSoc will continue to sponsor and co-sponsor new topical conferences to cover emerging technologies areas and address the needs of our members.

Publications

      Publications are perhaps the most visible service our society offers to our members and the technical community at large. This service is further amplified by the widespread accessibility of IEEE Xplore, IEEE's electronic database for all its publications. ComSoc's publications enjoy high rankings among all IEEE-sponsored publications and dominate the top tier of all professional publications in the field of telecommunications. In 2005 ComSoc launched the new electronic Transactions on Network and Services Management (eTNSM), and improved the publications workflow for IEEE Communications Letters and other journals, which is expected to significantly reduce production cost and publication backlog. To address the growing needs of the optical networking community, particularly in the metro and access optical networks, ComSoc will continue to incubate its JSAC Optical Communications Networks series as a three-issue JSAC Part II in 2006 and 2007.
      In a recent ComSoc membership survey, respondents pointed out that they would like to see more practical application articles in IEEE Communications Magazine. In response to this very important input, ComSoc has invited our former president Dr. Paul Green to lead a group of ComSoc leaders to create a new Design and Implementation Series in the magazine. The mission of this new series is to meet the needs of working engineers and managers for high-quality current technical and business information that is valuable to them in their jobs and careers. It will endeavor to give readers what they want in their daily professional lives. The scope of this new section embraces all the traditional technical areas that have always been covered by the magazine, plus emerging areas that are expected to be commercially viable. The group held a couple of kickoff meetings at IEEE GLOBECOM 2005 in St. Louis and plans to publish its first issue in the June to July 2006 timeframe.

Technical Activities

      Technical activities are the lifeblood of our Society. ComSoc's technical activities were centered around 20 technical committees (TCs), each covering a key technical area. In November 2005 ComSoc's Board of Governors voted to approve the creation of three new technical committees, increasing the total number of TCs to 23. The new TCs are:       These TCs started out as subcommittees under the Emerging Technology Committee's TC incubator process. Any ComSoc member can join any of these 23 TCs and participate in all the TC's technical and networking activities. We will continue to incubate new subcommittees in relevant new and emerging technical areas of interest of our members. I urge all ComSoc members to actively participate in one or more TCs in their areas of interest.
      Apart from the three new TCs, we have also created the position of Director of Standards to oversee ComSoc's standards activities and chair our Standards Board. ComSoc's Standards Board works closely with the IEEE Standards Association. In 2005 we stimulated the creation of the IEEE P1900.x series of standards for spectrum management and cognitive radio, and the IEEE P1901.x series of standards for broadband communications over power lines. Other technical activities include the management of the Distinguished Lecturer Program, Fellow evaluation program, and ComSoc's Awards Committee.

Membership Development

      Membership development is one of the most important functions of the Society. This is particularly so in the aftermath of the Internet bubble and the associated decline in the telecom industry. As a result of restructuring and realignment of the telecom industry, ComSoc suffered from a slow but steady decrease in membership since 2000. During the next two years, I will work aggressively with ComSoc's membership development and marketing team to launch major membership recruiting initiatives to reverse the trend.
      In 2005 I was invited to deliver a total of 11 Distinguished Lecturer talks in Asia, Europe, and Latin and North America regions and chapters. Apart from the stimulating technical exchanges with ComSoc members, these visits presented an excellent opportunity for me to talk to nearly 1000 ComSoc and sister society members. Through these delightful exchanges, I gained a firsthand observation of the technical and professional interests of this diverse group of professionals. While technical and professional interests vary from region to region, it is gratifying to learn that they all put a high value on the publication and conference activities sponsored by IEEE and ComSoc. I am convinced that through a well thought out marketing and recruiting plan, we will be able to recoup our lost members and recruit new members in our global technical community.

Society Relations

      An important role of ComSoc is to promote collaborative relationships with IEEE societies and councils, as well as other worldwide professional societies, thereby fostering a strong international presence. The activities in these areas are carried out under the guidance of the Society Relations Council. The council oversees the activities of the Related Societies and Sister Societies Boards.
      For several years IEEE's most rapid growth of membership, conferences, and technical activities has been in Region 10. Recently, Region 10 (Asia and Pacific) surpassed Region 6 (Western United States) in membership and became the largest region in IEEE. Dr. Mike Lightner, IEEE President, considered the expansion of IEEE activities in China and India one of IEEE's most important strategic initiatives. While ComSoc will continue to maintain and expand its relations with our sister societies around the world, we plan to work in concert with the IEEE leadership to enhance our presence in Region 10, particularly in China and India, to take advantage of the phenomenal growth of engineering activities in these two countries. ComSoc has previously established sister society relationships with the China Institute of Communications (CIC), Chinese Institute of Electronics (CIE), and Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers (IETE). We plan to build on these foundations during the next two years.
      To summarize, the IEEE Communications Society offers a wealth of technical and professional programs in meetings and conferences, publications and education, technical activities, local chapters, as well as sisters and related societies. As we embark on the recovery of the telecom industry, we are presented with a wide range of exciting technical and business opportunities that would greatly benefit our members and the technical community. Working together with our members, we would like to elevate the Society's activities to a new high, making it truly the organization of choice for communications and related professionals throughout the world.