THE PRESIDENT'S PAGE

Society Relations: A Family Grows

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Nim Cheung
Doug Zuckerman

     This month's column provides an overview of ComSoc's Society Relations Program. I am pleased to introduce Dr. Douglas N. Zuckerman, our Vice President of Society Relations, who will tell us what is new in this program. Doug received his B.S., M.S., and Eng.Sc.D degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University in 1969, 1971, and 1976, and is an IEEE Fellow. His over 36 years of experience, mainly at Bell Labs and Telcordia Technologies, span the operations, management, and engineering of emerging networks and services.
      For over 20 years, Doug's energetic leadership across ComSoc's technical committees, conferences, publications, chapters, and Society governance has maintained focus on member interests worldwide, especially making relevant technical information widely and quickly available online and at conferences, and encouraging more member interaction in the technical committees. In the several key positions he has held on the Board of Governors, he has motivated and led organizational changes that more directly addressed the needs of members and chapters. He co-founded technical committees on Network Operations & Management and Enterprise Networking, as well as the IEEE Network Operations & Management Symposium (NOMS). Doug also serves on the important IEEE Products/Services Committee and the GLOBECOM/ICC Management/
Strategy Committee.
      His sustained contributions were recognized through the Society's Donald McLellan Meritorious Service Award, its Conference Achievement Award, the Salah Aidarous Memorial Award in Network Management, and the IEEE Third Millennium Medal.
      With this as an introduction, let us welcome Doug Zuckerman to this column.

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Once upon a time, the communications industry was much simpler than today and certainly not as global [1]. In those times, before telecom divestitures (~1984) and "The Bubble" (~2001), the IEEE and its Communications Society were the focal point for professional technical activities, almost all of which were enthusiastically supported by industry, academia, governments, and consumers. ComSoc had a North American or U.S.-centric perspective. We had conferences such as the National Telecommunications Conference (which evolved into the flagship IEEE Global Communications Conference, GLOBECOM), and Bell Labs and the Bell System dominated telecommunications research, development, deployment, and operation. The IEEE Communications Society was powerful, strong, and pretty much self-sufficient for its conferences, publications, and other activities. For many years, the "simple Society" had but 10 officers running the Society on its Board of Governors, including Vice Presidents for Technical Affairs and International Affairs, and less than a handful of directors who focused on a small number of broad-scope conferences (e.g., ICC, GLOBECOM) and publications (e.g., Transactions on Communications and Communications Magazine).
      Time marched on and, especially around the time the divestiture wave hit, ComSoc realized that it had to transform itself from a North American Society to one that was global, embracing the valuable contributions that could come from colleagues all over the world. The communications industry was rapidly expanding along with world economies, and the Bell System (slogans such as, "One System — It works!" reflected an unsuccessful attempt to stem the tide through influencing public opinion) was no longer the predominant world force as in earlier years. Diversity became key. Sharing became important for researchers, companies, and governments to succeed in the new world. During this period, ComSoc responded by establishing four Regional Directors for its major geographic regions of North America, Europe-Africa-Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Local ComSoc chapters ensured a Society presence in each of these regions. Still, they were "local," with lots of room for building synergies between the local ComSoc membership and the broader ComSoc community involved with conferences, publications, and other Society-wide activities. Notably at the same time, there were visionary efforts by ComSoc Presidents of the time (Maurizio Decina, Steve Weinstein, and Tom Plevyak) to reach out beyond our ComSoc chapters and establish "Sister Societies" with national professional societies having common interests with ComSoc. These were pursued on an ad hoc basis, typically by the ComSoc President. We had just a few agreements in place, and it was relatively easy to keep track. The first official agreement was with the Italian Sister Society, AEIT, signed on December 5, 1994, by ComSoc President Maurizio Decina.
      Then, in the years leading up to "The Bubble," ComSoc began growing in leaps and bounds. Colleagues were signing up from all over the world, and its membership and activities became truly global. Indeed, it was being called "the Global Communications Society," a phrase coined by ComSoc President Maurizio Decina. There were now many Sister Society agreements either signed or being pursued, more ComSoc chapters around the world, and as may have been expected in the new world environment, increasing "competition" for ComSoc. With expanding industry, other professional organizations and "for profit" companies with similar interests began sponsoring communications conferences, offering publications, developing standards, and providing outlets for communications professionals who in earlier years would have picked ComSoc for sure. Some of the perceived "competition" even came from other IEEE societies or the IEEE parent itself. ComSoc life was no longer simple, and it was again time to restructure. ComSoc established four Vice Presidents to focus on Technical Activities (our technical committees are here), Membership Services (home for conferences and publications), Membership Development (with regional directors and membership programs), and Society Relations — which brings us to where we are today.

Society Relations Structure

      The Society Relations area is led by the Vice President — Society Relations, with the following primary goals:
Initiate and promote relationships with IEEE societies and other professional societies worldwide, fostering a strong international presence through a community that spans Sister Societies, Chapters and Communications-related organizations worldwide.
From the ComSoc Bylaws, the Society Relations area will accomplish this through a Society Relations Council, which includes the Director of Sister Societies, Director of Related Societies, the Past President or President-Elect, IEEE Division III Director, and additional members as needed. Future President's Messages will say more, but for now, here is an overview of the Society Relations team:

Director of Sister Societies (Roberto Saracco) — Roberto and his Sister Societies Board are responsible for the oversight and management of Society relationships and agreements with similar national professional societies.

Director of Related Societies (Raouf Boutaba) — Raouf and his Related Societies Board are responsible for the oversight of Society collaborations with IEEE and other professional societies related to the field of communications worldwide.

Past President (Curtis Siller) — Curtis brings with him many years of experience in establishing relationships with sister societies and related societies as well as invaluable insight into worldwide diplomacy among communications professionals.

IEEE Division III Director (Mark Karol) — Mark, a longstanding ComSoc leader, in his role as Division III Director represents the "Communications" area in the IEEE organization and is the primary interface with IEEE, its Societies and Councils. (Note that a related ComSoc standing committee on IEEE/ComSoc Coordination, which is chaired by the VP Society Relations, further highlights the importance of ComSoc relations with IEEE, its organizational units and staff).
      In addition to the above members whose membership on the Society Relations Council is defined by the ComSoc Bylaws, there are two more important team members:

Communications Certification Committee Chair (Pierre Perra) — ComSoc recently established an ad hoc committee to investigate the worldwide industry need for IEEE certification of technical skills, and, if there was sufficient need, to develop a proposal for implementing a certification program, starting with the communications area. Our Sister Societies may have an interest in this as well.

Staff (Carole Swaim) — Carole is the glue holding all this together and who makes it all work, by managing staff support of Society Relations activities, including handling our numerous agreements, organizing sister society summits, enabling an online presence, coordinating ComSoc Sister Society and Related Society agreements with IEEE, and providing a direct interface to members involved in Society Relations activities.

Growing the Family

      The current "family" of Sister Societies is listed at http://www.comsoc.org/socstr/org/operation/socrel/societies.html with links to 18 Sister Society pages. (Earlier President's Messages have listed these specifically and provided more detailed information as well as photographs of important signing ceremonies, so it will not be repeated here [2–5].) We currently do not have an equivalent portfolio of Related Societies, although numerous ComSoc conferences and publications have one-on-one "memoranda of understanding" defining intersociety collaborations. Indeed, an important effort will be made going forward to build up our support for Related Societies activities so that it is comparable to what we have for Sister Societies.
      With the Society Relations structure in place, we now have an opportunity to truly grow the family of ComSoc, its Sister Societies, and Related Societies. How do we do this? Much of it is based on solid interpersonal relationships between top ComSoc leaders and their peers around the world. Figure 1 is a photograph of a Sister Society agreement presidential signing ceremony in Seoul, Korea, at ICC 2005.
      Efforts are afoot to establish or better utilize agreements with other Sister Societies, especially in emerging economies and developing nations throughout the world (e.g., China). Some of the benefits for being a member of a Sister Society include "member" conference registration fees, easier access to publications, presence on each Society's Web pages, and so on. It also opens up the door for collaboration on conferences, publications, invited lectures, and so on. An important aspect is to provide a real sense of "community" with our sister society colleagues. The Sister Society Web pages at www.comsoc.org help enable this, and the Sister Society Board is exploring establishment of a "piazza" for online community interactions. Publicly available services such as "frapper," which provide limited profile information on community members as well as "pins" on a map with their locations, are also helping. Also being explored is involving Sister Society members in providing and sharing information about communications technologies and their technical work online with searchable capabilities.
      While it may be relatively easy to identify Sister Societies around the world with interests similar to ComSoc's, identifying "related" societies that are not Sister Societies presents a number of challenges. It also presents bountiful opportunities. To illustrate, three years ago, ComSoc launched a new conference, the IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference, CCNC, collocating with the premier Consumer Electronics Show of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) in Las Vegas. The IEEE Consumer Electronics Society (CES) has been sponsoring the International Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE) and collaborating with the CEA. From each of their perspectives, ComSoc, CES, and CEA share interests in consumer electronics, communications, and networking. From an attendee perspective, there have already been some advantages of CCNC, ICCE, and the Consumer Electronics Show all being in Las Vegas at around the same time (e.g., a CCNC attendee could visit booths at the Consumer Electronics Show). Given the importance of this technology area, ComSoc would like to develop a stronger relationship with CES, CEA, and their associated communities, going beyond just one conference.
      To further illustrate potential benefits from reaching out, what about the hams? Although it is unlikely anyone has ever counted, many ComSoc members are also amateur radio operators (ham radio operators, also known as hams, require government licenses to go on the air). Indeed, some of us became electrical engineers involved in communications as a result of our early experiences in ham radio. There are about 500,000 hams worldwide. Hams are interested in advancing and using communications technologies, signal processing techniques that enhance use of their limited frequency spectrum, contacting other hams around the world (sometimes by bouncing signals off the moon or using ham radio satellites), contesting (also known as "radiosport"), and of course providing well organized disaster communications. Like most hobbyists, hams are motivated by personal satisfaction. Yet, because they are "communicators," they also tend to have a very strong sense of "community." Indeed, there are ham radio associations worldwide facilitating this community. For example, in the United States, the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for hams. While ComSoc members may have heard of the ARRL as the organization that is fighting Broadband over Power Line (BPL), policymaking and lobbying are but a small part of ARRL and what hams are about. The ham radio model assumes that "end users" cannot afford high dues or fees for their conferences (known as "hamfests") and publications. There is also strong involvement from the industry that produces and sells ham radio equipment, and of course there are lawyers, government officials, and policymakers also associated with this community. The ham radio model compensates for low dues through its very large membership base. Is there an opportunity here for ComSoc to consider doing more with hams and maybe even with the ARRL, or other national or international (e.g., the International Amateur Radio Union) entities, as a related society? Can we learn something from their business model that will help ComSoc increase and do more for its membership? It should be noted that top ARRL officials participated at a ComSoc conference on Dynamic Spectrum Allocation and Networking (DySPAN). Maybe the door is opening, and we can start exploring the potential.

Focus on Member Relations

Earlier in this article, we traced how ComSoc evolved in response to industry and to provide more value to the Society's members, as well as the broader community. The current structure has Chapters and Regional Directors under the VP Membership Development, and Sister and Related Societies under the VP Society Relations. A future President's Message will say more, but the ComSoc Board of Governors has approved moving to a more efficient unifying structure starting in 2008. This structure would merge the Membership Development and Society Relations areas into one consolidated area of Member Relations. The VP Member Relations would have reporting Directors for:       The expected outcome is that the new organizational structure will provide stronger support for collaborative synergies across the family of chapters, sister/related societies, and members worldwide. Indeed, many colleagues are active in both local chapters, sister societies, and even related societies; for example, a colleague in Germany may participate in the Germany chapter, VDE Sister Society, and a non-ComSoc body such as the TeleManagement Forum (and may also be a ham). Note that the ComSoc bylaws will need revision to enable the new integrated structure.
      ComSoc has progressed from a North American-centric, relatively simple organization to one that embraces global diversity as a means to provide greater value to our community in a more complex and changing world economy. This article summarized the evolution, provided a snapshot of the current state, and gave a glimpse into the future where Society Relations — and Membership Development — will provide a framework for doing even more for the growing family of communications and IT professionals worldwide.

References
[1] "The IEEE Communications Society: A Fifty Year Foundation for the Future, 1952–2002," IEEE History Center, http://www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/comsoc/sochist.html.
[2] M. Decina, "Cooperating with Sister Societies Around the Globe," Message from the President, IEEE Commun. Mag., Dec. 1995, vol. 33, no. 12, p. 4.
[3] R. de Marca and A. Gelman, "ComSoc Embraces the Globe," Message from the President, IEEE Commun. Mag., Sept. 2000,vol. 38, no. 9, pp. 9–10.
[4] C. Desmond and A. Gelman, "Society Relations: Developing Partnerships," Message from the President, IEEE Commun. Mag., Oct. 2002, vol. 40, no. 10, pp. 6–8.
[5] C. Siller and N. Cheung, "Society Relations: Looking Ahead," President's Page, IEEE Commun. Mag., March 2004, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 6–8.