News From the IFSR: Results from the Strategy Meeting Vienna, April 13, 1996

IFSR Newsletter 1996 Vol. 15 No. 3 October
In its Strategy Meeting the IFSR discussed three main issues. Arne Collen and Michael C. Jackson have summarized the discussion:
What can a member organization do to help develop IFSR?
The discussion of this questions resulted in the identification of 15 activities. They were:

  1. Contribute regularly to the IFSR Newsletter.
  2. Conduct collaborative joint research team projects with other IFSR member organizations.
  3. Organize and chair one symposium at EMCSR.
  4. Hold (Fuschl-type) Conversations with other IFSR member organizations.
  5. Provide a special issue of Systems Research.
  6. Develop and maintain part of the IFSR WWW home page with member organization information and publications.
  7. Develop a member organization WWW home page with links to the IFSR WWW site.
  8. Exchange publications and educational materials with other IFSR member organizations.
  9. Conduct on-line conferencing open to all IFSR members between the EMCSR meetings.
  10. Sponsor publication of a book series in which IFSR and its member organizations can contribute.
  11. Develop a prioritized set of problems and issues most important to the member organization and involve IFSR and other member organizations in addressing them.
  12. Host exchange visits with other IFSR membership organizations.
  13. Propose international research projects with IFSR sponsorship eligible for funding by the European Community.
  14. Develop a consensus list of interests of one’s members and make it known to IFSR and other member organizations.
  15. Develop sources of financial support and funding of member organization activities that may be useful for joint sponsorship and support with IFSR and other member organizations.

What should IFSR do to co-ordinate research among member organization?

  1. Create a list of active systems research groups in each country, obtain information from all societies on active research projects
  2. Provide short notes on particular research projects in the journal
  3. Each society to make known what is done in its country, perhaps via e-mail
  4. Editing and distributing to each society the content of research projects of all the societies
  5. Translate research papers
  6. Establish lists of subjects for practical systems research
  7. Find common points of interest for group research e.g. cities, unemployment, preservation of ecosystems, find systems research opportunities of high priority
  8. Systematize systems concepts and research
  9. Promote systems and cybernetic ideas as a catalyst for the creation of new ideas in, many disciplines
  10. Write histories about important contributions of systems research
  11. Create an electronic encyclopedia on the www, establish a repository of information
  12. Publish the dictionary edited by Charles Francois
  13. Provide updated list of IFSR members and e-mail addresses for more purpose-directed contacts
  14. Joint international projects
  15. Care about cybernetics and systems as a discipline in its own right and bring it to the fore
  16. Engage in specific collaborative projects
  17. Create opportunities of personal exchange
  18. Establish funding society for non-subsidisable projects

How to improve Systems Research and build subscriptions?

  1. Exchange advertisements with other international journals on systems and cybernetics
  2. Appoint topic sub-editors and regional sub-editors
  3. Merge other journals with Systems Research
  4. Publish an annual special methodology issue
  5. Insist every member organization must subscribe to a minimum number of copies
  6. Have special issues devoted to tutorial papers on specific subjects, more festschrifts
  7. Publish abstracts on the internet
  8. Special issue, every second year, featuring graduate student papers
  9. Allow communications between authors and referees
  10. Guest editorships rotating around the national societies
  11. Find means of translating abstracts into Japanese
  12. More frequent meetings of the editorial board of the journal
  13. More co-ordination between existing systems journals
  14. Translation of material from the Spanish language, e.g. material of the Argentine Society
| Category: IFSR NEWS