The Icelandic Society for Information Processing - ISIP

The Icelandic Computer Society or as we used to call it The Icelandic Society for Information Processing (ISIP) was established in 1968. During this time the landscape of computing has changed beyond recognition. Technology has progressed to the point where computing is not limited to a few mainframe computers as was the case when the ISIP was established but is everywhere in business and in private homes. The advent of powerful networks and the Internet has opened new doors to make computing truly global and Icelandic software houses now do business world-wide with their expertise.

The membership of the ISIP covers a broad spectrum of businesses, both those that rely on information technology and various vendors in Iceland. In the fast changing world of information technology the ISIP plays a leading role in various areas. The main function today is organising conferences and lectures, co-operating in international work with other societies, publishing a bi-monthly magazine on domestic topics and running a committee dedicated to translating computing terms into Icelandic. Most of the work done for the ISIP is voluntary and yet there is no shortage of people eager to dedicate much of their spare time in the various fields the ISIP works in and the goal is set to follow a high quality standard.

Conferences and lectures have become the area in which the ISIP has lately dedicated most of its effort and attendance is growing yearly and constantly exceeding previous records with the lecturers both being Icelandic and foreign and the trend has been to focus more on the future and strategy. Gaining increasing popularity are lunch-meetings with one or two short lectures often focusing on issues under debate. The ISIP will in the future emphasise conferences and lectures even more and progress in video conference technology makes it now feasible to get experts from around the world to talk at these events without them leaving their home country.

From the very beginning the ISIP has made an effort to introduce computing terms in the native tongue, often with much success. Though the published dictionaries themselves do not sell in large numbers of copies the translated words take hold and are in general use among the public. An effort is made to translate new terms and there are very few foreign words in general use and those that write and speak in public about information technology use with hardly any exception the Icelandic words available. In February 1998 the third edition of the computing dictionary was published and in it are 5800 translations.

The ISIP takes an active part in international work and is a member of the Nordisk Data Union, NDU, and the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies, CEPIS. Among the work the ISIP has recently taken part in with CEPIS is co-operation in introducing the European Computer Driving License, ECDL. This is a joint European project giving the holder, after passing tests, a certificate of a certain level of computer proficiency and is valid throughout the Union and the European Economic Area, of which Iceland is part.

Since 1976 the ISIP has published a magazine which publishes articles and essays on a wide range of topics of information technology. The magazine, which is the oldest computing magazine published in the country, began in the humble form of a newsletter but has grown and is published bi-monthly and each edition typically contains twelve articles and is around 40 pages long. Circulation is limited to members of the ISIP but the text of the articles is also available on the magazine’s home page. Subjects cover a large area and are often in-depth articles written by leading professionals in their field in Iceland.

It goes without saying that an organization as the ISIP has constantly to review itself and adapt to changes that are faster than ever and heads towards the future with optimism. The goal in the near future is to strengthen ties with other professional organisations in Iceland in the field of information technology, to encourage the formation within the ISIP of focus groups on different fields of IT and to broaden the membership as well as to continue in the fields mentioned above, which have met with much success.