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Chairman's Newsletter April 2007 Dear Colleague, I am aware it is some time now since I last issued a
newsletter. This does not mean we have had nothing to report. It is quite the
opposite; the last year has been busier than ever with more events than we
have ever put in a single year before. It is this frenzy of activity that has
stood in the way of our normal annual newsletter. In fact, not only has the
last year been exceptionally hectic but our plans for this current 50th
jubilee year are equally packed. In the six months since last September we have planned
and delivered a massive 10 events. This is almost 100% up on the traditional
number of events delivered by the branch in the past. If you were not a part
of these events take a look at our web site to see what you have missed and
possibly catch up on some of the information through the links to presented
materials http://southwales.bcs.org/pastevents.htm
or even more important, look at our future events http://southwales.bcs.org/events.htm.
We also publish the committee minutes on the branch web site where you can
even see what we are considering for future events before they even make it
onto our future events page. If you have ideas for events then why not share
these ideas with one of the committee members and see if it can become part
of the program. While on the topic of members input to the program, we
have a jubilee event proposed that we would love to have your input to: This year is the BCS golden jubilee and the South Wales Branch
Committee, in common with other branches, wants to do something to celebrate
our 50th anniversary. We're planning
to expand the branch web site to create an electronic archive of the history
of computing in Wales. We're sure
that firms, universities, schools and individuals have all contributed to
advances in our profession and to the spread of computing. We'd like your support in creating the electronic archive. We're keen to collect, collate and
publish:
We won't have the capacity to gather and store physical media or
start a museum and we'll be tackling the project as volunteers. We are
looking for a small team to run the history project - to be the electronic
curators of the web pages and archives. We'd appreciate any offers of
assistance in collecting, collating and publishing electronic contributions.
John has said he would be more than happy chair a curator's team and work on
this project etc. if we can find the right enthusiastic people. If you are able to help then please contact John Tucker or any
other committee member with your offers of help and ideas. If we are able to get the level of input we are hoping
for we would also like to then present how this was achieved and what was
achieved in an evening presentation / workshop in September. As mentioned earlier, the programme page on our branch
website outlines a number of events we have planned for the next few months.
In case of any changes please check the emails we send to you or keep an eye
on this site to confirm the date and venue of the meetings. In particular, I
would very much like to hear from you on how we can best ensure the branch
meets the needs of its members. As an added incentive to encourage members to
arrive early and to use the opportunity to network we provide an excellent
buffet prior to the majority of our events. Within this bulletin I often bring to your attention some
of the recent significant events published by the BCS and once again I feel
there are some very noteworthy items that you may be interested in following
up. In pursuing its aim of maintaining high standards of
ethical practice within the BCS and in the field of IT generally, this Forum
will endeavour to raise professional and public awareness of the importance
of ethics in the research, development, deployment and implementation of
today's systems, by engaging and educating relevant stake holders. If you
would like to know more, follow events on the BCS pages
dedicated to this subject. Identity crisis Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in Britain.
Fraudsters are using increasingly sophisticated methods to obtain identity
information in order to impersonate their victims. oddIT: the BCS podcast Web 2.0
technology has now arrived at the BCS with the launch of its very own
podcast. In oddIT, the publishing team discuss interesting, amusing and
downright weird IT stories that have appeared in recent weeks. and last but not least Data centres are hotting up
At the inaugural meeting of the BCS
Data Centre Specialist Group (DCSG) meeting, the committee was elected and
key-note speaker Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner, spoke
about his view of the Data Centre in 2015. This article is very relevant to
the sell out event we ran at the Cardiff BT Data Centre last year and which
we are looking to repeat this year as a result of dozens of requests to do
so. My self and the rest of your committee look forward to
meeting you at our AGM and we would also be delighted if you would join the
committee and help us deliver the many exciting ideas we have for the South
Wales branch. Paul Bulmer Bsc
(Hons) CEng MBA FBCS CITP MIMMM Chairman, BCS
South Wales Branch |