Editorial: professional society publications

I am familiar with many of the problems and difficulties of running a large computer conference. The people who organized and ran IFIP 68 worked very hard for no tangible return and with very little recognition. One is tempted to offer congratulations and to say "well done." They deserve our thanks, and more, for the effort expended and for the results that they achieved. Yet, at the risk of being considered a boor, and perhaps as a demonstration of bad manners on my part, I wish to present a number of complaints, complaints that I know echo those of many other participants in this and other IFIP Congresses. Edinburgh is a wonderful city. They have perhaps the world's friendliest people and the world's best whisky. But one thing they do not have-they do not have adequate facilities for a conference of the size of IFIP 68. There was not a single adequate meeting hall assigned to the conference. Anyone who simply came on time to one of the popular sessions would find himself locked out. Parallel sessions were held in widely separated buildings. The conference headquarters was miles away from the lecture halls. Bus service, provided at what seemed a reasonable fee, was very inadequate. Hotel rooms were in very short supply, and some delegates were reported to be commuting from Glasgow. Prospective delegates from various parts of the world who had not preregistered but who showed up on the first day of the conference were not permitted to register on the basis that there was inadequate space, as well as inadequate copies of the proceedings. With the whole world to choose from, it would seem that the responsible IFIP committee could come up with a location at which the facilities for running an IFIP meeting would be adequate. With the whole world to choose from, the committee has scheduled the next IFIP Congress in 1971 in Ljubljana, Yugo-slavia. In the movie "The Yellow Rolls Royce" in an episode that takes place in Yugoslavia a bit of conversation goes roughly as follows: HE: We are entering Ljubljana. You can let me off right here. SHE: Wait. Is there a good hotel in this town? HE: None that you would consider good. This episode took place in 1941. Perhaps things have changed since then. If it is the purpose of the IFIP organization to hold the number of participants to a …