IP3 and Culminis Alliance Strengthens the Goal to Achieve Global IT Professional Standards

The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) was formed 50 years ago as a UNESCO consultative body.  Today it represents over a million IT practitioners in over 90 countries although its impact is much more due to formal ties with business, industry, governments, academia, media, and society internationally.

At the IFIP World Computer Congress (WCC) in 2006 in Santiago de Chile, it was decided to "initiate a vigorous program of activity to promote professionalism worldwide". An agile Taskforce was formed consisting of the Australian Computer Society (ACS), the British Computer Society (BCS), the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS), the IEEE-CS, and IFIP. The Taskforce’s first meeting was hosted by the Computer Society of South Africa (CSSA) in Cape Town in January 2007. The CSSA has since joined a growing list of other countries, including New Zealand and Japan, in applying for membership in IP3.

The Task Force, which has since adopted the name International Professional Practice Partnership (IP3), came to the conclusion at the first meeting that the time was right to:

Develop a vigorous program to promote professionalism worldwide

IFIP Council supported the vision, and a detailed proposal for establishing the program was developed. The IFIP General Assembly (GA) reviewed the Taskforce’s report at its 2007 meeting and agreed to:

• Confirm the intention for IFIP to create and launch a global IT Professional Practice Program;

• Invite the existing Taskforce members to continue its work;

• Delegate to the IFIP Executive Board the responsibility of oversight of Task Force activities until such time that an official governing body had been approved; and

• Encourage IFIP Member Societies to take an active role in helping to develop and promote the program.

Since that historic meeting in 2007, the Taskforce has accomplished a number of significant milestones.

• A professional IT standard and related accreditation policies and procedures for the assessment of members associations to award the international IT Professional designation were approved.

• In September 2008 at the IFIP World Computer Congress in Milan, the Australian Computer Society (ACS) became the first professional association to receive IP3 accreditation for its Computer Professional (CP) status.

• At that meeting, IFIP reaffirmed its position on IT professionalism by adopting the “WCC 2008 Declaration on ICT Professionalism and Competences”.

• The Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) was the second association to receive the accreditation recognition in December 2008.

IP3 has held preliminary discussions, in the hope of creating partnerships with, and receiving support from, major international bodies such as the European Commission, Seoul Accord, CEPIS, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the International Labour Organization, and the International Telecommunications Union. Steps are also being taken to engage with other major international organizations including the United Nations, UNESCO, NASSCOM and SEARCC.

Precisely because of IP3’s commitment to building the IT profession and professionalism in a vendor-neutral context, Microsoft has supported IP3’s work since 2007 and the first Chairman of IP3, British Computer Society Past-President, Charles Hughes, joined a select list of invitees to lunch with Bill Gates just before he stepped down as CEO of Microsoft. In addition, after extensive bi-lateral contacts facilitated by Microsoft, IP3 followed the lead of CIPS and joined Culminis in April 2009.

Newly appointed Chairman of IP3, Greg Lane said “I am very excited by the prospect of working with Culminis in support of our member associations to get the IP3 Professionalism message out to the extensive community of IT organizations worldwide and look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Culminis.” 

As Past Global Culminis Chairman, Stephen Ibaraki, recently remarked: “There's a whole community that is neutral, open-source, and more where our Culminis message is resonating and the Culminis alliance is making a difference… These communities are non-Microsoft and yet they are engaging, find value, and want to participate.”

Six years ago Microsoft brought together twelve influential community leaders with the objective of supporting the growth and development of the IT community. Thus, with Microsoft support, Culminis Inc. was formed one year later as a not-for-profit company dedicated to those objectives on a global basis. Having achieved the goal of establishing a global organization and as a natural next step, on October 1st, 2008 Culminis was transitioned into an organization governed by non-paid global and regional boards similar to models long established with global societies. Following this transition, by June 30th, 2009 Culminis had grown by 50% in membership, making Culminis the world’s largest not-for-profit organization of its kind. With growth as a catalyst, Culminis is undertaking a substantive new program: new improved infrastructure, new services, new portal, and new name, all in collaboration with the community and with the needs of the IT professional and community in mind.

Culminis is committed to providing no-charge services to support and connect community leaders and student IT organizations and to the free exchange of resources, ultimately elevating the status of the IT Professional both in their industry and in the community.

Recently appointed Global Culminis Chairman, Graham Jones said “On behalf of Culminis I am very pleased to endorse, support and promote the principles and goals founded in the formation of IP3. Recognition of the importance of professional standards in IT consistent with other long standing Professions and the critical role of IT Professionals in society today is long overdue. The IP3 and Culminis Alliance is an important step in supporting the goal of achieving Professionalism in IT.”

Greg Lane - Chairman, International Professional Practice Partnership- IP3

Roger Hart - CFO, International Professional Practice Partnership- IP3

Graham Jones - Chairman Culminis Global Board

Stephen Ibaraki - Past 2008/9 Culminis Chairman and a representative to the IP3 Meeting London

September 2, 2009

Contacts:

Culminis – www.culminis.com email Graham Jones (Director of Communications & Chairman Global Board) This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

IP3 Marketing and PR -  Moira de Roche This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it