So the feast is over. ISIT'98 is finished and we are all going back to
work. I predicted in my previous column that this symposium should be an
exceptional event. Although that was an easy prediction to make I am very
pleased to be able to conclude that I was 100 percent right and that the
symposium was a complete success. On behalf of the IT-Society I like to
express our sincere thanks to all of you who made this success possible. It
will not be possible to mention all of you, but a few names deserve to be
mentioned explicitly. First of all I like to mention the general
co-chairs, Dave Forney and Bob Gallager. I was in a position to closely
follow the preparations of the symposium and I can only say that I am
deeply impressed by the devotion and skill with which this work was carried
through. I also like to mention the two program chairs, Vince Poor and
Sergio Verdu. They had to handle a larger number of contributions than ever
before in the history of the IT-symposium. I think we all agree that the
result was just excellent. It should also be remembered that many of the
special events that occurred during this symposium were initiated by Sergio
during his term as president of the IT-Society. Those initiatives together
with the devoted contributions by all who participated - organizers,
authors, invited speakers and others - made this symposium an event that
will be long remembered.
What will happen now? We have seen 50 years of marvelous development, what
will be the activities carried through during the next 50 years?
Information theory is more vital than ever. Exciting work is going on all
over the world. However, I don't think anyone is able to even roughly guess
what will be the outcome of all these activities in a 50 year perspective.
The only prediction I dare to make is that 50 years from now the field will
still be active. There will still be exciting problems to attack and there
will still be a large number of gifted engineers and mathematicians
devoting themselves to those problems. I am pretty convinced that 50 years
from now there will again be reasons for an anniversary celebration.
Let us shift perspective. If 50 years from now the IT-Society is still
active and if the 100 year anniversary is celebrated, what will the view
be that those people taking part in that celebration will have of our
present time? What will they regard as the most important of the
events taking place right now. Also this, of course, is very difficult to
predict. Certainly their view will be very different from ours. One thing
that almost certainly will be different at that time is the form of
publication. We have already seen the first few steps in the direction
towards electronic publication. It is hard to tell exactly how this
process will develop, but personally I am fully convinced that electronic
publication will fundamentally change the way scientific results are
communicated, exchanged and stored. The IT-Society is well ahead in this
respect, with the involvement in the OPERA project and with the Digital
library. Clearly, what for us today is advanced high tech will appear very
primitive when looked back upon 50 years from now. However, I would not be
surprised if - 50 years from now - the production of the Digital library in
connection with ISIT98 will viewed as a turning point within the society
and as an important first step in its development towards an entirely new
era of scientific documentation. Some of you reading this column might get
a chance to be there to see.
The jubilee year is rapidly approaching its end and so is my term as the
society president. The present column is the last one I will write in this
capacity. It is natural that I conclude with a few personal reflections. It
has been a marvelous year with a large number of memorable events. To the
BoG, to all officers and to all of you who are involved one way or the
other in various tasks within the society, let me say that it has been a
great pleasure working with you. I like to thank you all. I knew it before,
but now I understand it even better: what makes the IT-Society unique is
the quality of the people involved. It is not only the exceptionally high
standard of the scientific contributions that makes this society special,
but also the very good spirit in which we are interacting. By January 1
1999 Ezio Biglieri will take over as the next president. Ezio, I wish you
a very pleasant term. From time to time it will be hard work, but believe
me, it will be exciting all the time. Good luck!