Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting at Crypto 2001
************************ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ************************ The IACR Board of Directors met on August 19, 2001 during Crypto 2001 in Santa Barbara. Reports were received on the final disposition of Asiacrypt 2000 and Eurocrypt 2001 and the status of Crypto 2001, Asiacrypt 2001, Eurocrypt 2002, Crypto 2002, Asiacrypt 2002, and Eurocrypt 2003. Additional reports were received on the status of the Journal of Cryptology, the IACR Newsletter, web site, and ePrint Archive, IACR membership and Secretariat issues, IACR finances, and the Asiacrypt Steering Committee. The Board accepted a final proposal to hold Eurocrypt 2003 in Warsaw, Poland with Jerzy Gawinecki as the General Chair and Eli Biham as Program Chair. The Board appointed Ueli Maurer to a three-year term as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cryptology commencing on January 1, 2002. The Board invited David Chaum to deliver the 2002 IACR Distinguished Lecture. The Board voted to appoint Greg Rose as General Chair of Crypto 2003 and Dan Boneh as Program Chair. The Board added McCurley and Wright to the committee to study issues regarding the IACR Secretariat. The committee is chaired by Clark, and has Beaver, Desmedt, and Langford as prior members. The purview of the committee was extended to include studying the IT needs of the IACR. The Board appointed a committee to consider what, if any, response should be taken by the IACR to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The committee consisted of Beaver, Clark, Desmedt, Feigenbaum, McCurley, and Wright. The Board decided to change the name of future Business Meetings to "Membership" Meetings and to take other actions to attempt to make these meetings more attractive to IACR membership. ************************ DETAILED MINUTES ************************ Board of Directors Meeting Crypto 2001 Santa Barbara 19 August 2001 Board President McCurley called the meeting to order at 10:03. Present were Balenson, Beaver, Benaloh, Berson, Cachin, Clark, Dawson, Feigenbaum, Kim, Landrock, Langford, Maurer, McCurley, Preneel, Wolfe, and Wright as well as Micky Swick who represented the IACR Secretariat. Proxies were held for Knudsen and Posch by Preneel and for Biham by McCurley. ______________________________________________________________________ McCurley asked the members of the Board to introduce themselves for the benefit of new members. The agenda for the meeting was then briefly discussed and approved. ********************************************************************** ** Minutes of the 6 May 2001 meeting were approved with a spelling correction. Motion by Preneel seconded by Landrock carried 16 to 0. ********************************************************************** ** ______________________________________________________________________ Crypto 2001 General Chair Balenson began by reporting on the status of the conference. He said that all was well, that proceedings and t-shirts had arrived in good order, and that little had changed from previous years. Balenson said that registration costs had increased $25 over the previous year (an increase of less than 5%) and had been figured based on a break-even point of 350 attendees. He said that there were 486 pre-registrants and a total of over 500 registrants expected. He also said that 11 student author stipends had been granted totaling approximately $10,000 and that 13 student non-author stipends had been granted totaling approximately $6,000. Balenson said that he expected the conference to return a surplus. Balenson then raised the issue of press credentials. He reminded the Board that he previously circulated e-mail describing Declan McCullagh's request to be issued complementary press credentials to Crypto. He said that McCullagh never pressed the issue and no resolution had been reached. Balenson also said that three Chinese delegates had been unable to get visas to attend. McCurley noted that it is IACR policy that its conferences be open to all members regardless of nationality. Feigenbaum noted that letters to the U.S. government were sometimes helpful in such cases, and McCurley added that this should be routine and that we can write to the U.S. State Department. The discussion then returned to the issue of press credentials. Benaloh asserted that there should be a consistent policy in this regard, and McCurley agreed that consistency is important. Feigenbaum added that the IACR has no need to curry favor with the press. Maurer asked why members of the press could not just show up and speak with delegates. Clark noted that the IACR rarely issues press statements or courts the press and said that he saw no reason to extend free press credentials. Feigenbaum agreed with this point, and Balenson said that this was consistent with his actions. Wright asked if a member of a student press might be granted a stipend, and Balenson said that he could consider it. Preneel noted that Eurocrypt organizers might invite the local press, and McCurley suggested a system of limited access. Maurer suggested that this issue be left to the discretion of General Chairs, and McCurley said that this seemed to be the consensus. Balenson then noted that the Secretariat's procedure of batching work caused some delays in registration confirmation and charges that, in turn, caused grief to some registrants. Desmedt arrived at this point. Wright said that she was hoping to enable electronic registration for Crypto 2002. Landrock said that he had been personally concerned about his own registration. Beaver suggested that this problem would be resolved as electronic registration becomes available. McCurley asked that the latency be bounded, and Dawson asked how long it had been. Balenson responded that no confirmations were sent before late June, and that latency thereafter was sometimes more than a week. Balenson then thanked the Board and offered specific thanks to previous General Chairs Beaver and Matt Franklin, to Treasurer Langford, and to Sally Vito and the UCSB staff. ______________________________________________________________________ Membership Secretary Beaver then reported on related issues. He began by noting that some recent technical glitches left him unable to report a total count of current membership. Beaver then said that he was looking to enable on-line registration for both consistency and convenience. He also reported that the lack of representatives from the Secretariat at "remote" conferences had caused some difficulties and that he was consulting with Micky Swick regarding the possibility of hiring a professional consultant. Swick added that the UCSB was unable to provide people to be on-site away from Santa Barbara and that she felt that an on-site presence was an important function of the Secretariat. McCurley asked Swick if she had suggestions and Swick suggested the hiring of a professional meeting organizer. Benaloh asked whether this would be instead of or in addition to the UCSB, and Swick responded that it might be as a replacement to the UCSB but that this was flexible. McCurley said that the IACR was very happy with the services provided by the UCSB, but Swick responded that she felt that the services that the UCSB could provide no longer met the needs of the IACR. Clark offered to convene a committee meeting to discuss these issues. McCurley noted that on-line registration posed a concern to some members since members could access their data when registering. Beaver responded that the IACR database was always encrypted prior to e-mailing and suggested that people be allowed to eliminate their names from the database. Swick left the meeting at this point. Cachin also left and gave his proxy to Landrock. ______________________________________________________________________ McCurley then moved to the issue of selecting an IACR Distinguished Lecturer for Crypto 2002. Berson noted receiving e-mail from Diffie apologizing for his absence. ********************************************************************** ** The Board then voted to ask David Chaum to give the 2002 IACR Distinguished Lecture. [Chaum subsequently accepted.] ********************************************************************** ** ______________________________________________________________________ Journal Editor Feigenbaum then reported on the state of the Journal. She reported that the Journal was in good shape. She said that authors, referees, and editors were sometimes slow. She indicated her view that the ideal backlog was approximately 3 issues and that there were approximately 2.5 issues currently backlogged with several additional good papers in the pipeline. Feigenbaum said that progress had been made on electronic publishing and that Springer-Verlag had agreed to give all IACR members on-line access to their "LINK" service (although it currently contained only volumes 9 through 14 of the Journal). Feigenbaum then said that 2002 would be the last of her 6 years as Journal Editor and that she would like to serve as Co-Editor with a new Editor during 2002 (much as she did with the previous Journal Editor, Gilles Brassard). Finally, she said that the Scientific Citation Index had noted an increase in citation of cryptography papers and had asked include this as a feature. Beaver observed that some papers in the pipeline for publication are available in electronic form prior to publication. McCurley responded that the concern about electronic publishing was archival and asked if we should archive electronic copies of the Journal for our own use. McCurley also asked what else should be archived. The Editor Search Committee then reported on its findings. ********************************************************************** ** The Board then voted to ask Ueli Maurer to serve a three-year term as Editor of the Journal of Cryptology from 2002 through 2004. [Maurer subsequently accepted.] ********************************************************************** ** Maurer then said that his goal was to make the Journal of Cryptology the best journal in the field and to seek the best papers in the field for publication in the Journal. ______________________________________________________________________ McCurley then reported on the status of 2001 IACR elections. He noted that this was an important election as 7 positions were open. Balenson then withdrew from the Election Committee in order to allow himself to stand for election. Berson agreed to join the committee in his place. McCurley then withdrew from the Election Committee in order to allow himself to stand for election. Wright agreed to join the committee in his place. Benaloh then noted that there might be some inconsistencies in the by-laws regarding length of terms and filling of uncompleted terms, and it was agreed that the by-laws should be studied. ______________________________________________________________________ The Board then recessed for lunch at 11:43. The Board reconvened at 12:07. ______________________________________________________________________ McCurley noted the existence of an IEEE conference on Foundations of Software Engineering which carries the same initials (FSE) as the workshop newly sponsored by the IACR. ______________________________________________________________________ McCurley then reported on planning for Eurocrypt 2003. He recalled that there had been concerns about the budget and venue at the proposed site in Warsaw, Poland. He said that the proposal had been revised and that a new and less expensive venue had been found in Warsaw with more space and many nearby hotels. ********************************************************************** ** The Board then voted to accept the Warsaw proposal for Eurocrypt 2003. Motion by Clark, seconded by Cachin, was approved 19-0. ********************************************************************** ** ______________________________________________________________________ McCurley then moved to planning for Crypto 2003 which would be presumed to be held at the usual Santa Barbara venue. ********************************************************************** ** The Board then voted to ask Greg Rose to serve as General Chair of Crypto 2003. [Rose subsequently accepted.] ********************************************************************** ** ********************************************************************** ** The Board then voted to ask Dan Boneh to serve as Program Chair of Crypto 2003. [Boneh subsequently accepted.] ********************************************************************** ** ______________________________________________________________________ Asiacrypt Steering Committee Chair Dawson then reported on the activities of the Committee. Dawson asked to clarify his understanding that the Asiacrypt Steering Committee should propose a list of potential Program Chairs for each Asiacrypt. McCurley responded that he would like the Asiacrypt Steering Committee to propose possible Program Chairs for ALL IACR conferences. Dawson asked whether the Asiacrypt Program Chair should be Asian and expressed the view that the Asiacrypt Steering Committee should not propose a Program Chair. Feigenbaum suggested that the Board accept any Program Chair proposed by the Asiacrypt Steering Committee unless it felt that the choice was unreasonable. Dawson proposed that the Asiacrypt Steering Committee suggest three names (without any ranking) for the position of Program Chair. ______________________________________________________________________ McCurley then raised the issue of copyright of IACR Proceedings. He noted that in negotiations with Springer-Verlag, copyright will continue to be kept by the IACR. He then asked for the authority to negotiate a proceedings contract similar to the contract for the Journal of Cryptology. Cachin asked that the (inaccurate) "Copyright Springer-Verlag" notice be removed in Proceedings. McCurley then said that he would ask for "LINK" access and asked the Board how this should relate to any possible CD-ROMs of IACR conference proceedings. Desmedt asked about the cost of such a CD-ROM, and Preneel expressed the view that cumulative CD-ROMs would be more valuable than CD-ROMs for individual conferences. ______________________________________________________________________ Desmedt and Kim then requested that the PKC conference receive IACR sponsorship. They said that the Public-Key Cryptography conference had been in existence since 1998 and that a fixed Steering Committee screens the submitted papers. Desmedt noted that the first four PKC conferences had been held in Asia but that there were many non-Asian authors. Desmedt also requested that IACR membership for PKC attendees be optional. McCurley then noted that the IACR Board could refuse to accept individual conference proposals and asked if PKC would utilize IACR membership services. He also asked about the process for Steering Committee membership. Desmedt responded that all PKC Steering Committee members were asked to serve by Professor Imai and noted that the IACR Board was originally unelected. McCurley then described his plans to negotiate to give Springer-Verlag exclusive short-term publication rights and non-exclusive long-term publication rights. Desmedt responded that this arrangement would be fine for PKC. Wright expressed discomfort with the proposal that PKC participants "may become IACR members". Desmedt responded that the conference is not yet stable, and Feigenbaum replied that stability is important prior to IACR sponsorship. Desmedt indicated that PKC was scientifically stable, and Beaver suggested that IACR members should not subsidize risk for non-members. Desmedt asked when conference attended should become IACR members, and Berson responded that this should take place upon sponsorship. McCurley suggested that amendments to the proposal were necessary, and Berson expressed the view that the sponsorship agreement should match the FSE agreement. Desmedt agreed to revise the proposal. Benaloh asked if there was any rush to sponsor PKC prior to 2004? Desmedt responded that he wanted PKC to be sponsored in 2003 with the IACR taking financial responsibility as of 2004. McCurley suggested waiting until the next IACR Board meeting. Desmedt said that he wanted to rush. Benaloh asked if PKC was sufficiently mature for IACR sponsorship, and both McCurley and Cachin expressed their views that it was ready. ______________________________________________________________________ Desmedt then raised the issue of paper acceptance policies for Crypto and Eurocrypt. He said that he had received complaints about conflicts of interest regarding papers submitted by students of Program Committee members and suggested that the Program Chair Guidelines include a new section on conflicts of interest. Maurer agreed to add such a section. ______________________________________________________________________ Cachin then announced that he had added a listing of sponsored workshops on the IACR web site. ______________________________________________________________________ Maurer then returned to the topic of Program Chair Guidelines. He said that the Guidelines had just undergone a substantial revision but that they could not cover everything. Feigenbaum suggested that the Guidelines not attempt to define conflicts of interest. McCurley then thanked Maurer for his work on the Guidelines. ______________________________________________________________________ Preneel then described the electronic submission software and the separate review software that had been written for Eurocrypt 2000 and expressed his willingness to have the IACR use it. McCurley asked about licensing, and Preneel asked if this could be kept informal. McCurley then noted that the IACR did not own a computer to host applications and asked if this would be useful to manage such items as conference organization, paper submissions, reviews, the IACR Newsletter, the IACR web site, the ePrint archive, and membership data. Preneel responded that he thought that a dedicated IACR machine might be useful but wasn't urgent. ______________________________________________________________________ McCurley then opened a discussion of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). He described the act, passed in 1998, the recent arrest case of Dmitry Sklyarov, and suggestions from some IACR members that the Crypto conference be moved out of the United States. He then told of having written a letter as IACR president protesting the situation. McCurley added that he had been asked if the IACR would support authors who submit papers on cryptanalysis. Berson said that the DMCA prohibits publication of methods to circumvent copy protection and indicated that moving the conference out of the U.S. would not help. Feigenbaum said that it was not clear if publication constitutes "distribution of tools for circumvention of copy protection". Wright indicated that this was a current issue that should be addressed. Clark expressed the view that the DMCA will "shake out" and noted that the IACR sponsors many non-U.S. conferences. He said that we should be prudent and establish a policy. McCurley noted that the IACR is incorporated in the U.S. and is therefore liable regardless of the conference venue. Feigenbaum asked who we are trying to protect ... authors, publishers, IACR members, directors, etc. She then said that the issues should be clarified. Desmedt suggested that the Guidelines for Program Chairs warn of these issues. McCurley indicated that the same should be true for the ePrint archive. Maurer noted that this was a national issue and asked if the IACR should comment. He added a view that the IACR must be willing to take risks. Berson said that this has a chilling effect on research. Preneel suggested informing members of our actions. Beaver indicated that the IACR's non-profit status may prohibit its taking political positions. He noted the similarities with key escrow and encryption restrictions. Feigenbaum suggested that the IACR not lobby but state its position. Beaver expressed a concern that warnings could be counterproductive. Desmedt indicated that escrow was distinct from research. Berson said that the IACR shouldn't lobby but that the DMCA does have a chilling effect. He said that some IACR members will recruit the IACR for their lobbying efforts and that we need to maintain control of the situation. Wright said that as researchers we work on both sides of cryptology -- both creating and attacking these technologies. Feigenbaum suggested creating a committee to study this. McCurley appointed a committee consisting of himself, Beaver, Clark, Desmedt, Feigenbaum, and Wright. Beaver said that our position will be that the IACR will stand its ground. Benaloh asked if this position should be expressed in public, and Beaver suggested that it should not. Cachin suggested that a statement could be placed in the Newsletter. McCurley said that he would announce at the Business Meeting that the Board is studying the issue. ______________________________________________________________________ Treasurer Langford then gave a report on IACR finances. She said that the finances of the IACR were good and that all recent conferences had returned surpluses. She recommended that IACR dues remain at $80, and that the IACR contract with Springer-Verlag had expired and needed to be renewed. Desmedt asked about the IACR's acceptance of euros, but no resolution was reached. ______________________________________________________________________ The Board then recessed at 14:23. The Board reconvened at 14:32. ______________________________________________________________________ McCurley then reported on details of Asiacrypt 2000. He said that he had been sent information from Asiacrypt 2000 General Chair Matsumoto that there had been 251 participants, with 40 students, and that there had been significant participation from the United States and Europe. He added that the conference returned no surplus despite small contributions from Initiatives in Research for Information Security and the Telecommunications Advancement Foundation. ______________________________________________________________________ Newsletter Editor Cachin then reported on the status of the Newsletter. He said that the most recent issue had been sent to 869 members and that it did not reach 36. McCurley asked if Cachin was happy with the web hosting services of Southwest Cyber Port, and Cachin responded that they seemed all right. McCurley asked what screening was done on ePrint submissions, and Cachin responded that submissions were only screened for scope. McCurley then thanked Cachin for his work on the IACR web site. ______________________________________________________________________ McCurley then delivered a report on Eurocrypt 2001 that was sent by Eurocrypt 2001 General Chair Posch. McCurley said that Posch had done a wonderful job to which there was general agreement. ______________________________________________________________________ Asiacrypt 2001 General Chair Dawson then reported on the status of the conference. He said that 33 of 153 submitted papers were accepted and that Arjen Lenstra and Brendon McKai were scheduled to give invited talks. He added that the break-even point for the conference would be in the range of 160 to 180 attendees. Clark suggested that the break-even point should be set high and that it was OK to risk some possible losses. Dawson responded that costs were low and that Springer-Verlag was subsidizing the cost of the proceedings. Balenson added that we would receive 50 copies of the proceedings from Springer-Verlag plus an additional 20 copies in exchange for giving a Springer-Verlag representative a name badge and the right to attend social events. Dawson said that the rump session was scheduled for Monday evening to leave Tuesday afternoon and evening entirely free. ______________________________________________________________________ Crypto 2002 General Chair Wright then reported on the status of the conference. She said that things would be kept similar to how they had been in the past and that she would work to enable on-line payments. McCurley suggested that Southwest Cyber Port might be able to accept payments and then inquired about the dates that were given as 18-22 August 2002. McCurley said that future conference dates needed to be submitted to the UCSB, and Balenson volunteered to write notes for Wright on his experiences as Crypto 2001 General Chair. ______________________________________________________________________ Asiacrypt 2002 General Chair Wolfe then reported on the status of the conference. He said that things were on track and that a contract had been signed to produce a gift for attendees. ______________________________________________________________________ At this point Balenson noted that measures had been taken in the event of any possible power outages during Crypto 2001. ______________________________________________________________________ At this point, Desmedt raised the issue of writing style in conference papers. Desmedt expressed the view that presentations had become mostly background material and suggested distributing a questionnaire. Wright suggested that a question during the Business Meeting could be asked of the membership in lieu of a questionnaire, and Desmedt agreed. McCurley agreed to ask about this during the Business Meeting. ______________________________________________________________________ McCurley noted that he had many copies of old IACR conference proceedings and that he wanted to distribute them. He said that he would offer them to Springer-Verlag and that if they were not accepted he would sell them "cheap" to members. ______________________________________________________________________ McCurley then raised the issue of archiving which he said needed attention. Feigenbaum expressed the view that the IACR should have electronic copies and paper copies of old Journals and Proceedings. Berson suggested that wide distribution served as effective archiving. Feigenbaum said that she had sent all electronic copies of Journal papers to Springer-Verlag. Desmedt suggested the need for a clear list of what should and should not be archived, and McCurley offered to assemble such a list. Wright expressed the view that maintaining current formats was important. Clark suggested that volunteers be sought to do electronic archiving and that there was a need to maintain all legal documents such as copyright assignment forms. McCurley suggested that the Program Chair Guidelines should include instructions for archiving papers. ______________________________________________________________________ At this point the Board discussed ideas for making the Business Meeting more attractive to the membership. Cachin suggested that the IACR Distinguished Lecturer be announced at the Business Meeting. McCurley asked Balenson to announce that forthcoming announcements would be made at the Business Meeting, and Balenson agreed to do so. Clark suggested that the name of the Business Meeting be changed to make it more appealing, and the term "Membership Meeting" was suggested. ______________________________________________________________________ Feigenbaum then raised the topic of establishing an honorary designation of "IACR Fellow". She defined a "fellow" as someone who has done both a lot of research in the area and a lot of service. Desmedt expressed the view that this community was not sufficiently coherent. Feigenbaum expressed her willingness to work to create a process. Berson noted that past discussions of this topic had been very polarized. He said that he supported it but that the general argument against it was of a democratic, egalitarian, non-elitist view. McCurley offered that some may simply not want to spend the time and effort. Desmedt suggested the alternative of "senior" memberships. Cachin expressed the view that the IACR is not large enough to support this. Feigenbaum said that she might submit a proposal to this effect. ______________________________________________________________________ Beaver then said that he believed that the IACR was developing a need for some IT support. Clark noted the existence of a committee to study membership, electronic registration, and related issues. McCurley and Wright then agreed to be added to a committee chaired by Clark to study the role of the Secretariat, and the purview of this committee was expanded to include IT issues. ______________________________________________________________________ At this point, Clark noted that this was McCurley's last Board Meeting as IACR President and gave his thanks to McCurley for his extraordinary service to the IACR. General agreement and thanks were given by the Board. ______________________________________________________________________ Items for the Business Meeting agenda were listed as the Journal report, a financial report, a report from the Membership Secretary, an election report, announcements of future conferences, a report on the Board discussions regarding the DMCA, and a straw poll regarding the content of conference talks. Balenson agreed to announce the Business Meeting as a "Membership Meeting". Additional topics for the Business Meeting were to include the possibility of announcing the next IACR Distinguished Lecturer and upcoming conference chairs, an announcement of the IACR's sponsorship of the FSE workshop, an announcement of the venue for Eurocrypt 2003, and a report on the Newsletter and ePrint archive. ______________________________________________________________________ The meeting adjourned at 15:43. ______________________________________________________________________ Respectfully submitted Josh Benaloh IACR Secretary
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