Minutes of the Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting at Crypto 2003
************************ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ************************
The IACR Board of Directors met on August 17, 2003 during Crypto 2003 in
Santa Barbara.
Reports were received on the status of Crypto 2003, Asiacrypt 2003,
Eurocrypt 2004, Crypto 2004, and Asiacrypt 2004. Additional reports
were
received on IACR finances, IT issues, the status of the relationship
with Springer-Verlag, IACR elections, the Journal of Cryptology, the
IACR
Archives, and the IACR Newsletter, web site, and ePrint Archive.
The Board voted to appoint Victor Shoup as Program Chair of Crypto 2005.
The Board voted to appoint Stuart Haber as General Chair of Crypto 2005.
The Board voted to invite Whitfield Diffie to deliver the 2004 IACR
Distinguished Lecture.
The Board voted to hold Asiacrypt 2005 in Chennai (Madras), India and
appoint Pandu Rangan as General Chair.
The Board voted to appoint Bimal Roy as Program Chair for Asiacrypt
2005.
The Board voted to give preliminary approval to hold Eurocrypt 2006 in
St. Petersburg, Russia and appoint Anatoly Lebedev as General Chair.
The Board voted to give IACR sponsorship to the Cryptographic Hardware
and Embedded Systems (CHES) workshop.
************************ DETAILED MINUTES ************************
Board of Directors Meeting
Crypto 2003
Santa Barbara
17 August 2003
Board President Clark called the meeting to order at 11:01.
Present were Benaloh, Berson, Cachin, Clark, Dawson, Desmedt, Hughes,
Kim, Langford, Matsumoto, Maurer, McCurley, Preneel, and Rose as well as
Micky Swick who represented the IACR Secretariat and Chin-Laung Lei who
represented Asiacrypt 2003 General Chair Chang.
Proxies were held for Camenisch by Cachin and for Knudsen by Berson.
________________________________________________________________________
The agenda for the meeting was reviewed. It consisted of the following.
- Welcome participants - identification of proxies (Clark) (5 minutes)
- Review and approve agenda (All) (5 minutes)
- Approve Minutes from last meeting (Benaloh/Clark) (10 minutes)
- Crypto 2003 status (Rose) (5 minutes)
- Financial report (Langford) (5 minutes)
- Membership Secretary report (Beaver) (5 minutes)
- Newsletter/ePrint Archive report (Cachin) (5 minutes)
- IACR Archivist report (Orman) (5 minutes)
- Journal of Cryptology report and page budget discussion (Maurer) (10
minutes)
- 2003 Election Committee Update (Hughes, Preneel, Wright) (5 minutes)
- Eurocrypt 2003 status (Gawinecki) (5 minutes)
- Asiacrypt 2003 status (Chang) (5 minutes)
- Crypto 2004 status (Hughes) (5 minutes)
- Asiacrypt 2004 status (Kim) (5 minutes)
- Program and General Chair List Maintenance (Benaloh) (10 minutes)
- Crypto 2005 General Chair Appointment (Clark) (5 minutes)
- Crypto 2005 Program Chair Appointment (Clark) (20 minutes)
- Asiacrypt 2005 Discussion (C. Pandu Rangan) (15 minutes)
- Asiacrypt 2005 Program Chair Appointment (Clark) (20 minutes)
- IT strategy and conference registration (McCurley) (20 minutes)
- Proposal from CHES Steering Committee for IACR Sponsorship (Preneel)
(20 minutes)
- Proposal to hold Eurocrypt 2006 in St. Petersburg (Anatoly Lebedev)
(20 minutes)
- Eurocrypt 2006 proposal discussion (Clark) (15 minutes)
- Springer-Verlag status (Clark) (5 minutes)
- Discussion on Parallel Sessions (Desmedt) (20 minutes)
- Other Business (Clark) (no more than 60 minutes)
- Draft agenda for Membership Meeting (All) (10 minutes)
- Review of action items
________________________________________________________________________
Clark began by welcoming the Board and indicating his intent to
concentrate efforts during the meeting on "heavy-duty" items.
________________________________________________________________________
Crypto 2003 General Chair Rose then reported on the status of the
conference (appended report circulated by email).
After reporting on the status of his broken leg, he said that the
conference details were proceeding smoothly. He indicated that the
registration
count was 410 as of Aug. 15 (with an additional 13-15 accompanying
persons) and that 442 proceedings and t-shirts had been ordered. Rose
added
that the break-even point for this conference had been reduced to 300
delegates and that a surplus of $20-25 thousand was expected.
Rose noted that the Program Committee meeting had been held in New York,
that 74 student discounts had been given, and that 8-9 refund requests
had been received due to inability to obtain visas.
Rose added that the BoF (Birds of a Feather) sessions were a new
innovation.
Wright arrived at 11:10.
Rose said that minor adjustments had been made to catering and alcohol
and that the t-shirt included a puzzle.
________________________________________________________________________
Treasurer Langford then addressed issues relating to a financial report
which had been circulated in advance of the meeting (appended report
circulated by email).
She said that there were as yet no final numbers from Eurocrypt 2003.
McCurley asked if there had been any changes in costs for the IACR
Secretariat and Langford responded that there had not been.
Clark said that he intended to reduce the burden on the Secretariat
through IT strategy, and Swick said that she would like a more formal
relationship.
Rose asked if the on-line registration form had helped, and Swick
responded that it had with the exception of credit cards. Clark then
took the
action item of reviewing the IT strategy with Swick.
McCurley asked whether Springer-Verlag had been prompt in its billing,
and Langford responded that there had been no changes.
________________________________________________________________________
The Membership Secretary report was cancelled due to Beaver's absence.
Clark took the action item of contacting Beaver.
________________________________________________________________________
Newsletter Editor Cachin then addressed issues relating to a status
report which had been circulated in advance of the meeting (appended
report circulated by email).
Clark noted the potential need to begin a review process for the ePrint
Archive, and Cachin responded that a growing number of poor submissions
was resulting in a larger number of rejections.
Clark asked that Cachin let the Board know if difficulties arose, and
Cachin replied that he would be meeting soon with Mihir Bellare to
discuss editorial policy.
Desmedt suggested that there should be no refereeing of the Archive.
McCurley asked if Cachin had had any problems with web site hosting, and
Cachin responded that he had not.
________________________________________________________________________
The Archivist report was delayed to accommodate the late arrival of
Archivist Orman.
________________________________________________________________________
Journal of Cryptology Editor-in-Chief Maurer then addressed issues
relating to a status report which had been circulated in advance of the
meeting.
Clark began by noting the new contract with Springer-Verlag that had
been circulated by McCurley.
Maurer then noted that there had been fluctuations in the length of the
Journal queue. He asked if it made sense to publish 100-page papers and
said that he had decided to include paper length among the evaluation
criteria. He also asked if it would be possible to allocate additional
pages as he expressed his desire for greater flexibility in this regard.
Clark noted that the contract with Springer-Verlag had been extended for
5 years, and Langford noted that in the past premiums had been paid for
special issues.
Berson noted that the Journal costs members roughly $20 per issue and
asked whether members would want to pay $20 for a single paper.
Clark took the action of discussing a reduction in price with
Springer-Verlag, and Maurer asked if Springer-Verlag could afford this.
Desmedt asserted that Springer-Verlag rates were very reasonable when
compared to those of other publishers.
Langford noted that the Journal cost may not grow linearly with the
number of pages.
McCurley asked who was officially responsible for the Springer-Verlag
contract, and Clark accepted responsibility.
Wright supported paying more to publish high-quality papers and asked
for a sense of the Board, and Maurer said that a higher average page
count would be desirable since it would be difficult to reject
high-quality papers because of length.
Preneel offered his trust in Maurer's judgment and saw no reason to
force papers to be artificially split.
Berson suggested that an occasional long issue for an important paper
would be great as it would show IACR support for good research, and
there was general agreement with this sense.
________________________________________________________________________
An Election Committee report was then given by Committee Member Wright.
Hughes served as Chair of the Committee and Preneel served as Returning
Officer.
Wright said that nomination forms had been prepared and that Hughes had
both hard copy and .PDF format available. She noted that the terms of
Directors Berson, Desmedt, and Knudsen were expiring.
Clark noted that mailing of ballots had been a problem the previous year
and asked that Micky Swick take an action item to check on this.
________________________________________________________________________
The report on Eurocrypt 2003 was postponed due to the absence of General
Chair Gawinecki.
Clark noted that it had been an excellent conference.
________________________________________________________________________
Chin-Laung Lei then presented a status report on Asiacrypt 2003 as a
proxy for General Chair Chang.
He said that there had been 188 submissions from 26 countries and that
36 papers had been accepted.
Lei said that registration of 122 had been set as a break-even point,
but various sponsorships had reduced the break-even point to
approximately 100 attendees. He estimated that total attendance of 150
full registrations plus 50 student registrations would produce a surplus
of roughly $10,000.
Lei said that a planned city tour would include a museum in Taipei. He
also said that hotels priced at approximately $130-140 were about a ten
minute walk from the conference venue and that student alternatives were
available for about $40. He added that regular registration had been
set at $400 and student registration had been set at $200. Finally, he
noted that the Taiwan government would provide assistance to locals
attending a domestic conference.
Desmedt asked if the conference was being promoted, and McCurley
suggested that the Asiacrypt Steering Committee promote the conference
through local groups.
McCurley then asked if payments in U.S. dollars were a problem, and Kim
replied that they were not a problem.
________________________________________________________________________
The Board recessed for a break at 12:03.
The Board reconvened at 12:10.
________________________________________________________________________
Eurocrypt 2004 Program Chair Cachin then reported on the status of the
conference.
He said that the budget had been revised due to its heavy reliance on
the U.S. dollar exchange rate. He added that the break-even point had
been reduced and that sponsorship for food had been obtained.
Cachin said that two excursion options had been planned (for an
additional fee): one to the Swiss Heritage Museum and another to the
Mystery Park.
Clark thanked Cachin for his flexibility and asked if there had been any
legal issues.
Cachin said that there were no issues and noted that the Board Meeting
would take place either in the Villa Europe or the Hotel Interlaken.
McCurley said that he would prefer that there be a single excursion so
as not to divide the group.
Dawson asked about hotel costs, and Cachin replied that three star
hotels were approximately $80-100 and four star hotels were
approximately $130.
Desmedt asked if there were less expensive hotels for students, and
Cachin replied that there were.
________________________________________________________________________
McCurley asked to revise the agenda to advance the Information
Technology discussion to 13:00 to make it easier for Micky Swick.
________________________________________________________________________
General Chair Hughes then said that he had nothing to report on Crypto
2004.
When asked about the dates, Swick said that UCSB could not schedule
space definitively at that time but that August 15-19 was tentatively
set.
Preneel suggested that an earlier commitment to dates be made -- even if
facilities had not been confirmed.
________________________________________________________________________
Asiacrypt 2004 General Chair Kim then reported on the status of the
conference.
Kim said that the conference had been scheduled for December 5-9, 2004
on Jeju Island, Korea. He added that a contract had been signed with a
hotel and that a hosting agency would be selected. He also said that he
would seek sponsorship for the conference and that he would have a Call
for Papers and web page ready for Asiacrypt 2003. He added that it
would be more convenient to work in Korean currency.
________________________________________________________________________
The Board recessed for lunch at 12:30.
The Board reconvened at 13:00 at which point Biham arrived.
________________________________________________________________________
The Board then spent time on maintenance of its list of prospective
general and program chairs.
________________________________________________________________________
McCurley then reported on Information Technology issues.
He noted numerous items that fall under the purview of IT including the
Membership Database, Web site and Newsletter hosting, the ePrint Server,
conference management (including registration, announcements, program
committee support), archives, and election management.
McCurley stated that the business and service case for a dedicated IACR
machine. He said that the services received from the IACR Secretariat
are good but are expensive due to their labor intensiveness. He also
said that taking over IT responsibilities would enable electronic
registration, allow use of local currencies, and reduce the load on the
Secretariat with increasing numbers of IACR-sponsored meetings.
McCurley described the goals as improving database maintenance,
improving communication and service, enabling electronic registration
and credit cared payments, and reducing costs.
McCurley indicated that the options for conference registration were to
maintain the status quo, to set up a new system with off-the-shelf
software, to hire a developer, or to do the development ourselves. He
added that the UCSB would be moving towards electronic registration but
that it was a low priority for them which had led to many problems.
Orman arrived at this point.
McCurley proposed that a dedicated IACR machine be procured and
installed by 9/2003, that database migration be completed by 10/2003,
and that electronic payment for Eurocrypt be enabled by 1/2004.
McCurley noted several outstanding issues which included the database
migration, banking, system maintenance, development work, and whether to
include a new web server or maintain the current machine at Southwest
Cyber Port.
Clark agreed to solicit one or more partners to work with McCurley, and
Rose offered to help. Cachin suggested another person who might be
willing to assist. Clark also agreed to investigate the availability of
multi-currency standardization accounts outside of the U.S.
Micky Swick said that the UCSB would not be able to work with non-U.S.
banks and noted that the needs of the IACR had outgrown and diverged
from the support available from UCSB.
Clark said that he would like to begin by relieving the UCSB of specific
functions (e.g. banking) and reducing the work load through IT
improvements. Swick said that she thought this would help.
Clark then thanked McCurley for his work and suggested planning for
electronic payments for the next Eurocrypt.
Desmedt expressed the view that lower costs should be paramount and that
electronic voting is dangerous.
Cachin noted that currency exchange costs are high, and Langford
asserted that removing currency exchange is very desirable.
Clark assigned the action of completing the IT plan within a month.
McCurley suggested starting with database migration.
Maurer expressed the view that finding people to take ownership is
crucial. Rose replied that he believed that the IACR was outgrowing
volunteer labor as it began to sponsor more workshops and suggested that
it might be time to hire a full-time manager.
________________________________________________________________________
************************************************************************
The Board voted to ask Victor Shoup to serve as General Chair for Crypto
2004.
************************************************************************
[Shoup subsequently agreed to serve in this role.]
************************************************************************
The Board voted to ask Stuart Haber to serve as Program Chair for Crypto
2004.
************************************************************************
[Haber subsequently agreed to serve in this role.]
________________________________________________________________________
Pandu Rangan then presented a proposal (as recommended by the Asiacrypt
Steering Committee) to hold Asiacrypt 2005 in Chennai (Madras), India.
The proposed venue would be the Hotel Taj Coromandai and dates would be
December 4-8, 2005.
The estimated hotel price would be about $160 per night but might be
reduced through negotiation by 25-30%. Student hotels would be
available at
$30-60 per night, and dorms would be available at $5 per night.
________________________________________________________________________
The Board then recessed for a break at 14:13.
The Board reconvened at 14:20.
________________________________________________________________________
************************************************************************
The Board voted to approve the proposal to hold Asiacrypt 2005 in
Chennai, India with Pandu Rangan as General Chair.
************************************************************************
************************************************************************
The Board voted to ask Bimal Roy to serve as Program Chair for Asiacrypt
2005.
************************************************************************
________________________________________________________________________
Anatoly Lebedev then presented a proposal to hold Eurocrypt 2006 in St.
Petersburg either the last week of April or in mid June.
Quisquater arrived at this point.
************************************************************************
The Board voted to approve the proposal to hold Eurocrypt 2006 in St.
Petersburg, Russia with Anatoly Lebedev as General Chair subject to
budget and scheduling agreement with the Board.
************************************************************************
________________________________________________________________________
IACR Archivist Orman circulated a report by email (appended).
She said that she was in the process of building a collection of past
IACR proceedings.
McCurley suggested that providing proceedings to the Archivist should be
added to the Program Chair Guidelines and the process be raised at the
Membership Meeting. Cachin took responsibility for contacting Knudsen
to have this added to the Guidelines.
________________________________________________________________________
Clark then reported on the status of relations with Springer-Verlag.
Clark said that the Springer-Verlag Link service had been impaired by
the recent Springer-Verlag change of ownership. Cachin expressed
concerns
about this change resulting in pricing changes. Desmedt expressed a
desire to have IACR proceedings included in the Link service.
________________________________________________________________________
Rose departed and gave his proxy to Langford.
________________________________________________________________________
The Board then recessed for a break at 15:16.
The Board reconvened at 15:22.
________________________________________________________________________
Clark then began to compile a list of items for the Membership Meeting.
The list included the expected change in operation of the IACR database,
information about the Archivist, and the "usual" announcements.
________________________________________________________________________
Desmedt then raised the issue of having parallel sessions in IACR
conferences.
Clark expressed the view that it was time to try something different.
He said that it might be best tried at Eurocrypt rather than Crypto.
Dawson expressed his support for parallel sessions.
Clark asked if Program Chairs wanted to accept more papers, and Biham
responded that he did not.
Langford expressed the view that Program Chairs should have the final
say in this matter, but Clark responded that most Program Chairs assume
that this is not an option.
Cachin questioned whether more accepted papers would increase
attendance.
Desmedt said that he wanted flexibility to be given to Program Chairs.
Berson began by expressing Knudsen's proxy in opposition to parallel
sessions. He then said that it was fine to be experimental but voiced
concerns about the economic impact since proceedings costs are
proportional to the number of pages.
Benaloh described multiple concerns including quality of papers,
logistic difficulties, and clear opposition from the membership. He
also expressed the concern that the suggestion of partial
parallelization would disadvantage those sub-areas which were selected
to be presented simultaneously with other sub-areas.
Wright expressed a liking for experimentation but opposition to parallel
sessions. She said that other conferences should not be viewed as
competition.
McCurley said that he would prefer to have multiple conferences at the
same site and noted that concurrent conferences can work. Maurer agreed
that co-locating conferences makes sense and suggested that the issue
might be providing service to the community versus service to authors.
Preneel suggested that expansion causes competition which is not
necessarily good for the community.
Hughes noted that those delegates who currently attend all sessions
would be unhappy with parallel sessions and voiced the opinion that
quality is an asset that should not be surrendered.
Orman expressed support for experimentation with parallel sessions as
did Dawson.
Preneel suggested the alternative of additional workshops after Crypto.
Cachin expressed the view that if something were to be changed, it
should not be increasing the number of papers. He suggested the
alternative of an expanded and/or parallel rump session.
Clark then said that valid points had been made on both sides and
expressed the view that impetus for change should come from the Program
Chairs. He then asked what should be done next.
Desmedt asked that a message should be given to Program and General
Chairs offering them the option of parallel sessions.
Wright asked what was in the Program and General Chair Guidelines.
Cachin indicated that some changes could be contemplated for Eurocrypt
2004.
McCurley suggested the possibility of giving Program Chairs tacit
approval to experiment with parallel sessions.
Desmedt noted that some conferences die due to competition.
________________________________________________________________________
Quisquater then presented a proposal for IACR to sponsor the
Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems (CHES) workshop. (A
proposal was distributed in advance.)
Clark began by asking why CHES sought IACR sponsorship. Quisquater
responded by highlighting management of copyrights and avoiding
fragmentation within the community.
Wright noted that registration fees for CHES had increased
substantially. Quisquater replied that venues had become more expensive
and sponsorships had been reduced.
McCurley asked about the scope of CHES. Quisquater answered that the
scope varies. He said that originally there had been no papers on
hardware cryptanalysis but that more recent papers included
cryptographic hardware, efficient software implementations, and side
channel issues.
Dawson asked how the workshops surplus and risk were to be managed.
Quisquater responded that financial responsibility was to be negotiated
for 2005 and beyond.
Clark asked when sponsorship was proposed to begin. Quisquater replied
that sponsorship would begin in 2004 with financial responsibility
taking effect in 2005.
Berson expressed a concern that IACR resources were being stretched and
noted that copyright could be managed without full sponsorship. Clark
concurred with Berson and then noted Knudsen's proxy saying that the
CHES attendance was impressive but that he was concerned about IACR
taking on financial management.
Cachin suggested the possibility of delaying further growth of IACR.
Maurer expressed the view that IACR should try to attract established
conferences and should look to increase its support capabilities.
Benaloh suggested that CHES seemed strong but that a moratorium on
further growth might be prudent.
Desmedt asserted that CHES is strong.
Orman suggested that a financial impact statement would be helpful.
Dawson expressed a desire for better Board control.
Langford noted that resources are stretched substantially at present.
Clark said that he didn't feel that the proposed level of support was
possible with the extent infrastructure.
Preneel suggested that the IACR is at a point where re-organization of
the Board may be required.
Wright suggested that this opportunity should not be lost.
McCurley said that managing copyright should provide an easy short-term
solution.
************************************************************************
The Board then voted to make CHES an IACR-sponsored workshop with
financial responsibility commencing in 2005 and IACR membership for
delegates commencing in 2004. The motion was made by Benaloh and
seconded by Maurer and carried 12-3.
************************************************************************
________________________________________________________________________
************************************************************************
The Board then voted to ask Whitfield Diffie to deliver the 2004 IACR
Distinguished Lecture at Asiacrypt.
************************************************************************
________________________________________________________________________
An agenda for the Membership Meeting was then assembled. Topics
included the IACR membership list going to an electronic format,
upcoming IACR elections, sponsorship of CHES together with an
announcement that no additional workshops would be considered for IACR
sponsorship in the immediate future, solicitation of nominations for
IACR Fellows, and information on the IACR Archive.
________________________________________________________________________
Clark then asked for other business.
Cachin suggested that awards be given at conference banquets rather than
during Membership Meetings.
McCurley suggested that IACR workshops be encouraged to co-locate
sequentially with Crypto or Eurocrypt.
Wright solicited nominations for the upcoming IACR elections.
Matsumoto suggested establishing a better method to select Eurocrypt
venues.
Dawson suggested that the IACR co-ordinate between Program Chairs to
facilitate identification of multiple submissions.
Clark noted receiving a cold call from a conference coordinator offering
Glasgow as a Eurocrypt venue.
________________________________________________________________________
The meeting adjourned at 17:13.
________________________________________________________________________
Respectfully submitted
Josh Benaloh
IACR Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
Attachments
________________________________________________________________________
Preliminary Report on Crypto 2003
Greg Rose
Crypto 2003 General Chair
9-Aug-2003
It's going to be a great conference!
At the time of writing, one week out, we're about to hit 400 attendees.
Just before Eurocrypt, I rebudgeted to take into account my panic over
SARS and homicidal dictators (not naming names here) to aim for a
break-even of 325 and expected attendance of about 350, so 400 is
actually a very comfortable result, down (only) about 10% from the
previous year. (We still look good compared to some other organizations,
particularly USENIX. I had originally budgeted for a slight increase
over 2002 attendance.) I expect to return a surplus of $20-25k.
Organizationally, Sally/Eriko/Joe have been very easy to deal with. For
a short while we fell a bit behind with processing registrations, mostly
because Joe got sick, and had lots of queries about that, but no
long-term disasters. Having the "poor man's electronic registration
form" on the web did apparently help with processing registrations more
quickly and accurately. We only did a single mailout of a single sheet
registration form, pointing to the web site for more information.
Christian has been great with updating the web site and reminding me
when to swear at Microsoft for stuffing up the formatting.
The program committee meeting was held in New York, and the biggest
single expense was a dinner. Dan Boneh has been good and easy to work
with generally.
I gave out 7 full student stipends (all foreigners but one is coming
from MIT), 5 partial stipends (registration and accommodation only), and
an "unemployed stipend" (special deal on registration and free
accomodation). I made a small effort to get sponsorships for some of
these, but got such a lack of interest that I gave up in favour of
putting my effort into managing expenses. We issued about 10 "invitation
letters" to people needing visas, and had to process one refund caused
by the US government refusing to issue a visa in time (note; not
refusing to issue it, just refusing to issue promptly). Next year the
web site should say something about needing to apply early. I wouldn't
be surprised if a few more people get caught. (I'm sensitised to visa
issues at the moment.)
I've made a couple of smallish innovations: the principal one is having
some Birds of a Feather sessions on Tuesday afternoon. The others mostly
have to do with alcohol. The t-shirt design is intentionally obscure,
but yes, there is a point to it, and no, I'm not going to tell anyone
what it is.
regards,
Greg.
________________________________________________________________________
Treasurer's Report
Susan Langford
14-Aug-2003
As of December 31, 2002, the IACR had $206,000 held in certificates of
deposit, approximately $279,000 held in the main IACR and Crypto
checking accounts, and approximately $140,000 at UCSB. Of these amounts
about $90,000 were due from 2001 expenses and $230,000 is already set
aside for specific expenditures in 2003 (including the journal and
projected losses from Eurocrypt 2003), leaving about $305,000 as the
true surplus.
2002 Conferences
Total Income Membership Secretariat
Surplus
Eurocrypt $224,000 $32,000 $10,000
$23,000
Crypto $217,000 $25,000 $10,000
$17,000
Asiacrypt $70,000 $6,000 $0
-$15,000
The Crypto income does not include on campus housing.
In 2003, low attendance and currency fluctuations caused a significant
loss at Eurocrypt 2003. However, attendance at Crypto 2003 looks good,
and we expect a small surplus. We will continue to budget conferences
conservatively and to control costs.
Cash in the IACR accounts as of July 31, 2003 was approximately
$472,000. Note that this number does not include money held by UCSB.
Susan Langford
IACR Treasurer
________________________________________________________________________
Report of the Archivist
Hilarie Orman
14-Aug-2003
The only new item added recently is the Crypto 2003 proceedings. I
would like to add the Eurocrypt 2003 and 2001 papers, but I have been
unable to get responses from the program chairs. The same is true for
FSE 2003 and 2002.
I suggest that instructions to program chairs include providing the
Archivist with a tarball of the papers as submitted to Springer. Most
chairs have done this by putting the compressed tar file on a web server
for one day and letting the archivist know the URL. FTP is preferable,
if available.
I can also archive paper, such as the author's copyright release forms,
if they are given to me. The paper gets photographed and included in
the electronic archive.
Items in the archive (on CDs and on disk)
Crypto 96
10 papers, a mix of tex and ps files
Conference had 30 papers (they are on the 20 year CD) Crypto 97
9 papers, a mix of tex and ps
Conference had 37 papers (they are on the 20 year CD) Crypto 98
17 papers, a mix of tex and ps
Proceedings list 33 papers
Crypto 99
39 papers, ps for all, tex for 32
Proceedings list 39 papers
Crypto 00
Complete papers (tex and ps)
Crypto 01
Complete papers
Crypto 02
Complete papers
Digital photos of all signed copyright forms from authors (high res
jpg's)
(the original paper forms are also in archivist's possession) Crypto
03
Complete papers
Eurocrypt 00
Complete papers
Eurocrypt 01
Nothing
Eurocrypt 02
Complete papers
Asiacrypt 02
Complete papers
Eurocrypt 03
Digital photocopy of Power of Attorney form
PKC 98
Complete papers
PKC 99
Complete papers
PKC 00
Complete ps for papers, some tex
PKC 01
All papers, low-quality pdf only
FSE 02
Nothing
FSE 03
Nothing
Hilarie Orman
IACR Archivist
________________________________________________________________________
Report of the Newsletter Editor
Christian Cachin
14-Aug-03
My position as IACR Newsletter Editor involves two things: the
Newsletter and the website. In addition, I am reporting on the
cryptology eprint archive.
The Newsletter has been running smoothly, and I have managed to send
three issues per year since I took up as editor (in February, June, and
October).
See the back issues at http://www.iacr.org/newsletter/ However, personal
and work commitments have prevented me in 2003 from completing the June
issue so far -- a delay for which I'd like to apologize to our
membership. I hope to complete the "Summer" issue still in August 2003.
Because of the involved work, I have also contemplated to produce only
two Newsletter issues per year in the future (as was the schedule of the
printed Newsletter). Most of the information appears in a timely
fashion on the website, anyway.
On the web site, only evolutionary changes have happened, but Kevin and
I have made progress on implementing the new IT strategy with IACR's own
server.
Regarding the eprint archive, which has posted 166 papers to this date
in 2003, some things have changed. Most importantly, we are receiving
more and more low- and very-low-quality submissions, which appear to be
typically from beginner students or amateurs, typically from India or
China, who submit it with a comment like "I have some interesting ideas
that I wrote up ... please give me some feedback". Obviously, we cannot
provide such feedback. Posting such submissions is not the purpose of
the archive.
Mihir and I are therefore currently undertaking a revision of the
acceptance policy; we are also considering to establish an informal
editorial board of experts who can briefly look at a paper and assess if
it qualifies for inclusion in the archive.
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Journal of Cryptology: Editor's report, August 13, 2003
-------------------------------------------------------
The journal is on track. The special issue on the bounded-storage model
which Oded had proposed and managed is soon ready for publication. The
status of the journal is more or less the same as stated in my last
report of April 2003, with one exception. The queue of papers ready (or
soon ready) for publication is growing, and in particular we might have
a few very long papers, filling possibly more than an issue. My
editorial policy for such exceptionally long papers is to have them
checked first for significance (relative to the length) and then
refereed regularly.
There is a "risk" that the queue grows quite quickly, with delays of up
to 18 months or more between the time the final manuscript is ready and
the publication date. But this is really difficult to predict.
We therefore need to explore possibilities for flexibility in the number
of pages. I am not informed about the details of the contract, but the
specified parameters are 4 issues per year with a total of 288 pages. I
assume the contract als specifies a price for extra pages, but I am not
sure. The basic questions are:
- Does the contract allow for extra pages? If so, at which price?
- If not, should we change the contract accordingly?
- Which competence does the board grant to the EIC to publish
more pages?
If I am granted such flexibility, I would expect to allocate up to about
320 to 340 pages per year if necessary, increasing the number of pages
per issue from 72 to between 80 and 85, but with possibly single issues
having up to 100 pages.
At the moment it does not seem to make sense to increase the number of
issues per year, and it is also too early to renegotiate the contract
with a higher fixed number of pages.
Ueli Maurer
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