IOI International Committee: Old Mutual House, Klaassens Road, Bishopscourt, Cape Town, South Africa. 09:00 - 10:30 Monday, 3 March 1997 and 08:30 - 10:00 Friday, 7 March 1997 The following were present: Dr. Péter Hanák Hungary (Sec General 1996) - Chair Mr. Lionel Hartmann South Africa (Host 1997) Mr. Hĺkan Strömberg Sweden (Host 1994) Dr. Ries Kock Netherlands (Host 1995) Dr. László Zsakó Hungary (Host 1996) Prof. Stanislaw Waligorski Poland (Elected member) Dr. António Caleço Portugal (Host 1998) Dr. Göktürk Üçoluk Turkey (Host 1999) Prof. Hongxi Xue China (Host 2000) Apologies: Dr. Mohammad Ghodsi Iran (Elected Member) Prof. Donald Piele USA (Elected member) Others Present: Dr. Tom Verhoeff Netherlands (International Secretariat) Dr. Gyula Horváth Hungary (Observer) Mr. Shengyuan Zhao China (Observer) Mr. Donghua Wang China (Observer) Ms. Wenci Li China (Observer) Mr. Paulo Faroleiro Portugal (Observer) Mr. Per Stilborg South Africa (IOI ‘97 Executive) Mr. Peter Waker South Africa (IFIP TC3) Mrs. Janet Cook South Africa (IOI ‘97 Secretariat) 1. Welcome Péter Hanák welcomed all present and thanked the South African team for their hard work. He handed the chair over to Lionel Hartmann. 2. Apologies As indicated above. 3. Minutes of the Previous Meetings The minutes of the previous meetings (29/01/96, 27/07/96 and 30/07/96) were accepted as amended. The actual names of the delegates representing the different countries present to be used and not only the country. Amend the spelling of Verhoef to Verhoeff. Add name of delegate from Turkey (Point 2 of minutes 27/07/96) - Halit Oguztuzun 4. Matters Arising Letters of Commitment: Ries Kock has the letter from Turkey and Péter Hanák has others. These to be sent to Tom Verhoeff for IOI records. Action: Ries Kock and Péter Hanák Electronic Copies of Minutes: Electronic copies of the minutes from 1996 and 1997 to be sent to Tom Verhoeff. Action: Janet Cook Development Teams (Item 3 30/07/96): South Africa has been trying since IOI'96 to make contact with other African countries with very limited success. Swaziland and Botswana have shown interest but no response yet from any of the other countries bordering on South Africa. The Development Team concept was not received favourably by the South African Business sector and has been discarded. In the past Nigeria, Gabon, Algeria, Zimbabwe and Morocco have attended. They will be invited to attend again. Action: Janet Cook Further Invitations: Members of the IC undertook to encourage their neighbouring countries to attend IOI'97. Amongst the countries mentioned were Norway, Iceland, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand. Action: All IC members 5. Reports from Future Host Nations 5.1 South Africa (Mr. Lionel Hartmann): Preparations are on track as the organising committee would be making detailed presentations to delegates during their visit. These would take the form of visits to venues and Powerpoint visual displays. The required target for running IOI'97 is R1.5 million of which just over R1 million has been committed by private sector sponsors. 5.2 Portugal (Mr. Paulo Faroleiro): Reaffirmed commitment to host IOI in 1998. Venue: Estoril will not be able to cope with the size of the competition. Setúbal, about 30 km south of Lisbon, is being considered. Tróia which is 5-10 minutes away across the river from Setúbal, could be used for accommodation as it is a tourist area and there are many apartment blocks. Programme: See attached draft programme. Date: 5-12 September 1998. Organising Committee: See attached list of IOI'98 committee members. Scientific Committee: Currently being established. Evaluation Committee: Currently being established. Sponsorship: Commitment from the Government, through Prime Minister who has shown intent. Still approaching other sponsors - do have one definite sponsor. Computers: Will be supplied by DEDTY, an Institute for Informatics and Youth who run courses. Video: A promotion video on Portugal was viewed. 5.3 Turkey (Dr. Göktürk Üçoluk): Organisation: Still the Turkish National Council for Research, the council which provided the official letters. The organising committee was formed and has had several meetings. An Industrial Engineering masters student has been employed who is doing the research for his thesis on the Olympiad Scientific Committee: Busy preparing questions and testing them on students Computers: Have not yet made contact with the private sector. Do not think it is safe to rely on the private sector, thus plan to rent at $50 per computer. Worries: Some fundamentalist organisations are gaining political power and are very well organised. The Scientific Council is almost independent and the State is trying to modify this by legislation. The function of this council may thus be affected. If this happens Ankara will host IOI'99. Venue: If all goes as planned, Istanbul will host IOI'99 as it is accustomed to hosting large conferences (HABITAT - 5000 people) Accommodation: Delegates and contestants to be housed in hotels. Date: July or September 1999 if in Istanbul. If further south late September is better as it is too hot in July. 5.4 China (Prof. Hongxi Xue): Thanked South Africa for hosting IOI'97. The Chinese Government has approved IOI 2000, and will support it, but not in total. Businesses will also have to provide some support. It is too soon to approach them now, although it may help them to spread their commitment over a longer period. Organisation: The Chinese Education Committee, the Chinese Scientific and Technology Association and the Chinese Computer Federation Venue: Beijing. This is the oldest city in China and has a lot to offer. The Forbidden City may now be visited. Date: End of September - Autumn, the best time to be in Beijing. Organising Committee: Have established a small group (4 people) which is evaluating various options available for accommodation No. of Teams: Prepared to host 80 teams 5.5 Finland: Ries Kock reported that Finland was keen to host the IOI in 2004. Ries to ask Finland to write an official letter of intent, which will be handled at the IOI'97 GA meeting. Action: Ries Kock 6. Future Competition Environments A Working Group (CEWG) consisting of Tom Verhoeff (IOI Sec.), Paulo Faroleiro (Portugal), Donald Cook (South Africa) and Dr. Göktürk Üçoluk (Turkey) was appointed to report on the matter. Included in their brief are: Hardware Environments, Operating Systems and Languages. 6.1 Draft: A draft was submitted to IC as a working document (See version 3 1997 attached). A clarifying introduction to this document is needed before it is made available to the delegation leaders. An item missing from this document is a list of topics suitable for competition tasks listing the boundaries and variety. 6.2 Final Documents: The working group will have the document ready before IOI'97 and will mail a copy to all IC members for comment - with a deadline for input. Once corrected a copy will be sent to all teams invited to IOI'97. The finalised document will be put on the web. A vote will be taken at the GA at IOI'97 on the changes. 6.3 Lead Times: The IC will have to propose changes to the operating environment at least 18 months before the IOI to which the changes will apply. IOI (n)-18 months -- IC proposes changes IOI (n)-12 months -- GA approves changes IOI (n) changes come into effect. Portugal requested a two year lead time Action: Competition Environment Working Group 7. Proposals for Discussion 7.1 Contestant Age Limit: This issue arose because IOI dates change i.e. not always in July. IOI in Portugal, Turkey and China will also be later than July. 7.1.1 Ruling on contestants' age: The IC confirmed that the rules regarding the age limit for contestants will be waived for IOI'97 and that contestants born on or after 1 July 1977 will be eligible for the competition in December. 7.1.2 Proposal to change rules: Germany and Mexico submitted a formal proposal to change the rules as follows: "Every contestant of IOI(n) (held in year yy) must be born on or after July 1st, (yy-20)." The General Assembly will discuss and vote on the proposal in December. Action: Janet Cook 7.2 Country Representation: This query arose because of an exchange student competing in the Olympiad in Informatics in the USA. "A contestant may be entered as a member of only one team during a given year. The final decision as to which team enters him/her is to be made by the individual concerned and the organisers who enter the team." 7.2.1 Ruling on Country Representation: This ruling will be applicable to IOI'97. 7.2.2 Proposal to change rules: The GA will be asked to make this rule permanent. Action: Janet Cook 7.3 Competition Keyboards - from Ireland: "Allow use of a `local' keyboard instead of the current US standard." The IC expressed the opinion that the keyboard should be of a universal known standard, and that contestants should not be faced with `surprises'. The matter was referred to the `Competition Environment Working Group'. Action: Competition Environment Working Group 7.4 IOI Secretariat: 7.4.1 Web Site Access Statistics: These are available in Dutch only (no charge for the Dutch version, but IOI would have to pay for an English version). The site gets about 40-60 hits a day. 7.4.2 Books: A list of recommended books at a discount rate is available on the Internet. These books are often not available in other countries. The IOI Secretariat gets a small referral fee. This commenced in January 1997. If purchases increase it may be worthwhile and we may need to justify it to the GA. Action: Tom Verhoeff 7.4.3 Contact information data base: The IOI Secretariat does maintain a list of contact addresses of previous participating countries. If access is open it becomes corrupted, thus a way around this must be found. It could possibly be made available in FTP format. Per Stilborg to forward the IOI'97 database details to Portugal and IOI Secretariat to send a file (E-mail) with changes. Each new host country will update the address list for their IOI and report all changes to the IOI Secretariat (send the Secretariat the updated list). Action: Per Stilborg 7.4.4 IOI Statistics: Péter Hanák and Ries Kock have produced a list of countries which have participated in each IOI and how well they fared. This is done by other Olympiads e.g. Mathematics and Physics. This gives a good historical perspective. Details of status i.e. participation or observer can be indicated. This could be published on the web or via Internet. For those countries that do not have access, the information could be placed on CD with copies of problem set from Hungary. Action: Péter Hanák and Ries Kock 8. Political Issues 8.1 China; Chinese Taipei; Macau; Hong Kong: Based on the outcome of the meeting with Representatives of the Chinese Government in South Africa and the delegation form China, Prof. Xue proposed that the same procedure as used in Hungary, be implemented in South Africa. Names to be used will be China and Chinese Taipei. Particular sensitivity must be shown when it comes to use of flags and voting sticks. A letter to be sent to Chinese Taipei, which will include the conditions of the invitation to compete in IOI'97. Action: Lionel Hartmann IOI is NOT a political environment, and all are required to participate in a true Olympic spirit. 8.2 Macedonia: IOI notes the position held by Greece. Péter Hanák to send a letter to Greece on behalf of IOI and the organisers of IOI'97 (see attached copy). Macedonia will be referred to as FYROM, but the host country cannot control the name a guest uses for himself. Action: Péter Hanák 8.3 Cyprus: Comments form Dr. Göktürk Üçoluk (Turkey): "Cyprus is under the protection of England, Greece and Turkey. Turkey acknowledged the Cyprus state, but not the government. Cyprus acknowledges Turkey. Turkey will invite both Cyprus and the Northern Turkish Republic of Cyprus to the IOI event in 1999". To avoid controversy, no flags will be used at IOI in Turkey in 1999. South Africa has invited Cyprus as they have no problems with Cyprus. They will try to resolve all tensions quietly before hand. Action: Lionel Hartmann 8.4 Yugoslavia: South Africa has invited “Yugoslavia”. 9. General 9.1 Terminology: The IOI is a competition amongst individuals and NOT amongst countries. (These individuals only happen to be members of teams that come from specific countries). 9.2 Board of Patrons: Recommendation to GA: Each host country should be free to appoint a patron or board of patrons for that IOI. 9.3 Guidelines: Tom Verhoeff to prepare: Guidelines for organising an IOI Guidelines for participants of IOI (this will include a hint on keeping gifts small, light and inexpensive) Action: Tom Verhoeff 9.4 Invitations: 9.4.1 Invitations to be sent to: Countries or regions that participated previously Countries or regions that are members of the UN or UNESCO Countries or regions that participate in the Olympic Games 9.4.2 Host Country Responsibility: The host country must take responsibility for invitations, but must keep the IC informed of who they invite. 9.4.3 Potential Host Countries: A potential IOI host must notify the IC at the time it offers to host and IOI if a previous IOI participant will NOT be invited by that host. 9.5 Copyright: Material used at the IOI events becomes the intellectual property of the IOI (i.e. the IOI holds the copyright). The originator retains the right to use his/her own work, but does not retain control over the work. The IOI will grant all reasonable requests to use IOI material, provided that: - the integrity of the material is retained (i.e. no unauthorised changes are made) - the IOI is recognised as copyright holder. 10. Closure Péter Hanák thanked the South African team for their hospitality again and commented on the beauty of South Africa. Lionel Hartmann closed the meeting, handing each delegate a copy of the Project Plan for IOI'97 which contained all the presentations shared with the delegates during their visit. He thanked them for their support and encouragement and promised that the team responsible for IOI'97 would ensure a very successful event. 1