"The purpose of task force (TF) is to build an active and healthy
infrastructure to promote specific well-focused topical areas within
EC to ensure continuing growth and vitality of the CIS. The Chair of
each TF is recruited by the Chair of ECTC and serves for one-year
term. The TF chair position is renewable.

Anyone in the EC community may propose the formation of a TF . The TF
proposal must be submitted in writing to the ECTC chair and shall
contain the purpose of the TF, the anticipated interest in the topic
area, proposed activities, and an initial membership list. TF
membership may include individuals who do not hold membership in the
CIS. The TF is established if a majority of the ECTC members vote for
approval. TFs shall remain in existence until dissolved by a majority
vote of the ECTC members.
Each TF shall submit an annual activity report to the ECTC chair. The
report must be submitted not less than 30 days prior to the annual
ECTC meeting.

The TF chair must be a CIS member, and a TF may have no co-chairs but
one (or two) vice-chair. TF membership must have a global spread,
considering the main geographical areas of research concentrations:
Americas, Europe and Pacific Rim. Members should not include more than
one individual from the same university/institute, unless they are
from different departments/schools.

Effectiveness of a TF will depend on two factors:

(i) How well it handles the supply of academic ideas, while
(ii) applying the ideas according to the demand of the real world.

A performance metric will include the following criteria:

1. Activities (workshops, seminars, competitions, conference special
sessions, special issues of journals, articles in popular press, radio/
tv interviews, etc).

2. Industrial penetration (success stories, applied activities, level
of support/funding).

3. Organization activity (CIS membership growth, competition
organization, software distribution, contributing to CIS and other TC
activities).

I'm glad you initiated this discussion; we had a couple of useful
conversations at GECCO about these matters.  I will compose a report
of these soon; however -- in the spriit of "taking a step back" and
before I do so -- I wonder if you might help provide some historical
context for this group.  I admit to being fairly ignorant on these
matters and a little clarity might help give me some perspective. I
was hoping my discussions at GECCO would fill in the gaps, but I am
still a bit fuzzy.

Here's what I think I know:

Graham Kendall established a mailing list for coevolution a couple of
years ago, and though that list was useful and received some activity,
by and large it was relatively inactive.  This was setup under the
auspices of an IEEE "working group".  Then you took over as chair of
that group, the group was broadened in scope (i.e., "Computational
Intelligence" was added), and subsequently IEEE decided it should be
considered a "Task Force".

Is the high-level, at least, correct?

On a more technical level, I was hoping to learn a couple of things,
as well as clarify a couple of things.  First, your message outlines
the general process under which such groups are formed, but some
historical details about the specifics of how THIS group was formed
would be useful (who was involved, what were the goals and
motivations, etc.)?  Second, what was the motivation for broadening
the scope (inactivity?  natural conjunction?  I'm mistaken: it was
always Comp Intl & Coev?)  Your message suggests there was a proposal
and a vote by ECTC members ... when was the proposal submitted, by
whom, and might it be possible to see a copy of it (it might clarify
some of the goals/purpose questions)?

Also:  My email log shows that the original mail list *DID* use the
term "task force" ... it's not extraordinarily important which was
what, I just wanted to be clear.   Where is the source of my
confusion?

Finally, and perhaps overtly utilitarian of me:  What, precisely, does
being an IEEE task force give us?  The community is already self-
organizing tutorials, workshops, discussion forums, wiki's, and that
sort of thing.  Is it that there are resources available to help us
with such projects?

My goal with these questions is to help frame our wider discussion in
light of the historical purpose of the group, etc.

That would be great.

I'd like to be able to answer your questions, but I think you probably
know more of the histroy than I do!
As you know, I took over the working group from Graham, basically
because he asked me and I have an interest
in co-evolution.

Actually, I've just been asked to provide an annual report on our
activities, which I am about to ask the
group for help on! Your report will be useful for that also. Maybe there
will be some answers for you also
in the replies! Otherwise, I guess you could ask Graham.

I'm also interested in your report because I would like to have some
sort of get together at CEC in September.

regards, phi

Associate Professor Philip Hingston
School of Computer and Information Science
Edith Cowan University
(+61 8) 9370 6427

CRICOS Institution Provider Code 00279B