August 1996 € Volume 23 € Number 4

President's Desk

Looking Forward Rather Than Sideways

Some major progress following the merger

By Alfred Blumstein

Times are changing very fast these days with respect to INFORMS, and it has been most refreshing to see how much progress has been made. I was a participant over the last 20-plus years in various aspects of the ORSA/TIMS relationship, and came to appreciate how important the INFORMS merger has been. The initial mutually independent paths of ORSA and TIMS quickly highlighted the associated inefficiencies. Starting in about 1972, the ORSA/TIMS jointure involved joint meetings, a common newsletter (which eventually became OR/MS Today) and the Interfaces journal.

Other aspects of the jointure developed over time, but the insistence on two independent societies created considerable conflict and operating burden on both societies. That resulted partly from natural competition between two similar organizations operating in the same marketplace. It also occurred because the jointure created "Siamese twins": too often, one of the two that wanted to pursue some initiative was prevented from doing so because it needed approval of the other. This situation so often resulted in attention being directed sideways at the other rather than forward to our collective needs.

A variety of operational devices were established to facilitate this jointure, but they added to the cumbersomeness. These further handicapped both ORSA and TIMS from becoming effective vehicles to serve the collective need of the OR/MS community. Since the merger into INFORMS on Jan. 1, 1995, the innovation, vigor and forward vision have clearly been renewed.

We came to realize that the former unitary concept of operations research was becoming highly dispersed into multiple areas of application, which were developing on their own. This required more of our activities to be developed through our specialized subdivisions, and subdivision representatives now occupy five of the 20 positions on the INFORMS Board.

We now have 31 thriving subdivisions, many strengthened through the merger of similar subdivisions in ORSA and TIMS. Others will be created in new areas where our approaches and methods are being used by a community that is not yet under our umbrella, but which will find strong common interest with the rest of us. That potential can only grow as our methods and perspectives become more widely used, and as others see the intellectual and professional advantage of linking to INFORMS.

We have all come to realize the saliency of information technology, both as an important aspect of our professional work, but also as a critical tool in conducting our organizational affairs. INFORMS On-Line, which is being managed admirably by Michael Trick, is now a thriving operation serving all our members. In a recent week, that web page had over 17,000 inquiries from more than 3,500 different computers. That use has been growing at a phenomenal rate, and most notably by practitioners who most often operate from the domain .com

We are testing the waters of electronic journals. ITORMS (Interactive Transactions of Operations Research and the Management Sciences), edited by Ramesh Sharda, is exploring some of the exciting new dimensions of performance possible with an electronic journal. The journal will contain bibliographic expository articles that can be updated frequently instead of letting them slowly fade into obsolescence, as happens with such reviews in the paper journals. The algorithms underlying a particular example can be part of the paper, and the reader can experiment with the algorithm to test its performance and to perform his or her own sensitivity analyses online. The paper and its algorithm can become an accessible analytic tool for any user who would like to bring his problem to it. This test journal will help lead us into the many innovative possibilities this kind of communication opens between author and readers.

We have seen new vigor in our international relationships. TIMS was the partner that had an explicit international agenda, whereas ORSA pursued most of its international relationships through IFORS. Even though INFORMS is the U.S. member of IFORS, it still has an explicit international interest. That is reflected in our international meetings (two every three years) and in our desire to link with colleagues from other nations. This will occur primarily through our sections, many of which organize regular meetings outside the U.S.

We have no intention to establish INFORMS chapters in other countries, but we do expect that subdivisions will seek connections with their counterparts in other countries, and those connections will bring our international colleagues closer to us. Modern electronic communication has enormously shrunk the communication distance among colleagues around the world, and distances between locations is now far less a barrier to communication than differences in professional perspective, and that is something that links our community wherever people live.

It is most refreshing to see the vigor now pervading INFORMS and its membership. We have begun to look forward to find means to strengthen our profession and its contributions to many kinds of operations and organizations, and also to its recognition in the larger community. That effort is bound to further enhance the role and stature of the OR/MS profession wherever it operates, and thereby further enhance the contributions we make to society. I can think of no more important consequence of the merger.

E-mail to the Editorial Department of OR/MS Today: orms@lionhrtpub.com

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