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The article focuses on competitive intelligence (Cl), also known as business intelligence, which is both a process and a product. As a process, CI is the set of legal and ethical methods, a company uses to harness information that helps it achieve success in a global environment. As a product, CI is information about competitors' activities from public and private sources, and its scope is the present and future behavior of competitors, suppliers, customers, technologies, acquisitions, markets, products and services, and the general business environment. There is much more to competitive intelligence than just market research. The word assessment suggests an ongoing process using a variety of information streams and data gathering techniques including psychological profiling and new technology evaluation. The growth of CI has important implications for both the management and operation of IT units. CI supports the information needs of organizations in a variety of ways. Historically, companies have usually applied CI to the information and business planning needs of non-IT business units. Companies have also used CI in their strategic planning process. INSET: Research Methodology..

This article provides information on the forthcoming workshops and conferences to be held from August to November in 1998. An international conference on very large database will be held from 24 to 27 in the month of August in New York. The fifth annual EDINEB international conference will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, from 2 to 5th of September 1998. Sponsor for this conference is EDINEB Networks. The 3rd Joint Conference on Knowledge-Based Software Engineering will take place in Smolenice, Slovakia, from September 9-11. A workshop on principles of abstract machine will take place in Pisa, Italy on September 19th. The contact address to gather more information is also provide. Fifth ACM conference on Computer and Communication Security will be held in San Francisco, from 2 to 5 in November. On November 7, the Information Industry Outlook Conference will take place in Canberra, Australia. This conference will be hosted by the Australian Computer Society.

This article presents information related to Phoenix that contains two timestamped versions of the in-memory file system allowing for a reserve version. The Phoenix in-memory file system is motivated by a safe, continuous-processing model and by a number of specialized applications. In this, small diskless computing systems are used in portable laboratory instruments such as logic analyzers and digital oscilloscopes. Phoenix starts with a timestamped and write-protected version of the file system and evolves it through a copy on write strategy while leaving the original version undisturbed. The Phoenix logical disk is represented as the leaves of a tree that has a root node and a layer of interior nodes. The contents of the root node are pointers to memory locations where the interior nodes are found and the contents of the interior nodes are pointers to memory locations where data is found. The tree version pointed to by a timestamp is garbage collected after the succeeding timestamp. The existing timestamp represents the fallback state of the file system and must be preserved until after the next checkpoint.

As part of Japan's effort to become a leader in the computer industry, the Institute for New Generation Computer Technology has launched a revolutionary ten-year plan far the development of large computer systems which will he applicable to knowledge information processing systems. These Fifth Generation computers will be built around the concepts of logic programming. In order to refute the accusation that Japan exploits knowledge from abroad without contributing any of its own, this project will stimulate original research and will make its results available to the international research community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information related to mathematical algorithms. The new "Talking Computer System" patent stems from an earlier U.S. Patent Number 3,133,268 issued in May 1964, also assigned to Bunker-Ramo, which is primarily directed to the basic elements of query and reply systems in which the replies to queries are not necessarily of the voice-response type. The Joint Users Group has elected Melvin Klerer and J.A N. Lee to fill the two vacancies on the Executive Board. A low-priced data processing system, designed for small and medium-sized businesses and for use as a remote system to larger centralized computer installations, has been announced by the Sperry Rand Corporation's Univac Division. The UNIVAG 1005 Data Processing System has a memory cycle time of from 6.5 to 8 seconds. Punched cards are read at speeds ranging from 400 to G15 per minute and punched at 200 per minute. The 1005 prints at the rate of 400 to 600 lines per minute, and has a magnetic core memory of 2,048 characters which can be expanded to 4,096 characters.

Provides insights about the American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS). Background of AFIPS; Lessons learned from AFIPS experience; Other societies with technical interests in information processing that joined AFIPS; Plans of the Association of Computing Machinery and the Computer Society with respect to a federation of societies with strong interest in U.S. computing.

The article presents information on the computer industry in the United States during 1970s. The data processing industry's expectations of continuing growth did not materialize in 1970. They were replaced by an actual decline in shipments as surging growth in some sectors of the industry failed to offset downturns in other areas. This growth should be sufficient in 1971 to bring increases in shipments of data processing products back into line with those for the business equipment industry as a whole. It is estimated that the total value of business equipment product shipments in 1970 would be nearly $14.5 billion, more than four times the $3.4 billion shipped in 1960. Yet, the $14.5 billion figure is itself below the $14.8 billion initially forecast for 1969 shipments. Their value has been revised downward about 1% to $13.7 billion, following release of new U.S. Department of Commerce figures. The year 1971 is expected to be that of recovery with shipments foreseen as rising by 14% over 1970 to approach $16.5 billion.

The article presents several news briefs related to Information Technology industry. The Bunker-Ramo Corporation and Aniphenol Corporation announced that they have signed definitive agreements to combine the business of the two companies. The combined business will operate under the name Bunker-Ramo, with the various divisions of Amphenol and Bunker-Ramo operating under their respective names and present management. General Electric Company announced a new operating organization, the International Information Services Department, devoted to stimulating development of online computer time-sharing service businesses throughout the world. The new division will be headed by Paul R. Leadley, former general manager of the GE Information Service Department. Ampex Corporation has formed a new operating entity, the Videofile Information Systems Division, to handle the company's activity in information storage and retrieval. Randolph Computer Corporation and United Data Processing Services reached an agreement under which Randolph Data Services, Inc., a newly formed subsidiary of Randolph, will acquire the assets and business of United Data Processing Services.

The article presents a calendar of events about the computer industry. The "1967 Spring Joint Committee Conference," which will be held on April 18-20, 1967 in Atlantic City, New Jersey invites papers to be presented during the conference. The American Documentation Institute will hold a convention on October 3-7, 1967 in Santa Monica, California. The International Federation of Information Processing Societies will hold its "1968 Congress" on August 5-10, 1968 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

This article presents information related to the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) which presents thirty-three ACM National Lecturers for 1965-6 in the sixth year of the Lectureship Series. ACM pays tribute to these recognized members of the computing and data processing community and expresses its gratitude to them for so graciously accepting the commitments involved in serving in this capacity. The ACM National Lectureship Series has become a recognized institution in the national program of the Association. The value to the members of the computing community has been reflected by an increasingly enthusiastic response each year that has necessitated continued expansion of the program. Starting in 1961 with five lecturers, the program has been enlarged each year until now, in 1965-6, the lecturers number thirty-three. The program was established by the Council of the ACM in December 1960 to provide outstanding speakers from various computing areas for meetings of ACM's local chapters.

This article presents a calendar of special events related to the computer industry in the U.S., as of June 1, 1966. The 2nd Stony Brook Conference on Advances in Computing, sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery Long Island Chapter and State University of New York, will be held on June 10, 1966 in New York City. The 15th National Symposium of the Federal Government Accountants Association will be held in June 1966, at Minneapolis, Minnesota. The International Data Processing Conference and Business Exposition, will be held on June 21 to 24, 1966 in Chicago, Illinois. The Symposium on Simulation and Simulators of Dynamic Systems, will be held in September 1966, in Baltimore, Maryland.

The article reports that the New York City Chapter reports that its 1905 Fall program of Advanced Business Systems Lectures was very well received by the greater New York computing community. The attendees, totaling more than 135, included people from cities as far as Princeton, New Jersey, and Norwalk and New Haven, Connecticut. Proceedings for the Advanced Business Systems Lectures are being compiled and will be distributed to all registrants. Course notes, as well as a reference manual, were prepared and given out to the Real Time Simulation and the Diagnostic Programming Courses. Plans are under way for the Spring; series and courses to start April 11, 1966.