CEPIS - Council of European Professional Informatics Societies - which the Neumann Society is a member held its 65th General Assembly on 27 November 2020 as part of an online conference.

Secretary General Austeja Trinkunaite reported in detail on the forums and events held by the presidency of the organization and the individual sections in the recent period. On the part of Hungary, we actively participate in the work of the “Women in Informatics” group (DiversIT), but it would be worthwhile to be active in other areas as well (Computing in Schools, Legal and Security Issues, Digital Skills Policy Taskforce).

CEPIS maintains close relations with the relevant departments of the European Union and participates in the development and commenting of materials in the field of digital knowledge.

Digital Education Action Plan, 2021-2027

Key areas: High-performance digital education ecosystem, development of digital skills and competencies. Read more.

European Skills Agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience

Objective: Deliver digital knowledge to a growing part of society, e.g. to increase the proportion of people aged 16-74 with at least basic digital knowledge from 56% in 2019 to 70% by 2025. Read more.

Recovery and Resilience Facility

To ensure the implementation of reforms to enable the digital switchover during the post-epidemic relaunch, at least 20% of funding should be spent on digital improvements: 5G, Gigabit connectivity, public digital services and digital skills development through education system reform. Read more.

The IT Professionalism Europe (ITPE) network, established last year, which aims to promote the IT professionalism of public and private sector experts, institutions and companies in the field of IT, has shown outstanding activity.

We consider it worthwhile to use the e-Competence Framework, which demonstrates the digital competence of certain professions, as a digital competence framework in Hungary as well.

In terms of financial indicators, while revenues arrived (membership fees, grants), expenditures (conferences, working groups, face-to-face meetings) decreased significantly, allowing for a reduction in membership fees for next year.

Two board members completed their 3-year term, so the general assembly had to vote for new ones to replace them. Three candidates measured themselves. The trust was given to Gillian Arnold, Irishman, and Ronald Bieber, head of the Austrian organization.

It is exemplary how anonymity has been vigorously defended in the context of voting on personal issues in the given online context. In order to ensure that not even the administrator had access to each vote, delegates were given the opportunity to vote in a separate system.

Byron Nicolaides, President of CEPIS, also raised strategic ideas for the next 10 years of CEPIS (CEPIS identity, key areas, working methods) that should be taken into account, what we think of the Neumann Society's identity, what we should focus on (and what not) and how it works a professional organization in a changed world.