Abstract :
In January 1976 we first discussed the need for a meeting that would stimulate innovative and creative approaches to existing and future problems in computing. The general requirements of such a workshop (or what we call a "report") were to bring together leading experts in several overlapping disciplines of computing in a meeting format conducive to producing in-depth analysis of problems being created for the 1980\´s by the events of the late 1970\´s. The meeting, held in Portland in March of this year, took a form dictated by the needs of the participants. To encourage creative interaction, we provided the working groups with long hours of close contact, and some groups met in heated debate late into the evening. We wanted the report to withstand the fire of criticism, so the meeting included observers: both invited technical observers and a limited number of public participants. We invited two trained analysts as critics, and planned for a small public attendance of no more than 100 people. The papers that were presented at the meeting are available from IEEE as a full-length proceedings.
