Actes du colloque - Volume 6

287 / 479

Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
Figure 1 Schematic of categorization of IDC Activities.
4 2009-2013 COMPLETED TASKS
In the 2009-2013 period, the IDC Committee and its ISSMGE
Liaison members held six conference calls using Skype. The
purpose of the conference calls was to evaluate progress made
on ongoing tasks and initiate new ones. In many cases, due to
the significant local time difference among the committee
members, deliverables and outcomes were commonly evaluated
by e-mail exchanges among committee members.
The Committee started by addressing one-by-one the IBA
and IBV items. For each task, an informal task force that
consisted of members of the IDC as well as occasionally
individuals that are nom members of the IDC was formed.
4.1 Task 1: Innovator of the Year Award
Following the request by the President, the IDC prepared a
proposal outlining the objective, description, rules, and
submission requirements for this award. As outlined in the
description “The ISSMGE Award for innovation in
Geoengineering is awarded bi-annually to individuals or groups
(researchers, consultants, contractors) in recognition of
innovations in Geoengineering that have a pronounced impact
on geoengineering practice, research and education. The term
innovation is used broadly to describe any major unprecedented
achievements that led to a major advancement in our Profession
and ideally, covers the entire spectrum from fundamental
science to application and implementation in
construction/practice.”
The IDC submitted its proposal to the President of the
ISSMGE on August 23 2010. A Board-level Awards Committee
was formed by the President and is chaired by Prof. François
Schlosser and the IDC’s role on this award was completed. The
Awards Committee is now responsible for this and other
awards.
4.2 Task 2: Development of an Electronic Lexicon
Per the President’s request, IDC was charged with creating an
electronic version of the ISSMGE Lexicon that was originally
published in printed format in 1981 and included a total of 1592
terms in eight languages (English, French, German, Italian,
Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish).
First, the 1981 Lexicon was made available as a pdf file.
This task was completed with the assistance of President Briaud
and the pdf file is currently available on the ISSMGE website.
Subsequently, the IDC, in collaboration with Geoengineer.org,
developed an online platform for the electronic Lexicon. The
Electronic Lexicon is one of the new Resource items in the
ISSMGE website. The direct web address is:
The application
allows users to search and select any term of the lexicon in any
language. It outputs the translations of this term in all available
languages. The application was designed so that it is
expandable, i.e., more terms and additional languages can be
added in the future.
The current version of the Lexicon (as of August 2013)
includes a translation of the 1593 terms in a total of 13
languages. This included the digitization of the 1981 languages,
and specifically, English, Spanish, Russian, German,
Portuguese, Swedish, and French. The only language that has
not yet been digitized from the 1981 lexicon is the Italian
language. This work is ongoing by the Italian Geotechnical
Society. In addition, the electronic Lexicon was expanded to
include the following new languages: Turkish, Chinese and
Chinese Simple, Japanese, Farsi (Persian), and Finish. Note that
the translation of these terms is the outcome of the work by a
large number of volunteers and Member Countries and all of
them are acknowledged online. At least two more languages are
currently being prepared: Arabic, and Greek.
4.3 Task 3: Webinars
Per the President’s request, the ISSMGE Board expressed an
interest in developing Webinars that would become available to
its Member Countries and professionals worldwide. The IDC
was charged with exploring the options available to the
organization to achieve this and perform a feasibility study.
The IDC task force performed an extensive research of
available webinar services. A set of recommendations were
documented in a Webinar Services report and submitted to the
ISSMGE Board in March 2011. To ensure the quality of the
webinar services, a significant investment cost was deemed
necessary to operate them. Following a request of the Board, a
business plan was prepared and submitted to the Board for
discussion on April 20th 2011. The Board proceeded with the
recommendation. The company Webex was selected to provide
the service for the webinars. To date, a total of 12 webinars
were hosted with a large number of attendees worldwide. Upon
completion of the webinars, the recorded lectures are made
available through the new ISSMGE website at this direct web
address:
webinars. This database of webinars represents a major
contribution of the ISSMGE to geo-education worldwide. The
website data collected to date indicate that the webinars are the
most popular content on the ISSMGE website.
4.4 Task 4: Development of new ISSMGE Website
Architecture
The IDC spent considerable effort in developing a vision for the
ISSMGE website and then proceeding with its upgrading. The
focus of the IDC, per the ISSMGE Board request, was not on
developing a new design for the website, but to upgrade the
technical capabilities of the ISSMGE website to support new
content. The new website is a step forward towards improving
the content and impact of the ISSMGE website (term of
reference “b”). The previous ISSMGE website did not have the
capability to support webinars, the electronic lexicon and other
online resources. With support from Geoengineer.org, the new
website was launched in January 2013. In addition to including
all previously available content, the new website:
 supports new, web-based, interactive tools, such as the
Lexicon;
 has a first-level integration with the GeoWorld
professional networking platform;
 makes available new resources such as webinars and
recorded lectures, as well as other files. Presently, in
addition to the 12 webinars, the ISSMGE website has
Volume 6 - Page 287