The National Software Council (NSC) is a proposed national advisory board reporting to the highest levels of government. The Council would advise on major software issues, develop policy, and propose major national initiatives. The initiative of organizing and implementing a NSC was proposed at Cooperstown I, a workshop sponsored by Rome Laboratory, organized by the Laboratory's Andrew Chruscicki, and hosted by Lloyd Mosemann (Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Communications, Computers, and Support Systems). The major thesis underlying the initiative is that software is a national resource and therefore important to the economy. The Cooperstown I workshop participants recommended a high-level council be created to focus on this initiative. Based on these recommendations, an NSC Planning Task Force was organized by Walter Ellis, an independent consultant. The Task Force began creating national advocacy and support for the concept. The Task Force was loosely organized with the cooperation of Mr. Mosemann's office. Lt. Col. Dan Romano of that office was assigned as a liaison to the Task Force. In March 1994, the Planning Task Force delivered a report on their efforts (10 March 1994). The report identified the following major issues, which provide a rationale for the formation of the NSC:

The report also recommended that the National Security Industrial Association (NSIA) assume the responsibility for the next steps in NSC implementation. The NSIA assigned the responsibility to the Software and Information Systems Committee (SISC), under the chair of Jack Cooper of Anchor Software, Inc. The SISC formed a Working Committee, led by John Marciniak of Kaman Sciences Corporation to take charge of the initiative. The Working Committee is attacking this challenge through two major thrusts. First, the Committee is actively broadening the base of support for the NSC. All involved believe that the success of the NSC initiative requires support from a broad spectrum of American industry, especially in the commercial software (e.g., shrink wrap) community. The Committee is contacting personnel from different sectors of the software community to gain their interest and support. In addition, the Committee is organizing the NSC Implementation Committee, the next step defined in the Planning Task Force report. This step will create a committee that is representative of all sectors. The NSC-IC will be charged with defining, advocating, organizing and otherwise implementing the NSC. To accomplish these tasks, the Committee is organizing a workshop, tentatively set for 26-27 October 1994, in the Washington, DC area. The goals of the fall workshop are to organize the NSC-IC and to refine the issues that were outlined in the Planning Task Force's report. The workshop will bring interested parties together from a broad spectrum of the committee (industry, government, and academia), present these persons with appropriate information about the necessity for a NSC, explain the role of the NSC-IC, identify resource commitments that will be required, and culminate in a nominating and voting process to designate the NSC-IC. The workshop includes the following panel sessions:

The purpose of the Nominating Panel differs from that of the other panels. It does not deal with a specific issue, but rather with nominations for the NSC-IC. The objective is to organize the embryonic NSC-IC at the workshop so that it can immediately start pursuing the establishment of the NSC. Two SISC members are assigned to this panel. Each panel will have a chairperson and a speaker capable of authoritatively speaking to the panel issue. In addition, a member of the Working Committee will "facilitate" each panel session. The facilitators can be contacted at the telephone numbers and E-mail addresses listed earlier.

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