The Intergovernmental Bureau for Informatics (IBI) originated as a transformation of the International Computation Centre (ICC) that was created by UNESCO in 1951 by Resolution 2.24 of it General Conference executing the mandate of Resolutions 22(III) of October 3, 1946, 160(VII) of August 10, 1948, 318(XI) of August 14, 1950 and 394(XIII) of the ECOSOC of the UN.
The ICC, that had as it objective the implementation of a Computation Centre that would give service to the international scientific community at a time in which it was thought that only a few computation machines would be available being besides very costly, started its activities in 1961 and soon it was clear that the speed of technological developments had overcome it and by 1969 it was bound to disappear for lack of content. At that moment the transformation towards the IBI starts and was done by the only effective Director General that the IBI has had during its short life, the Argentinean Professor Fermin A. Bernasconi.
The structure of the IBI membership reached to a maximum in 1985 with 43 member countries of which three developed countries, France, Italy and Spain, were its major contributors and the rest were developing countries or clearly underdeveloped ones. In 1985, France withdrew from membership in IBI and by the end of 1986 also Spain withdrew and the crisis of the IBI was initiated leading to the dissolution of this organisation in 1969. The archives of the IBI were deposited at the UNESCO. The member countries of the IBI at the time of maximum number were the following: Argelia, Argentina, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso (old Haute Volta), Cameroon, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Gabon, Ghana, Guiney, Haití, Iraq, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Líban, Liberia, Madagascar, Malí, Marroc, México, Nicaragua, Níger, Nigeria, Panamá, Sao Tomé e Príncipe, Senegal, Spain, Syria, Swaziland, Togo, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Zaire.
The IBI has been the sole intergovernmental international organization whose objective was to assist in a permanent way to its member countries in the field of Informatics, Information Technologies, for helping them to understand better the repercussion of the Informatics in society and to obtain the best of its possibilities, collaborating and helping its member countries in the formulation of strategies and policies for informatics for economic development.
With these objectives, the ICC organized in October 1965 the first International symposium on Economics of Automatic Data Processing held in Amsterdam (The Netherlands). Later, the IBI organized already in 1974 the second international symposium on Economics of Informatics held in Mainz (Germany) on September 1974. In October 1972 The IBI-ICC organized in Florence (Italy) the First World Conference on Informatics in Government.
Since 1975 the IBI intensified its activities in the area of development of governmental policies and strategies for informatics. The objective of IBI was, already then, to help its member countries to establish policies for the development of Informatics in their societies. In November 1975 it organized in Baghdad /Iraq) an international symposium on National Planning for Informatics in Developing Countries in which some 500 participants from 53 countries were present and which proceedings were published.
Since 1976 on the IBI organized a series of Workshops for the study of policies and strategies in Informatics that were held in Punta Ala and in Venice (Italy). These works culminated in the International Conference on Strategies and Policies on Informatics, the SPIN Conference that was organized by the IBI and the UNESCO with the support of the Spanish Government and took place in September 1978 in Torremolinos (Spain) with the participation of 86 countries, among them the so-called big powers as the USA and the USSR.
Another of the subjects dealt by the IBI was that of the transborder data flows in relation to personal data protection. With that purpose it organized in Rome (Italy) in September 1980 the first International Conference on Transborder Data Flows followed by a second one held in 1984 also in Rome (Italy). Both conferences draw a large participation of countries and experts.
Within this context of Policies and Strategies for Informatics, the IBI also organized regional conferences. This in Latin-American it organized the Latin-American Conferences of Authorities of Informatics (CALAI) held in Argentina (1970), México (1972), Argentina (1979), México (1980), Chile (1981), Brazil (1982), Uruguay (1983), México (1984), Argentina (1985 y 1987) and afterwards continued by organized by others. In Africa the IBI organized in 1979 in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) the first African conference on Informatics followed by a second one held in Dakar (Senegal) in 1983. The IBI also sponsored in 1976 the first SEARC Conference held in Singapore.
The IBI was very interested in the development of Informatics training. For that purpose it created several regional centres for Informatics training, one in 1976 in Madrid (Spain), the CREI, which with the support of the Spanish Government continued its activities until 1997, another one in Mexico D.F. (Mexico), the CREALC in 1981, another in Dakar (Senegal) in 1983. The IBI also had a large fellowship program for training students from member developing countries in developed ones. In 1983, the IBI with the Argentinean government created a foundation in Argentina for starting what would be later on the ESLAI ( Latin-American school for informatics) facilitating it first funding.
Within the Latin-American geographical Framework of action the IBI organized two important events: in April 1984 it participated directly in the Round Table on the Informatics a factor of development or of dependence for Latin America held within the X CALAI held in Viña del mar (Chile) the proceedings being published by the IBI. And in May 1984, with the collaboration of the government of President Belisario Betancourt of Colombia, the IBI organized the meeting on Informatics and Soveignty—an strategy for regional integration, held in Cali (Colombia) which gave the opportunity to the foundation of the Club of Cali. The final report was also published by IBI.
The IBI also dealt with many other areas of Informatics and its applications such for example in the Industrial area for which it created a research area in Valencia (Spain), the IBIDI together with the Spanish Government. Similarly the IBI with the purpose of studying the relations of Informatics with the Press it organized the Pressinfo Symposium held in October 1984 in Valencia (Spain), where it also organized in May 1986 the Sisifo Symposium on the change of the Industrial Society in the Information Society.
The IBI drove the technical assistance for the cooperation with its member countries in the national plans as was done with Chile in 1976, with Iraq in 1977, with Tunisia in 1979, in which also technical assistance was given for developing standard contracts for equipment and services.
The IBI collaborated at the beginning of the 80s of last Century in a trial of standardization of the use or the Arab language in informatics. To this effect it organized and financed a committee, the COARIN for the adaptation of Arabic writing to the ASCII code task, which at that time, resulted very difficult.
The IBI, already in the 70s of last Century was drying the development of Informatics Law Publishing a Lumber of Studies in the relationship of Law and Informatics in the diverse fields of Society. Besides it participated and collaborated in diverse congresses in this matter.
Among the Publications made by the IBI it should be pointed out the magazine AGORA published between 1981 and 1986 with 15 numbers and dedicated to subjects on Informatics in a world on transformation. .