In early 1940, the modern computer industry was born, on the wings of the super secret decoding and cryptology organization known as MK Ultra, at a huge mansion held by the British Military Intelligence Establishment, known as Bletchley-Park. 

A British Telephone Company Engineer by the unlikely name of Tommy Flowers had an idea for making a stored program electronic computer that could variably solve highly complicated teletype encryption used by Nazi Germany, generated by IBM punched Card Systems sold illicitly to Nazi Germany by Watson Business Machines, translated using a 12 roller wheel encryption unit onto paper tape sent on Teletypes to German Military Leadership originally manufactured under the name "Lorenz Cipher System". 

In responding to the inability of the Allies to safeguard convoys and find out what the Nazi's were up to, a secret project called "Able" was formed, and within it Flowers found a way to build a vacuum tube, paper tape, relay based electronically programmable computer, called Colossus, to break the Nazi Codes.  During WWII, long before ENIAC was even a gleam in U Penn's eye, Colossus was breaking Nazi Codes using his concept of "software" that could be easily reprogrammed.  And it was breaking the Nazi codes in under 1 hour. As Colossus's were cloned by MK Ultra, the Computer Industry was born simultaneously, called into creation by human ingenuity and the need for 10 Colossi to be hard at work making it possible for the Allies to win the War: the need for Survival. 

No one in the US, England or anywhere else found out about the 10 Colossi until 1978 when they were declassified and the British broke them in pieces and destroyed their parts (all but one) long before anyone could ever figure them out.  This remarkable and history altering revelation took place long after many famous and decorated heroes of the Computer Industry had already come forward to take credit for Tommy Flowers' many innovations. 

A Loyal Subject of England, after it's revelation, Sir Thomas Flowers, Knight of the Realm, later only made modest speaking engagements about his remarkable invention: the Programmable Electronic Computer.  Sir Thomas Flowers, inventor of the Programmable Electronic Computer, passed away quietly in 1998, after reconstructing a complete Colossus Installation for the Bletchley Park Museum in Cambridge, where it remains in operation today.  Colossus is a testimonial to how the need for Human Survival can trigger a Universe Shaking Innovation and Technological Revolution.

And yet, that Technological Revolution took place  so quietly that not even the entire Nazi German Military, it's Leaders and it's Intelligence Organizations EVER knew of it's existence: an upper hand so significant, that the far superior machinations of Nazi Germany, organized and orchestrated by the finest Hollerinth programmers of IBM and Nazi Germany, the veritable Master Race, didn't stand a chance against the United States and Great Britain with 10 super secret Colossus Computers leading the charge of mathematicians and decoders who were eavesdropping on every single Nazi radio conversation and coded written message sent from 1940 to the end of the War.  Without this remarkable technology, the War might never have been won.

During ACSA's efforts at exposing the history of the Programmable Electronic Computer, we learned that computation technology often lives or dies (or humanity could live or die) on the basis of the FUNDAMENTAL BUSINESS ETHICS of the manufacturer and/or supplier of that technology.  We realized that Nazi Germany, who relied mainly on IBM Hollerinth Punch Card Technology lost, and England and the US, who relied on the Bletchley Park Colossus Computers, had won. 

The difference in ethics between Bletchley Park and IBM Corporation, was like Day and Night, respectively (given IBM's decision to supply cards and machinery covertly to Nazi Germany and allow their German employees access to the Census Records of Europe, which identified the whereabouts of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust Death Camps), we decided it would be best, if the many company's who emerge within our industry should have their business ethics measured like a yardstick, and in the event that they breached their ethics in a substantial way, that the Public have REAL TIME access to those infractions, and that said companies should have any certification as to their ethics, suspended, revoked or reinstated after correction and / or appeal, depending upon how they behaved.

And so, we created the CIBEC (pronounced like the Canadian Province.) Project.

After much long evaluation of programs in our industry, we realized that one or two companies actually had the ability to rig the outcome of any evaluation of them, notably IBM, Microsoft, Krell, HP, Compaq, Unisys, and many others with substantial economic incentives that have driven many organizations to economic ends to satisfy these businesses.  And so, we decided that the only way to be impartial, was to evaluate each independently on a 1-100 rating system based on points, and to ascertain a level below which were they to fall, they'd be "no longer certified".  Furthermore, we felt that certain acts by companies, such as SPAMMING, or deliberately engaging in practices intended to undermine or hurt smaller companies directly through deliberate misrepresentation, would qualify for immediate suspension of the CIBEC Certification.  We decided to make a CIBEC Certification rating above the 80 level VERY HARD TO GET, reserved only for those companies willing to really try to establish that their ethics were the finest in the world, and a minimum of 50 required for Minimum Certification.  This and our points scoring system, we feel, gave us the maximum ability to rate a company without subjecting ourselves to conflicts of interest.

It is our belief that the CIBEC represents a standard rating system that could give consumers a better chance to ascertain the survivability of the products and services they are offered, and businesses a better chance of ascertaining the value of a relationship with the subject ratee company.

And so, the CIBEC Project has taken root.  We are presently in the STUDY phases of the Project, and will be issuing a Public Access Database (the CIBEC PAD) that you will be able to examine online for the purposes of determining what our opinion is of the Business Ethics of a particular entity within the Computer Industry.  If we are successful and the public and business communities are satisfied with our criteria and ratings, we believe that a Better Computer Industry will be the result as companies strive to clean up their act and make the reality of doing business with them much more like the claims they make about what doing business with them is really like. Nothing but good can come of such an effect, we believe.

The notions that "We're Accountable?" has not been well received at some companies. They, who do not trust anyone but their own self-rating, or those ratings companies they influence economically... often give themselves quality awards.  By nature, a company's marketing efforts have a goal: to sell products or services, and so anything that might stand in that path as an obstacle, represents a considerable threat to such companies.  However, because we are uninfluenced by any of our considered subjects within our industry, economically, the CIBEC Project believes it can operate fairly and impartially in all respects. 

We will be publishing the links to the database and various administrative functions, found at the top left, very soon.

The CIBEC Project is operating from an anonymous, independent grant that is budgeted to fund it's first 99 years of operations, and it will set forward it's own rules on how it draws it's opinions and publishes them.  For more information, email: CIBEC@acsa.net.

Copyright (c) 2003  The American Computer Scientists Association Inc.  All Rights Reserved.