Highlights of OCG History

Professional relaunch of OCG website 

Website ocgcert.com was also redesigned and updated.

Our first major live event after the Covid-19-pandemia is a celebration of 25 years European Computer Driving Licence. Partners from adult education and schools discussed the achievements and future of ICDL/ECDL.

The Ministry of the Interior accredited the OCG as qualified authoriy (QuaSte) according to the NIS directive.

The OCG takes over all ECDL activities on Austrian schools as of the academic year 2020/21.

Launch of Heinz Zemanek Lectures in honour of the founder of the association on the occation of his 100th birthday. First speaker is Niklaus Wirth.

The first Zivildiener (conscientious objector) starts his mandatory alternative service in the OCG. His supports the innovation team in projects related to kids and young adults.

OCG receives awards

- for event organisation by the Wirtschaftsagentur Wien
- for project ECDL for apprentices the ECDL Best Practice Award
- for Bebras Challenge the eAward (category education) 

Start of the initiative Bildung 4.0 (Education 4.0) with partners VÖSI, Digital City Wien, ICT Austria and the Swiss Informatics Society

Start of the CSR-project OCG Cares

10 years Bebras Challenge in Austria

The GI Dissertationspreis (dissertation award) is awarded in co-operation with OCG. With Markus Steinberger, TU Graz, the award goes to Austria for the first time.

OCG commissions a study on self assessment versus actual computer skills, carried out by meinungsraum.at

The OCG Working Group Energy Informatics is founded and henceforth the OCG participates in the conference series DACH Conference on Energy Informatics.

The new event sercies OCG Horizonte on ICT topics and trends is launched.

In co-operation with the TMW and the TU Wien the OCG organised a birthday celebration for the 90th birthday of Heinz Zemanek in TMW (Vienna Museum of Science and Technology).

To promote students from univiersities of applied sciences (Fachhochschule) the OCG Incentive Award FH is introduced. Patricia Derler, FH Oberösterreich, Hagenberg, and Günther Lanner, FH Kufstein, share the first award.

The first Informatics Day for teachers takes place.

OCG receives two ECDL Awards:

 - for the establishment of digital signatures on electronic ECDL certificates 
 - for the ECDL apprentice programme at SPAR Austria

The OCG introduces the Bebras Challenge on Austrian schools: an international initiative to promote Informatics (Computer Science, or Computing) and computational thinking.

The OCG becomes national partner of Creative Commons Austria.

First lecture of the event series Competence Circle for ICT CEOs.

At the e|Gov Days the current state of e-government is discussed.

All ECDL certificates shall be accessible for people with disabilities. The initiative ECDL PD (European Computer Driving Licence for People with Disabilities) is launched. 

ECDL grows: the number of skills cards exceeds 35,000, 150 educational institutions become ECDL Test Centers, the OCG employs an ECDL team

Kick-off event of the initiative AT21 (Austrian IT initiative for the 21st century)

Organisation of the IFIP'98 Computer World Congress in Vienna and Budapest in co-operation with the Hungarian Computer Society (NJSZT)

We welcome our German sister society in Austria: The GI Annual Meeting Informatik '96 is held in co-operation with the OCG in Klagenfurt, Carinthia.

The OCG has always been aware of cybersecurity which led to the establishment of the OCG Working Group IT-Security in 1993.

Accessibility in ICT has always been a key topic in the OCG: The ICCHP (International Conference on Computers for Handicapped Persons) is held for the first time. It becomes one of the major conferences on this topic.

The Heinz Zemanek Award for excellent degree dissertations in the field of informatics and related areas is introduced. The first award goes to Alfred Kobsa.

The OCG, the Austrian pioneer in informatics Hermann Maurer and the Hungerian sister society (NJSZT) jointly founded the branch association Forschungsinstitut für Angewandte Informationsverarbeitung in Graz, Styria.

Together with OVE the OCG Working Group remote data processing is established.

The IFIP launches the first international programming competition for young people and the OCG organises the Austrian national competition. A microcomputer and the participation in the orld Conference on Computers in Education in Lausanne are the attractive prizes for the winners.

This event developed into the Jugend Informatik Wettbewerb of the OCG. 

The fist volume of the OCG Schriftenreihe (book series) is published. In the booklet below Austrian ICT news papers are listed, a very useful service in pre-internet days.

After many years of preparatory work the inaugural General Assembly was convened on 4 March 1975. One of the founders of the OCG is Austria's computer pioneer Heinz Zemanek.