The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a member of the steering committee for the 2013 International Year of Statistics, along with the ISI Bernoulli Society, American Statistical Association, Royal Statistical Society, International Biometric Society, and Institute of Mathematical Statistics.

Based in The Hague, The Netherlands, the ISI began in 1853 and has a rich history of international congresses dating back to that year. The ISI is known for its seven specialized associations and their extensive worldwide activities: Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability (BS), International Association of Survey Statisticians (IASS), International Association for Statistics Education (IASE), International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS), International Association for Statistical Computing (IASC), International Society for Business and Industry (ISBIS), and The International Environmetrics Society (TIES).

In addition to the efforts being undertaken by the steering committee, the ISI and its associations are planning several events and initiatives for Statistics 2013. The event will be recognized at the ISI’s biennial World Statistics Congress (WSC) in Hong Kong from August 25–30, and the ISI’s associations will organize satellite meetings and short courses.

The Bernoulli Society is one of the key groups making Statistics 2013 a reality. As 2013 is also the 300th anniversary of the publishing of Jakob Bernoulli’s Ars Conjectandi and the 250th anniversary of Thomas Bayes’ first public presentation of his work, the Bernoulli Society will celebrate 2013 in the following ways:

• A special issue of the Bernoulli Journal that will focus on invited papers covering future directions in probability and statistics. It will be accessible to everyone.
• A special issue of Stochastic Processes and Their Applications (SPA) will provide an overview of recent and future development of statistics for stochastic processes. The 36th SPA Conference in Boulder, Colorado, from July 29 July to August 2 will have an open lecture.
• A special issue of Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society in July about the effect of the work of Jakob Bernoulli’s family
• An invited paper session at the WSC titled “History I: Jakob Bernoulli’s ‘Ars Conjectandi’ as the Emergence of Probability”
• Lectures on Ars Conjectandi and Thomas Bayes at the 29th Meeting of European Statisticians (EMS)
• A session for the 300th anniversary of the St. Petersburg paradox and a panel discussion about the future of statistics in Budapest, Hungary, from July 20–25
• A special session for Ars Conjectandi at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Montréal, Canada, from August 3–8
• A separate international conference, Ars Conjectandi 1713–2013, in Basel, Switzerland, from October 15–16

The IASC is planning a Big Data analysis competition in connection with the ISI satellite meeting that has Big Data and statistical computing as its theme. The meeting will take place in Seoul, Korea, from August 22–23. A data set on a topic of global interest will be available. Individuals or groups are to develop a poster, and the winners will present their results at the satellite meeting in Seoul. Three winners will be invited to submit a manuscript to the IASC’s journal Computational Statistics and Data Analysis. Funds are being organized to host the winners in Seoul for their presentations.

The IASE’s International Statistical Literacy Project, launched in September, will hold its poster competition in 2013.

ISBIS is cosponsoring a workshop with the University Grants Commission of India. The workshop is on statistical analysis of time series data and application and is being organized by the department of statistics at the Cochin University of Science and Technology.

The ISI and its associations welcome your participation in the above-mentioned events. Any suggestions can be sent to isi@cbs.nl