Just as we all must keep pace with insurance fraudsters, IASIU has kept pace with technological change over the years, primarily with our IASIU Website. Let’s take a quick look back at how IASIU has adapted to the tremendous growth of the Internet and kept pace.

In 1984, the year IASIU began, the Internet only linked about 1,000 hosts, mostly between university and corporate labs. That same year, the term “cyberspace” was used for the first time. A few years later, in 1989, the World Wide Web was created but still only linked scientists from universities and institutes. It wasn’t until 1991 that the first website in history was launched but initial growth of the Internet was very slow. That was about to change, quickly.

Sometime during the late 1990’s and into the early 2000’s, IASIU realized that we needed to keep pace with technology and decided to create the IASIU Website (www.iasiu.org), initially to transition away from a paper member directory that was often outdated upon delivery to an electronic, online version. The primary purpose for this move was to improve upon IASIU member communication. Very quickly, the conveniences of a website became apparent and IASIU began adding online functionalities to benefit our members. As our first generation IASIU Website grew, it eventually offered our members an electronic, printable member directory, an online member application, bulletin boards, and information about our seminar and job opportunities.

In the mid-2000’s, the IASIU Website continued to grow and the second generation offered significant administrative functionality and member enhancements, to include CEU tracking, news, an events calendar, a discussion forum, chapter management, access to our IASIU publications (SIU Today and SIU eNews), online polling and voting, etc. It was during the latter stages of our second generation Website that we began to enter the social realm of the Internet with Facebook and LinkedIn.

Today, over ten years later, our third generation and most recent rebuild of the IASIU Website continues to improve to keep pace with technology and member needs. Our current Website offers all of the prior features but now offers language translation and formatting suitable for both desktop and mobile devices. Over 2.7 billion people or 39% of the world’s population use the Internet today. This tremendous growth, when compared to the first 1,000 Internet users in the 1980’s, proves that to keep pace, IASIU must maintain and excel in this arena. Our IASIU Website and its global reach accomplish this.

As we continue to grow, so shall our IASIU Website. Stay tuned for our next enhancements… who knows where we’ll be in another 30 years?

Website/Communications Committee Members:

Chair
Geoff Keah, CASA, CSAA, AIC, FCLS, CIFI
AmTrust Financial Services

Steve Beltz
National Insurance Crime Bureau

Margaret Fleming, CIFI, FCLS
South Carolina Farm Bureau

Erik Boillat, CFE, CIFA, CIFI
Auto Owners Insurance Company