Merge!

Cooperation is a good idea and I support it. But why do we need two professional societies for computing? Efforts are divided, and resources more expensive to maintain and deliver to members. Jump beyond cooperation and discuss merging to form one powerful and inclusive professional society for computing.

Due to events caused by the recession, I couldn't justify CS on top of my IEEE membership, so I had to cancel it, but kept basic IEEE. I was thinking about canceling IEEE in favor of ACM when it comes time to renew, because I miss the computing info, especially Computer Graphics & Applications I used to get. I know ACM has some awesome graphics content SIGGRAPH !!!
If a merge increased activity and resources without increasing the CS membership cost, I could easily justify the cost of CS+ACM membership. I wonder how many Computer Software Engineers are in the same situation as me. Please remember the lesson we all learned in Kindergarten - Share!
Thanks!

Fold IEEE CS into ACM. It's a bit pointless to have both (and also really annoying to have to maintain 2 memberships in order to perform any meaningful computer science research.) ACM is the leader in Computer Science, IEEE should remain in the realm of EE and just fold the CS into ACM.

Based on this and other threads in this forum, I think it's quite obvious that what people want is a merger and I'm definitely one of them!

As a practitioner and member of the IEEE-CS and ACM SIGSOFT, as well as a subscriber of IEEE Software, I find myself using my IEEE-CS membership a lot more because it constantly provides me with practical and timely information that helps me do a better job. However, whenever I need to base decisions on sound research, both the IEEE-CS and ACM provide me with the information I need -- And often, the ACM provides me more information.

I know the ACM is mainly for academics and the IEEE-CS is mainly for practitioners, but at the end of the day, that distinction doesn't matter and hence the overlap they have at the moment: The two organizations overlap because their communities overlap!

I agree! Please find a way to merge.

As a member of both the ACM and the IEEE-CS, I fully support the merger. The merger would provide numerous benefits mentioned in this forum (e.g., collaboration on the local level, joint work on education and certification, etc.).

I strongly disagree with the argument by D.W.S. that

The fact that the 2 societies have some differences in mindset (along with a number of commonalities) is exactly the reason why it would be very beneficial to merge them. Practitioners (including engineers) should learn from academics/scientists and academics/scientists should learn from practitioners. The proposed merger would help break the (somewhat artificial) barriers and increase collaboration across similar (but somewhat different) communities. If some members want to additionally organize into smaller communities with similar mindsets, the merged organization should also allow this (similarly to ACM SIGs or IEEE-CS TCs).

Of course, there are political issues here how to organize the merger. It can be approached gradually (close collaboration first, full merger later) or directly. I favor direct merger, because the benefits are obvious to me, but I would not object starting with close collaboration if there is a clear path towards full merger later. The main political "thorn" in the is the relationship between the merged organization with the rest of the IEEE. I suggest that the IEEE is merged with the ACM into professional organization, but with separate sub-organizations (the name is not important, but could be "association") that would be composed of smaller societies. The name of the IEEE+ACM merged organization does not matter (it could be "The Institute for Electrical, Electronic, Communication, and Information Technologies (IEECIT)" or something else). The key is that the merged IEEE-CS + ACM would be the "Information Technologies" association within the merged organization (IEEE+ACM) and that each association would have significant independence (!) from the overall merged organization (otherwise, there could be problems in convincing some ACM members for the merger). The ACM SIGs and the IEEE-CS TCs would become societies of the "Information Technologies" association. The other associations within the merged organization would be "Communication Technologies" (the IEEE Communications Society is the 2nd largest in the IEEE after the IEEE-CS and some other IEEE societies are related to communications), "Electrical Technologies" (or a similarly named association), and "Electronic Technologies" (or "Electronics"). Some general-interest societies (e.g., the Education Society, the Professional Communications Society) might be cross-branch. There could be various combinations of membership, consistent with the current IEEE and ACM offerings. That is, it would be possible to be a member of the merged organization without being a member of an association or a society, but it should also be possible to be a member of only the "Information Technologies" association and maybe even of only a particular society (e.g., "Computer Graphics") within the new "Information Technology" association.

A well organized vote about whether to merge (it seems to me that most IEEE-CS and ACM members are for it) and which merger options are preferred is crucial. It is also important to lobby the other IEEE societies (particularly the large and influential IEEE Communications Society) to support this merger. Those in the IEEE who oppose the merger should be reminded that the IEEE itself became as a merger of the AIEE and the IRE and that this past merger produced clear benefits.

Vladimir Tosic, Ph.D.

We should merge...

I can't afford both memberships so I chose IEEE because it has more of what I am looking for, along with the other Electrical Engineering info that applies to my job... that said some of my colleagues chose ACM membership. I can see its benefits as well (the CBT Modules seem to be quite robust,) I wish I could afford both, but with IEEE and IEEE Computer Society membership fees I cannot...



We can always achieve more working together.

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Cooperation is a good idea and I support it.  But why do we need two professional societies for computing?  Efforts are divided, and resources more expensive to maintain and deliver to members.  Jump beyond cooperation and discuss merging to form one powerful and inclusive professional society for computing.