

ACM and the Professional Programmer - edmccard
http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2639990

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peterkelly
The paywall has to go.

As researchers, the very purpose behind publishing is to make our work
available to as many people as possible. The ACM and other publishers _used_
to facilitate this. Now, the role they play has the exact opposite effect -
that of _restricting_ access to information. Furthermore, requiring authors to
hand over copyright, as opposed to licensing their work to ACM under suitable
terms (e.g. creative commons) no longer make sense. I note the recent
introduction of author-pays publishing, and this is a step in the right
direction, but the prices seem way out of line given distribution costs.

I made the decision several years ago that I will not allow my scholarly work
to be restricted from those who wish to view it but aren't members. As such, I
refuse to publish in any venue that does not allow open access. I see the ACM
primarily as a racket, acting like a self-interested, for-profit corporation -
not an one that represents the true ethos of the scientific community, which
involves openly sharing the results of research.

I encourage anyone who still has any faith in the paywall publishing ecosystem
to watch the recent Aaron Swartz documentary, "The Internet's own Boy". This
will make you angry and realise how corrupt the system of ACM, IEEE, Elsevier
and similar organisations truly is. If ACM wishes to have any relevance going
forward, it needs fundamental change, lead from the top.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
To be fair, you can put your paper on your own site with minimal modifications
(an extended version with an extra sentence). Most people who care about their
papers do this, but it is very annoying that the Digital Library is not a very
effective resource, and that the ACM is stuck mostly in the past.

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asgard1024
Living authors can put their paper online, yes. But what about all the older
articles from authors that are already dead, to which the copyright is now
owned by some corporation? That's one of the worst things in the current
copyright system.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Yes, this gets me also: the DL is often the only place where an old paper can
be found.

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ryanobjc
When I Read the title I thought of the Google and Apple wage fixing case, and
I thought... the ACM really isn't representing the professional programmer
much. Not in the same way that the AMA, Bar association or many other
professional associations do.

Some might say, well that's not what the ACM is for. Why not? Continuing
education is great, although frankly being a journal publisher isnt
'education' to me. But if the ACM wants to really expand, they need to think
about what the working programmer really needs.

If the answer to all this is 'keep publishing stuff' then maybe the ACM is
just an academic bridge, and these articles about being for the 'professional
programmer' should just stop.

~~~
hga
Indeed. There were some serious issues in the late '80s and on, like removing
the tax safe harbor for consultant programmers, and the ACM was nowhere to be
found on these issues, which is one of the things that prompted me to drop my
membership. Maybe if I was an academic I would have viewed it differently,
but....

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lowry
I am a 38yo professional programmer. I used to be an ACM member largely
because I could benefit from the CACM subscription. But at some point, the
stack of CACM paper editions filled my cellar, and around the same time Moshe
Vardi published one of his controversial editorials on public access, so I
cancelled my ACM membership, because:

* I could not get a digital-only subscription

* CACM's position on public access made feel uneasy about supporting this ancient organisation with my money.

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josephlord
I was a member for a few years. I left when my role moved away from software
development for few years.

I'm thinking of rejoining, there are some interesting articles [Edit this is
incorect: and if you pay for the digital library you get Safari Online access
too I think]. ACM seems much more interesting than the BCS which (from an
outside prejudice perspective) feels even less relevant.

Edit: Looking at the site again I'm wrong and Safari Online access is extra.
Not sure if I'm misremembering or it has changed. Given this I'm unlikely to
rejoin.

~~~
jschulenklopper
Agree on the edit. For clarity: about 700 Safari online books, videos from
O'Reilly and other publishers are available to ACM Professional Members
without a subscription to the Digital Library necessary. In addition 500
Books24x7 titles and more than 150 Morgan Kaufmann and Syngress books are
available to ACM Professional and Student members, again without Digital
Library subscription required.

Professional membership to ACM is about $100, and subscription to the ACM
Digital Library is an additional $100. Student memberships fees are reduced to
20-30% of that.

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icco
I wonder what percentage of employees at Google are ACM members. That in
itself might inform Vint of how useless the ACM is.

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peaton
Hmm, I'm getting a 500 error. What's up?

