

Ask HN: IEEE membership. Is it worth it? - Jakob

Hi, I attended a conference which was much less for an IEEE member, so I joined some years ago.<p>They send those fancy newsletters talking about myIEEE, I like some of the magazine’s content. They also talk about IEEE member meetings which I never saw in my vicinity. To me it looks like another dull association.<p>But I hesitate to cancel my membership, yet. Is there some advantage which I miss?
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tptacek
I've had IEEE/ACM memberships in the past, and while I liked getting printed
journal articles, I never got any real value out of it; every paper I've ever
wanted to read has been available online, and I generally wouldn't attend an
academic conference unless I was presenting at it. So I'd be a "No" vote.

Also bear in mind that funding the IEEE is not an entirely politically neutral
act. For instance:

<http://cr.yp.to/writing/ieee.html>

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CyberFonic
I've been an IEEE and ACM member for over 20 years. Although I've cut back on
the number of publications I subscribe to, I still find reading them very
informative. I can read them on the train/bus/beach. They provide a snapshot
of the state-of-the-art. Consider the subscriptions to be part of your on-
going professional development. In Australia, the subscriptions are tax
deductible so that helps too. As for the myIEEE, I find Google Scholar more
useful. But that's when I'm trying to follow a specific topic. The permanent
e-mail address on acm.org has been excellent for staying in contact as I
change jobs, ISPs, etc.

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pcc
For me its worth it even just for their "Financial Advantage Program" --
specifically the insurance plans:

<http://ieeeinsurance.com>

We don't have access to all the plan types here in Canada, and I can't speak
for price comparisons between the IEEE plans and those of other providers in
other regions; but in Canada the premium on e.g. a group term life T-100 blows
away anything else I've seen...

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ieatpaste
I agree with the tptacek's "no". I had a brief membership during school, which
allowed me to attend workshops and read research papers, but neither seem
relevant now. There are networking events, but I've never been so I can't
comment.

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russell
I used to belong to ACM but dropped my membership, because it wasnt worth the
$250 to get the journals I was interested in.

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deutronium
I find that you can use 'Google Scholar' to download most papers that are on
IEEE

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mahmud
CiteSeer is still good too.

