Anyone here an ACM member?

aidan_walsh

Since I got back to college, I've noticed various notice boards advertising the ACM. After giving a quick glance over their website, and reading up on their codes of ethics etc, I have been thinking of perhaps joining. But I decided to come here first and see if anyone else is already with them, and what their opinions are of it.

Are you an ACM member? In either case, why?
If you are, do you feel it has benefited you in any way, and if so how?
My college doesn't have a SIG group. Would this be a disadvantage to me?
Has anyone done one of their courses? What are they like? Are they well recognised?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm just trying to gauge if it would be worth joining.

themole

If i were you i would join the IEEE and their computer soceity before joining the ACM.

aidan_walsh

themole wrote:

If i were you i would join the IEEE and their computer soceity before joining the ACM.

Any particular reasons?

Woof!

One of my lectureres in it and swears by it, tried to recruit a few of us but i don't know any other details.

deRanged

aidan_walsh wrote:

Are you an ACM member? Why?

Yes, for about 3 years now. I use the digital library all the time, and some of the courses they offer are very handy. (I should point out I'm a Ph.D student)

, do you feel it has benefited you in any way, and if so how?

Yeah. It's great for reading articles/journals, for finding authors and citations.
You get news alerts, and the conferences are handy to find too - though IEEE is probably better for conference finding.

My college doesn't have a SIG group. Would this be a disadvantage to me?
Has anyone done one of their courses? What are they like? Are they well recognised?

I've no idea for these.

if it would be worth joining.

check if your college has a portal - they may well have access for all students. UCC has for both the ACM and IEEE. I'm a member of both, and if I was choosing between them I'd go with the ACM - you get much more for your money.

themole

aidan_walsh wrote:

Any particular reasons?

The IEEE is bigger, having 360,000 member compared to ACM's 78,000 and has a lot more journals and also sponsors a lot more conferences. It is also more recognised in various fields, not just computer science.

But, bth the student costs are pittance for both: IEEE is $30 and ACM is $19.

If you are in college they will most likely have access to all of the ACM and IEEE, as they have here in UCD.

In deciding if to join both have pages devoted to that, IEEE benefits, ACM benefits are give in the previous ACM link.

GoneShootin

I joined the ACM as a student for my Masters and found it invaluable. They've started to offer eBooks aswell as your standard jounrnals and articles. Well worth the small money for the student edition.

The only reason I didn't join the IEEE was because I found everything I needed on the ACM. But I've no doubt that the IEEE is an excellent resource also. Certainly both will give you alot more than you would ever find in your college library.

DO IT.

themole

GoneShootin wrote:

Certainly both will give you alot more than you would ever find in your college library.

But most colleges will have subscriptions to both the IEEE and ACM.

Try to open this link from college to see if you have access to the IEEE Xplore site.

Here in UCD it says "Welcome University College Dublin" at the top of the page, which means the college has a subscription. In our case to all of the journals and afaik all of the content.

GoneShootin

True, but you can't connect to the digitial librarys from outside the college network without your own subscription. And when you're working into the wee hours catching up and 3 months of work a day before the handup date, you may not want to rely on access via the college alone

Hobbes

IEEE for three years now. Joined because I needed to do reseaerch for a patent and it worked out cheaper overall that way. They had a good online training site as well. Haven't been back to it in a while though (pales in comparisons to works).

themole

GoneShootin wrote:

True, but you can't connect to the digitial librarys from outside the college network without your own subscription.

I think you can. Lots of journals are accessable outside the college network.