On Thu, 2008-06-05 at 21:27 -0600, David Hilton wrote: > When were you involved with the ACM? We just got it restarted last > fall (the semester after I got to BYU). I don't know when it died, > but it must have been 2-3 years ago, but I'm not really sure, as > records are a bit jumbled...
The BYU ACM died, huh? I know it'll sound mean, but I'm glad to hear it. I'm also glad to hear you're bring it back. Now it can be done right. It's been at least 5 years since I've had any contact with the BYU ACM. It was mostly a vendor puppet and a pizza dispenser. It should have been a community that introduced its members to the concepts of continued personal academic development. The real ACM is a professional organization that provides resource for career development but with a focus on the core ideas behind emerging technologies not the latest vendor hype. That's what the BYU ACM should also be. Done right, the UUG and BYU ACM can complement each other. The UUG has traditionally been about specific technologies with an emphasis on freedom. For certain people that is very valuable, but it can also be limiting. The BYU ACM has more freedom to embrace a larger population and pursue more academic goals. The BYU ACM should help its members to see the relationship between their degrees and an IT career, help them realize that getting a degree isn't just a hoop to jump through, but an introduction to the language spoken by professionals doing the most interesting work in academia and industry. Invariably, doing so will require more exposure to corporate interests and I'm glad I don't have to help figure out how to lay the foundation for continued success. There's nothing wrong with bringing in experienced professionals as long as its done right. For example, I think it'd be great to bring in a developer or administrator from Exxon to share first hand knowledge of how they apply technology to analyze massive amounts of data effectively. There's a world of difference between that and a presentation by SuperMegaCorp(tm) about iWidget Maker 2008. Perhaps part of the answer is working hard to tap the network of BYU alumni. Today that might be much easier than it was 5 years ago. Not only can you try asking the BYU Alumni Association for help, you can also turn to resources like LinkedIn. It'll be hard, and probably only possible 2 or 3 times a year, but hopefully it would help set the tone for other meetings. -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
