What is on Your Mind?

I am attempting to narrow down to one professional organization; however they all sound good, have similar benefits ...

So I was wondering if anyone has a founded preference? Some on who is a member of one of the organizations, epically if you are also an IT Pro as well. I would also like some form or reasoning behind your pick.


Thanks in advance,

I used to be a member of Usenix and Sage. The "benefits" were pretty thin to say the least. I am currently a member of ACM. Their online library is very extensive. I can download a copy of almost *any* famous computer science paper. Also there are a few hundred self paced web courses for training in many OS's and languages. I believe that the online training may be enough to persue most Certifications. Also there are some online books. And thousands of magazine articles. There are other benefits, but this online stuff is why I stay a member.

What is "Computer Society"? Do you mean IEEE Computer Society? I have no experience with that and if anyone does, I would be interested in a review.

Perderabo,

Thanks for the input. It sounds like ACM might be the way to go.

Also:
Yes, I ment IEEE Computer Society.

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-Bru

I agree that ACM is a very solid organization for computing professionals. IEEE is good too, but ACM seems to be more "creative" when discussing computing abstractions above the network layer.

I could not remember how much I paid for ACM membership when I first responded. But I just renewed on-line so I know now. Basic membership is $99 per year. Access to the great on-line library I mentioned is another $99 per year. The on-line form had optional additional contributions totaling $30 which I allowed to stay (I'm such a pushover...). So the total was $228. Not exactly cheap...but worth it.

I have also found publishing in ACM to have more visability. So there are benefits to authors as well as readers.

Thanks for the further input guys!

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-Adam B.