ACM.org Is a Massive Website That Claims

ACM.ORG is a massive website that claims to be the biggest and most comprehensive source of information on computer science. A large percentage of people visiting this site are professions looking for current information on computing world, mostly related to postgraduate level of studies. Professionals who are already in the field also frequent the site.

Since ACM is an old website which has been online for nearly two decades, there is a plethora of information and resources available for the computing world. Though it ranks between 5,000 and 6,000 on visitor frequency level according to Alexa ranking, I personally found the site very useful primarily because of its digital library that contained publication with latest information, news and reviews.

The main problem I witnessed with ACM is that of membership. It is a member-restricted site, which means there is no way a guest, can first assess the merits of this site before he actually becomes a member. By that time, it may be too late and a person may feel trapped. For this reason, I feel it would have been much better if at least some publications were free of cost such as the flagship publication called ACM Communication. This could be kept free and if not, at least some free trial could be offered so people could determine for themselves if they really wanted to join the site or not.

Apart from its libraries, the best feature of ACM is its blogs available on the ACM Communication pages. These blogs offer some of the very latest news and reviews on variety of computing issues. As a computer professional, I like to stay connected with what is really happening in the technology world. This site contains the kind of information that would help me stay in touch with the changes. However I still felt that this site was not the one stop solution that I was looking for.

As a computing professional, we do not have much time on our hands to browse the Internet for very long. We need news, which can be trusted, and we need it in real time. I found that ACM was not uploaded the very recent news as quickly as they should. I had to still google the news to get the most recent update. This is one of the drawbacks of the site.

The site may also encourage a professional to become part of a special interest group. Despite your intention to stay clear of these groups, ACM has this very interesting feature, which actually made me join one of the groups called SIGCAS. This group represents the ethical aspect of computers and what can be unethical about changing computing trends, use of computers for longer stretches and the intrusion of computers in our personal lives. I found this feature immensely informative and very appealing too because it shows you a different side of the computing world. Most computer professionals are seen as "geeks" who know more about writing and developing codes than anything else. But that is not true and you find that out when you come across people who care about more than just the hardware and software. It's when I learned how many issues are connected with computer usage and really found it thought provoking.

Learning center is also useful though I do not think I will be using that feature much. While it has good information on available sources and seminars etc., I still found that other sites had better information and hence also joined them.

One really useful link was that of Job and Career Center. I think many professionals would want to check this link more often because it allows one to post their resumes, that may actually be a good way to get responses and see where one stands in the job market and what opportunities may be available to him.

ACM cares about computer education and this is clear from the website. Scholarships for attending conferences are also made available for qualifying members. I feel that it is very essential for the promotion of computer science as this can allow people to pay part of their travel expenses if residing abroad. Scholarships especially are meant for women who are not as well represented in the computing field as men. For this reason, these scholarships have been arranged.