The British Computer Society (BCS) wants to focus less
on three elements of its name: British, computer and
society.
These are the words of the BCS president Alan Pollard speaking
on the organisation's restructuring plans. He says the BCS needs to
better reflect its membership by having a larger proportion of
members with practical, rather than academic skills.
The 53-year-old organisation's own research shows it is seen by
many as a technical ivory tower with computer scientists as
members.
Major restructure
It is planning
a
major restructure in September in a drive to broaden its
membership. It wants to appeal not only to traditional IT
professionals, but also to people who use IT in their work and who
need to understand how technology can be used in business.
The charity, which represents and qualifies IT professionals,
has 70,000 members. But the figure represents only about 5% of the
BCS's potential membership, says CEO David Clarke. The number of
people who use IT in their profession is growing rapidly, and many
of them could benefit from joining the BCS, he says.
"These are people who are working in business whose job is to
implement business solutions, knowing the IT capabilities. This
reflects just how important IT is to business today. You cannot do
anything without technology," says Clarke.
The BCS will change its
Chartered IT
Professional qualifications in September to increase the
practical skills component.
Keeping up with change
Professor William Scott-Jackson at Oxford Strategic Consulting
says the reorganisation is needed to reflect the changes in the IT
industry. "The distinction between people who do things with
computers professionally and those who use computers in their
profession is becoming less clear."
Philip Treleaven, professor of computing at University College
London, is no longer a member of the BCS, but he says the bigger
the BCS membership the better. "It is a trade-off between academics
and professionals, and it is important to get a balance."
Adam Banks, senior vice-president Technology Office at Visa,
says it is essential for the BCS to attract a cross-section of the
technologically trained to its membership.
"The era of computing being a science that existed primarily in
academia and research labs is long behind us. With society's
reliance on technology as high as it is, computing has become a
global business and any society that seeks to provide standards and
certifications needs to be representative of the industry it
covers," he says.
The BCS wants to grow. The volume of traditional IT jobs is
growing more slowly than newer business-focused IT jobs. The
computing sector is still in its infancy, so despite the BCS's 53
years, it is definitely not too old to change.