Founded | 1966 |
---|---|
Type | Professional Organization |
Focus | Computer and information processing science and technology |
Area served
|
Australia |
Method | Publications, Conferences, Technical councils, Industry standards, Certification and training, Scholarships |
Membership
|
22,000+ |
Key people
|
Anthony Wong (President) Andrew Johnson (Chief Executive Officer) |
Mission | To promote and develop the ICT profession |
Website | http://www.acs.org.au |
Anthony Wong (President)
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) is an association for information and communications technology professionals with over 22,000 members Australia-wide. According to its Constitution, its objects are "to advance professional excellence in information technology" and "to promote the development of Australian information and communications technology resources".
The ACS was formed on 1 January 1966 from five state based societies. It was formally incorporated in the Australian Capital Territory on 3 October 1967. Since 1983 there have been chapters in every state and territory.
The ACS is a member of the Australian Council of Professions ("Professions Australia"), the peak body for professional associations in Australia. Internationally, ACS is a member of the International Professional Practice Partnership (IP3), South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation, International Federation for Information Processing and The Seoul Accord.
The ACS is also a member organization of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO), a worldwide association of professional organizations which have come together to provide a forum to standardize, professionalize, and otherwise advance the discipline of Enterprise Architecture.
The ACS operates various chapters, annual conferences, special interest groups, and a professional development program. Members are required to comply with a Code of Ethics and a Code of Professional Conduct.
The ACS describes itself as "the professional association for Australia’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector" and "Australia’s primary representative body for the ICT workforce", but industry analysts have questioned this based on the small percentage of IT professionals who are ACS members. The issue has been discussed in the press since at least 2004, and in 2013 the Sydney Morning Herald wrote that "the ACS aggressively seeks to control the important software engineering profession in Australia, but ... less than 5 per cent of the professional IT workforce belongs to the ACS." The ACS Foundation came up with a slightly higher figure: "Depending on the data used to calculate the number of ICT professionals in Australia, however, [ACS] membership represents approximately 6.5 per cent of the total."