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Cuba Forms a CS Professional Society -- It's No ACM
lpress writes: The formation of the Unión de Informáticos de Cuba (UIC) was announced at a Havana conference and a 7,500 person teleconference (no mean feat in Cuba). My first reaction was "cool — like a Cuban ACM," but there are significant differences between ACM and UIC. For example, one must apply to the Ministry of Communication to be accepted into the UIC and the application form asks about membership in political organizations like the Communist Party or Young Communists League along with technical qualifications. A CS degree is required (sorry Bill Gates). UIC members must be Cuban, while ACM has chapters in 57 nations. ACM has student chapters, but they are less needed in Cuba, which has over 600 youth computer clubs where kids take classes and play games and promising students are tracked and channeled into technical schools.
Are their journals open access? That seems like the communist way to do it
Communism has never been about "open access" or serving the people. It has always been about preserving the privileges of the elite, and enhancing class distinctions. In communist China, your hereditary class is printed on you national ID card, and you can be denied access to housing, healthcare, public schools and even food, based on your class. 98% of the 30 million people that starved to death during the Great Leap Forward had the "wrong" mark on their ID cards. The 7 million Ukrainians murdered during the Holodomor were mostly killed because of their class. Open source software emerged from capitalist societies, not communist countries. The top-down nature of communist societies actually makes corporatism easier, and equates non-conformity with treason.