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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.
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
From the article: "... Stallman submitted his application without citing any formal association with the Communist Party, but instead described his pioneering work with the FSF and authorship of the GPL. Unexpectedly, however, his application was declined. When asked to comment on Stallman's rejection, a UIC official responded, 'What kind of organization does he think this is? We're Communists, not a bunch of (expletive deleted) radical ideologues!'"