Hi all, Its that time of the year when I again have to justify to myself my continued membership of the IEEE. What I get from my membership and associated Signal Processing Society membership is: - The IEEE magazine. - The Signal Processing Magazine. - The ability to buy IEEE transactions articles for $13 (otherwise $35 for non-members). - I can claim the membership on my tax return. The IEEE magazine is reasonably interesting, but its not material that I couldn't find elsewhere in say New Scientist (I'm a subscriber), on on the net at sites like Slashdot and Reddit. The Signal Processing Magazine is mostly filled with academic irrelevancies with little interest for a working engineer like myself with a strong interest in DSP but whose day-to-day engineering rarely touches on DSP. The obvious exception is the DSP Tricks and Tips column which is usually the first thing I read. The discount on IEEE papers is something I uses less than once a year. If I find an interesting thats hidden behind the IEEE knowledge firewall I usually attempt to find it somewhere else for free download. If that fails, I search for other papers that cover the same area. Its only if all other avenues fail *and* I really want the paper that I actually stump up the cash. Obviously, if the papers were say $2.50 to download I wouldn't think twice about paying, but $13 is way too much. Given the above, can someone remind me why I should renew my IEEE membership? Erik -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Erik de Castro Lopo ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Even Napoleon had his Watergate" -- Michael Spautz
To renew my IEEE membership or not?
Started by ●November 10, 2007
Reply by ●November 10, 20072007-11-10
On 10 Nov, 09:30, Erik de Castro Lopo <er...@mega-nerd.com> wrote:> Given the above, can someone remind me why I should renew my > IEEE membership?For what its worth -- the fact that you even ask the question might hint to the "obvious" answer... Rune
Reply by ●November 10, 20072007-11-10
On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 19:30:32 +1100, Erik de Castro Lopo <erikd@mega-nerd.com> wrote:>Hi all, > >Its that time of the year when I again have to justify to myself >my continued membership of the IEEE. What I get from my membership >and associated Signal Processing Society membership is: > > - The IEEE magazine. > - The Signal Processing Magazine. > - The ability to buy IEEE transactions articles for $13 (otherwise > $35 for non-members). > - I can claim the membership on my tax return. > >The IEEE magazine is reasonably interesting, but its not material >that I couldn't find elsewhere in say New Scientist (I'm a subscriber), >on on the net at sites like Slashdot and Reddit. > >The Signal Processing Magazine is mostly filled with academic >irrelevancies with little interest for a working engineer like myself >with a strong interest in DSP but whose day-to-day engineering >rarely touches on DSP. The obvious exception is the DSP Tricks and >Tips column which is usually the first thing I read. > >The discount on IEEE papers is something I uses less than once >a year. If I find an interesting thats hidden behind the IEEE >knowledge firewall I usually attempt to find it somewhere else >for free download. If that fails, I search for other papers that >cover the same area. Its only if all other avenues fail *and* >I really want the paper that I actually stump up the cash. > >Obviously, if the papers were say $2.50 to download I wouldn't >think twice about paying, but $13 is way too much. > >Given the above, can someone remind me why I should renew my >IEEE membership? > >ErikHi Erik, I've been a member of the SPS for many years now, and am an associate editor for the Sig. Proc. Magazine. Erik, you have managed to clearly and concisely describe my primary complaints against the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS). Good job! Erik, may I forward your post to the President of the SPS, the Editor-n-Chief of the Sig. Proc. Magazine, and whoever else I think might read your words? Regards, [-Rick-]
Reply by ●November 10, 20072007-11-10
On 10 Nov, 13:40, R.Lyons@_BOGUS_ieee.org (Rick Lyons) wrote:> Erik, may I forward your post to the President > of the SPS, the Editor-n-Chief of the Sig. > Proc. Magazine, and whoever else I think might > read your words?Rick, If you do that sort of thing, I would support Erik in that articles in non-subscriber transactions are *way* too expensive. I joined the IEEE some ten years ago because I used the varous transactions in my research, and because of the student discounts. While still in university i developed the very awkward habit of doing literature searches before attempting anything on my own. These days I don't do as much research as I used to, and my ineterests have become more eclectic. My awkward habit of doing literature searches still remains, so when I do my IEEExplore searches, the vast majority of hits are from transactions I don't subscribe to. Pushing the prices for non-subscribed transaction articles down to, say, $1 - $2 per article (and maybe simplify the purchase process by paying in advance, say, for 10 or 20 articles) would be a great motivation for remaining a member. Rune
Reply by ●November 10, 20072007-11-10
Erik de Castro Lopo wrote: ...> Given the above, can someone remind me why I should renew my > IEEE membership?Insurance? Jerry -- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. �����������������������������������������������������������������������
Reply by ●November 10, 20072007-11-10
On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 10:39:59 -0500, Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> wrote:>Erik de Castro Lopo wrote: > > ... > >> Given the above, can someone remind me why I should renew my >> IEEE membership? > >Insurance? > >JerryAnd the email forwarding service, which obviously many of us here use. The insurance thing has gotten less interesting since the health insurance program imploded, but the IEEE Life insurance program is still pretty good. I like the email forwarding thing, I participate in and use the salary survey stuff as well. It is, however, pretty hard to justify membership for just those things. One would think that a reason to stay would be access to Institute resources like papers, but as has been pointed out that's really not a reason, either, the way the system is currently set up. The last few times I did searches in the IEEE library for papers, only a few of the relevant papers were available to me as a member of a limited number of societies without ponying up more cash. I can make a trip to the university library and print it out there, though. I'll continue my membership this year but I'm cutting back my society memberships again just as I did last year. It's just harder and harder to justify any transactions subscriptions, as much as I'd like to keep them. I ditched Trans. on Sig. Proc a few years ago and haven't missed it at all. And I agree with Erik's observations on the Signal Processing magazine. I hope the trend toward irrelevancy gets reversed at some point. It does appear that a substantial reform is needed. Eric Jacobsen Minister of Algorithms Abineau Communications http://www.ericjacobsen.org
Reply by ●November 10, 20072007-11-10
Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> writes:> Erik de Castro Lopo wrote: > > ... > > > Given the above, can someone remind me why I should renew my > > IEEE membership? > > Insurance? >Probably not relevant in Australia, which is where I thought Erik was? Ciao, Peter K. -- "And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars."
Reply by ●November 10, 20072007-11-10
This gives the opportunity to open a subject that occurs to me every few years - similar to the question of the prices attached to papers: When one is working in a technical field such as ours, there are multiple standards established by IEEE and other organizations that dictate how certain things are supposed to be done. IEEE 1014-1987 for the VMEbus at $88/$110 might be an example. 488 would be an example. IEEE Floating Point 754 is $61. The PCI 2.0 spec sells for $475 it appears. etc. etc. Now, one might argue that some of the details are already available online but if one is going to contract to meet such a standard then one wants to have THE standard for reference. When one needs to understand the standard it's pretty much impossible to get a copy without paying. Now, for companies, that's oerhaps no big deal. But, for individual workers it's a lot. In view of the educational value of the standards, why aren't they free? Well, of course, if I were the IEEE I'd be thinking about lost revenue. I've not looked but I'll bet the lost revenue that would be associated with standards sales would be so small as to be a no-brainer for some educational program - government or society - to sponsor making them free AND on the web. There is surely no important cost of distribution by putting them on the web. The benefit of doing this would be to have a better-educated work force. That helps the industry. etc. etc. As a fallback, maybe this is one of those things that membership in IEEE would make available - to a much greater extent than today. Fred
Reply by ●November 10, 20072007-11-10
Rick Lyons wrote:> Hi Erik, > > I've been a member of the SPS for many years > now, and am an associate editor for the > Sig. Proc. Magazine. > > Erik, you have managed to clearly and concisely > describe my primary complaints against the > IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS). Good job! > > Erik, may I forward your post to the President > of the SPS, the Editor-n-Chief of the Sig. > Proc. Magazine, and whoever else I think might > read your words?Please do. I posted this in a public forum so that someone with real contacts within the IEEE might push it in the direction of someone who might actually be able to do something. Cheers, Erik -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Erik de Castro Lopo ----------------------------------------------------------------- "These are the finest moments in (post)modern life, when satire is completly indistinguishable from reality... I usually have to rely on the presidential elections for such dada." -- frenomulax on Jesux a christian Linux distro.
Reply by ●November 10, 20072007-11-10
Rune Allnor wrote:> If you do that sort of thing, I would support Erik > in that articles in non-subscriber transactions > are *way* too expensive. I joined the IEEE some > ten years ago because I used the varous transactions > in my research, and because of the student discounts. > While still in university i developed the very awkward > habit of doing literature searches before attempting > anything on my own.Yep, my experience is similar.> These days I don't do as much research as I used to, > and my ineterests have become more eclectic. > My awkward habit of doing literature searches still > remains, so when I do my IEEExplore searches, the vast > majority of hits are from transactions I don't subscribe to.Yep. I too find this extremely frustrating. My interests are also very broad. Yes I DSP, but I'm also interesting in things like Computer Algebra Systems, compiler technolgy, functional programming languages, operating systems and more.> Pushing the prices for non-subscribed transaction articles > down to, say, $1 - $2 per article (and maybe simplify the > purchase process by paying in advance, say, for 10 > or 20 articles) would be a great motivation for > remaining a member.This is a great idea. Erik -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Erik de Castro Lopo ----------------------------------------------------------------- Seen on usenet (possibly a quote from an IBM exec): "Each large company needs its Vietnam, and Microsoft will experience it with NT..."
