[AUUG-Talk]: Re: The future of AUUG

[Andrew McRae]

On Mon, 2007-10-22 at 16:59 +1000, Dave Horsfall wrote:
> On Mon, 22 Oct 2007, Gregory Orange wrote:
> 
> > Out of curiosity, where does ACS fit into all of this? Or where do 
> > people perceive that ACS fits? I've always been curious about them and 
> > they don't often get mentioned in any circles I frequent.
> 
> They're largely an irrelevant academic group; I was a member years ago, 
> but it got too expensive for little perceived value.  At one time having 
> MACS after your name improved your employability, as it used to be a 
> requirement by some employers, but that hasn't been the case for ages.

ACS has some government street cred, and employs people
in suits who can talk policy to various departments and
politicians. Witness the recent debate about broadband
that was organised by the ACS - I doubt whether AUUG
could pull a debate that gets Coonan, Conroy and Allison
together on a podium talking about these issues (and gets
the amount of press coverage it did).

However, it would help a lot for AUUG to partner with
organisations like this. It has helped ISOC-AU a lot to
arrange various strategic alliances with folks like ATUG,
ACIF etc.
>From our high geek ground we can look down with
contempt at these middle management old guys in suits,
but you have to hand it to them they know the ropes
when it comes to talking to gommint and business.
In some ways these organisations are crying out for new blood
to invigorate them and make them much relevant to the
changing world...errr... perhaps just like AUUG is :-)
Cheers,
AMc