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jb writes:

A group of senior members of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) have launched a campaign to oppose what they describe as a corporate "hijack" of their society.

Best coverage so far is in Innovation Aus:

Proposed changes to the governance structure at the Australian Computer Society are headed for a rough ride as senior members launch a campaign against the corporatisation [of] a professional society, in favour of its executive and at the expense of its members.

A group being headed by Australian National University visiting professor Roger Clarke – a long-time privacy advocate in Australia and an ACS member since 1974 – says the proposed changes strip away the rights of the members in favour of the society's executive.

Mr Clarke also complains that recent take-over of the Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA) – among a series of acquisitions of other industry groups – was incompatible with the values and goals of the society.

Also covered in ITWire:

He claimed that the ACS would aim to pass a new constitution at a general body meeting on 25 October in Sydney which, if adopted, would:

• centralise all power in the board;
         
• extinguish all meaningful member involvement;
         
• replace member-driven branches with subservient divisions; and
         
• enable continuity of power by a clique.

...and on ZDNet:

"The ACS executive abused its power in order to railroad the existing branch committees into supporting the unsupportable," Clarke said

"It then brazenly argued in favour of its own motion; failed to provide appropriate information on the arguments against the motion; and prevented arguments against the motion from being communicated to members."

This follows hot on the heels of another open letter, signed by 63 senior ACS members (including iiNet founder Michael Malone, Camtech founder Chris Barter and such ACS stalwarts as Ashley Goldsworthy & Arthur Sale), objecting to ACS' acquisition of the Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA), an industry body which the group claims violates ACS' own code of ethics:

Critics of ADMA's behaviour over the last decades perceive it to:

• behave unethically;
         
• operate on an entirely token ethical basis; or
         
• treat ethicality as merely an obstacle that needs to be overcome in order to serve the interests of consumer marketing corporations.

It is, in short, completely untenable for ACS to absorb ADMA into itself, or even to enter into any form of partnership with it.

Original Submission