Ask HN: IEEE membership. Is it worth it? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: IEEE membership. Is it worth it?

8 pointsJakob7 comments

Hi, I attended a conference which was much less for an IEEE member, so I joined some years ago.

They send those fancy newsletters talking about myIEEE, I like some of the magazine’s content. They also talk about IEEE member meetings which I never saw in my vicinity. To me it looks like another dull association.

But I hesitate to cancel my membership, yet. Is there some advantage which I miss?

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I've had IEEE/ACM memberships in the past, and while I liked getting printed journal articles, I never got any real value out of it; every paper I've ever wanted to read has been available online, and I generally wouldn't attend an academic conference unless I was presenting at it. So I'd be a "No" vote.

Also bear in mind that funding the IEEE is not an entirely politically neutral act. For instance:

http://cr.yp.to/writing/ieee.html

I've been an IEEE and ACM member for over 20 years. Although I've cut back on the number of publications I subscribe to, I still find reading them very informative. I can read them on the train/bus/beach. They provide a snapshot of the state-of-the-art. Consider the subscriptions to be part of your on-going professional development. In Australia, the subscriptions are tax deductible so that helps too. As for the myIEEE, I find Google Scholar more useful. But that's when I'm trying to follow a specific topic. The permanent e-mail address on acm.org has been excellent for staying in contact as I change jobs, ISPs, etc.

For me its worth it even just for their "Financial Advantage Program" -- specifically the insurance plans:

http://ieeeinsurance.com

We don't have access to all the plan types here in Canada, and I can't speak for price comparisons between the IEEE plans and those of other providers in other regions; but in Canada the premium on e.g. a group term life T-100 blows away anything else I've seen...

I agree with the tptacek's "no". I had a brief membership during school, which allowed me to attend workshops and read research papers, but neither seem relevant now. There are networking events, but I've never been so I can't comment.

I used to belong to ACM but dropped my membership, because it wasnt worth the $250 to get the journals I was interested in.

I find that you can use 'Google Scholar' to download most papers that are on IEEE

CiteSeer is still good too.

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