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Computing Professional Association Membership


Computing professionals (computer science, information systems, information technology, and software engineering) have a variety of options in terms of professional association membership ranging from wide-reaching professional associations (e.g., Association of Computing Machinery) to expert users groups (e.g., Rational Unified Process Users Group) that are tightly coupled with careers or technology. Because there are so many alternatives within the computing profession, we need a reliable system to understand what motivates people to join and maintain membership in professional computing associations. Such a system would provide better insights for professional association leadership to provide targeted services to its members. Unfortunately, there is limited research that investigates the problem. The objective of this research project is to address this gap. The overarching goal of this research is to gain deeper understanding on what expectations and motives an individual has in professional computing association membership in an effort to inform decision-making by professional association leadership.

Related Publications

  1. Albert D. Ritzhaupt, Karthikeyan, Umapathy, Lisa Jamba. A Study on Services Motivating Computing Professional Association Membership. In International Journal of Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals (IJHCITP), 3 (1): 50-70, January 2012.
      DOI       Google Scholar Page     
  2. Karthikeyan Umapathy, Albert D. Ritzhaupt. Role of Professional Associations in Preparing, Recruiting, and Retaining Computing Professionals. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGMIS Computer Personnel Research (CPR) Conference, San Antonio, Texas, USA, May 2011.
      DOI       Google Scholar Page     
  3. Karthikeyan Umapathy, Lisa Jamba, Albert D. Ritzhaupt. Factors that Persuade and Deter Membership in Professional Computing Associations. In Journal of Information Systems Applied Research (JISAR), 3 (14): June 2010.
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  4. Factors that Persuade and Deter Membership in Professional Computing Associations. Presented at the Conference on Information Systems Applied Research (CONISAR), Washington DC, USA, November 2009.
      DOI     
  5. Albert D. Ritzhaupt, Karthikeyan Umapathy, Lisa Jamba. Computing Professional Association Membership: An Exploration of Membership Needs and Motivations. In Journal of Information Systems Applied Research (JISAR), 1 (4): December 2008.
      DOI       Google Scholar Page     
  6. Computing Professional Association Membership: An Exploration of Membership Needs and Motivations. Presented at the Conference on Information Systems Applied Research (CONISAR), Phoenix, Arizona, USA, November 2008. Meritorious Award Winning Paper.
      DOI     
  7. Albert D. Ritzhaupt, Karthikeyan Umapathy, Lisa Jamba. An Investigation of the AITP Membership Using the Ideal Computing Association Survey. Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) , October 2008.
      Preprint (PDF)