Argy-bargy Faces Acs Head
The Age
Tuesday November 29, 2005
The Australian Computer Society president Philip Argy was just minutes into the top job when he was forced to defend the organisation against a critic's charges that the election process was undemocratic.
Last week software engineer Tony Healy described the ACS as a "self-perpetuating club", saying that each year its council appoints people to head the society's boards and these then elect the new council.Mr Argy counters that the ACS structure is a pure electoral college and the system is more democratic than that which elects the prime minister."Society members elected the people around the table," Mr Argy says.He says the society's 11 board members each get a vote in the elections and branch councillors each receive five. There are 11 board representatives and nine branch councillors for a total of 56 possible votes.But Mr Healy disagrees, saying the society cannot be regarded as genuine professional society "until it holds open public elections for all positions, subjects all existing senior members to the ACS's own membership criteria, removes membership loopholes exploited by para-professionals such as lawyers and recruiters, and fully discloses ACS expenditure".Mr Argy, a partner in the legal firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques, will formally take up the position from January 1. He says he has two priorities for his two-year term - to improve the public perception of the importance of professionalism in ICT and to significantly increase the education levels of those who teach ICT."People don't understand that professionalism is doing the right thing when nobody is watching, and it is a critical aspect of risk management," Mr Argy says.He is scathing about project failures, such as the one at the Australian Customs Service, which saw cargo backlogs at key ports. He says professionalism involves not sitting idly by when someone says a system is ready to go public when it's not.Mr Argy says ICT literacy is now a life-skill. He believes one can't help but be impressed when in Singapore and seeing that ICT is a mandated part of study from preschool. The ACS must enthusiastically spread the mantra that technology is for the mainstream."The more people embrace ICT as a career, the more competitive Australia will be," he says.He also wants to become an even stronger advocate for Australian-developed technology after masterminding the ACS's submission to the House of Representative's inquiry into innovation. He says a portion of departmental IT budgets, perhaps 0.5 per cent, should be able to be put aside to pilot Australian-made IT.Dr Catherine Jaktman and Kumar Parakala were last week elected as vice-presidents of the society. Mr Parakala is the global chief operating officer at KPMG. Dr Jaktman is a principal of Nordic Technology, a project manager and consultant.
© 2005 The Age