Re: more on "professionalism"

[David Parter <dparter@cs.wisc.edu>]

> 
> It's worth noting that in my deep webdig lately on "professionalism" I
> am finding that most of the other computing organizations I look at
> (ACM, IEEE, and similar) seem to treat it as roughly 50% ethics/codes of
> behavior, 30% - 35% body of knowledge, and 20 - 15% certification.  

"Professionalism" is certainly a mix of those three areas, but what do
these percentages mean? for each individual? for where the organization
puts its effort?

> I wonder if we are allocating resources in the correct priority by
> placing certification above both BoK and ethics development.  I don't
> wish to waste energy already spent getting certification "up to steam"
> and moving.  I do want to make sure that we don't spend ALL our energy
> on it, though. 

I don't think we've put certification above BoK and ethics, but we
haven't articulated specific BoK and ethics programs either. We've been
doing both, but in a more informal way. We do need to pull them both
into a core "professionalism" activity or area, and strengthen some of
what we are doing (without preventing the informal work that develops
the area).

    --david