[Sigia-l] The How

[Listera]

> IA has many of these things. It does not have a professional
> organization. We believe an organization would be A Good Thing.
> Perhaps we are wrong. If so, this probably means IA is not as mature
> as we think because creating something like AIfIA is a step that
> professions typically take.

There are many professions far larger and older than IA that have no
unitary/official professional organizations such as programmers or writers,
to cite a couple that work alongside IAs. I never asked a prospective
programmer or writer, for instance, if they belonged to a 'professional'
organization before hiring them, neither do I know anyone who does. This has
nothing to do with 'maturity.'

Now there are however 'professional' organizations in programming and
writing that work along the notions of a guild or a union, like various
vendor-related technical certification organizations or writers' guilds. I
don't know what you think of them but a very sizeable portion of those in
programming or writing have a very negative impression of these
organizations as they artificially impede the ability of many to get or bid
for jobs in certain environments. Like a PAC or a lobbying group, they are
seen as protecting the monetary interests of their members and not much
else. In fact, there are many such organizations that not only compete but
outright fight against each other in certain professions that have become
the subject of parodies. In some professions like journalism, it would be
considered a duty of everyone to fight against the emergence of an
organizations that would selectively qualify who can and cannot be a
'member' of the profession.

Best,

Ziya