Special interest group

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A special interest group (SIG) is a community within a larger organization with a shared interest in advancing a specific area of knowledge, learning or technology where members cooperate to affect or to produce solutions within their particular field, and may communicate, meet, and organize conferences. The term was used in 1961 by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), an academic and professional computer society. [1] SIG was later popularized on CompuServe, an early online service provider, where SIGs were a section of the service devoted to particular interests. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Technical SIGs

The ACM includes many SIGs, some starting as smaller "Special Interest Committees" (SICs) and formed the first group in 1961. ACM supports further subdivision within SIGs for more impromptu informal discussion groups at conferences which are called Birds of a Feather (BoF). [5]

ACM's Special Interest Groups (SIGs) represent major areas of computing, addressing the interests of technical communities that drive innovation. SIGs offer a wealth of conferences, publications and activities focused on specific computing sub-disciplines. They enable members to share expertise, discovery and best practices. [6]

The Mathematical Association of America has 14 SIGs ranging from the Arts to the Web (for instruction). [7] [8]

The Association for Information Science and Technology calls its organizational divisions special interest groups.

Non-technical SIGs

Organizations that are not technical may also have Special Interest Groups, which are normally focused on a mutual interest [9] or shared characteristic of a subset of members of the organization. [10] An important example for this are trade unions. For identity-based advocacy groups, see identity politics. The Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) has several SIGs. Together they organize a Pan-SIG conference each year.

Mensa International has over a hundred SIGs. [11]

Political Interest Groups

These interest groups support and lobby for areas of special need. For example, the 'Sierra Club' focuses on protecting the environment as well as the wild places on earth. They also promote education on preservation of the environment. Similar advocacy groups promote their special interests and organize to help them with their issue. These political "entrepreneurs" are the classic view of the policy maker. Such groups need a patron to provide capital and support, so the cause has to be one that many will support, in competition with other causes that similarly seek support. Many of these dominant groups have subgroups that lobby for more specific issues, but assist in the overall cause.

See also

Related Research Articles

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membership group, claiming nearly 110,000 student and professional members as of 2022. Its headquarters are in New York City.

Advocacy is an activity by an individual or group that aims to influence decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to influence public policy, laws and budgets by using facts, their relationships, the media, and messaging to educate government officials and the public. Advocacy can include many activities that a person or organization undertakes, including media campaigns, public speaking, commissioning and publishing research. Lobbying is a form of advocacy where a direct approach is made to legislators on a specific issue or specific piece of legislation. Research has started to address how advocacy groups in the United States and Canada are using social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mathematical Association of America</span> American organization that focuses on undergraduate-level mathematics

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists; statisticians; and many others in academia, government, business, and industry.

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific society devoted to applied mathematics, and roughly two-thirds of its membership resides within the United States. Founded in 1951, the organization began holding annual national meetings in 1954, and now hosts conferences, publishes books and scholarly journals, and engages in advocacy in issues of interest to its membership. Members include engineers, scientists, and mathematicians, both those employed in academia and those working in industry. The society supports educational institutions promoting applied mathematics.

SIGCSE is the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) Special Interest Group (SIG) on Computer Science Education (CSE), which provides a forum for educators to discuss issues related to the development, implementation, and/or evaluation of computing programs, curricula, and courses, as well as syllabi, laboratories, and other elements of teaching and pedagogy. SIGCSE is also the colloquial name for the SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, which is the largest of the four conferences organized by SIGCSE.

SIGDA, Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Design Automation , is a professional development organization for the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) community. SIGDA is organized and operated exclusively for educational, scientific, and technical purposes in electronic design automation. SIGDA's bylaws were approved in 1969, following the charter of SIC in Design Automation in 1965.

An ethnic interest group or ethnic lobby, according to Thomas Ambrosio, is an advocacy group established along cultural, ethnic, religious or racial lines by an ethnic group for the purposes of directly or indirectly influencing the foreign policy of their resident country in support of the homeland and/or ethnic kin abroad with which they identify.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer Society of India</span>

Computer Society of India is a body of computer professionals in India. It was started on 6 March 1965 by a few computer professionals and has now grown to be the national body representing computer professionals. It has 72 chapters across India, 511 student branches, and 100,000 members.

The International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO), trading as SNOMED International, is an international non-profit organization that owns SNOMED CT, a leading clinical terminology used in electronic health records. IHTSDO was founded in 2007 by 9 charter member countries in order to acquire the rights of SNOMED CT from the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and make the development of a global clinical language for healthcare an international, collaborative effort.

ACM SIGACCESS is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Accessible computing, an interdisciplinary group of academic and industrial researchers, clinicians and rehabilitation personnel, policy makers, end users, and students to develop technologies for use by people with disabilities.

SIGUCCS is an association of professionals who support and manage the diverse aspects of information technology services at higher education institutions by providing professional development opportunities for SIGUCCS members and other individuals in the field. SIGUCCS is one of 34 special interest groups of ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer science education</span> Pedagogy of computer science

Computer science education or computing education is the art of teaching and learning the discipline of computer science, and computational thinking. As a subdiscipline of pedagogy it also addresses the wider impact of computer science in society through its intersection with philosophy, psychology, linguistics, natural sciences, and mathematics. In comparison to science education and mathematics education, computer science (CS) education is a much younger field. In the history of computing, digital computers were only built from around the 1940s – although computation has been around for centuries since the invention of analog computers.

Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups, pressure groups, or public associations use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the development of political and social systems.

SIGWEB is a Special Interest Group of the Association for Computing Machinery on Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Web. SIGWEB was named SIGLINK until November 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathleen Fisher</span> American computer scientist

Kathleen Shanahan Fisher is an American computer scientist who specializes in programming languages and their implementation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ACM-W</span> Subdivision of the Association for Computing Machinery

The Association for Computing Machinery's Council on Women in Computing (ACM-W) supports, celebrates, and advocates internationally for the full engagement of women in all aspects of the computing field, providing a wide range of programs and services to ACM members and working in the larger community to advance the contributions of technical women. ACM-W is an active organization with over 36,000 members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ACM SIGARCH</span>

ACM SIGARCH is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on computer architecture, a community of computer professionals and students from academia and industry involved in research and professional practice related to computer architecture and design. The organization sponsors many prestigious international conferences in this area, including the International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), recognized as the top conference in this area since 1975. Together with IEEE Computer Society's Technical Committee on Computer Architecture (TCCA), it is one of the two main professional organizations for people working in computer architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ACM SIGHPC</span>

ACM SIGHPC is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on High Performance Computing, an international community of students, faculty, researchers, and practitioners working on research and in professional practice related to supercomputing, high-end computers, and cluster computing. The organization co-sponsors international conferences related to high performance and scientific computing, including: SC, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis; the Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC) Conference; Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC); and PPoPP, the Symposium on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming.

Yolanda Gil is a Spanish computer scientist specializing in knowledge discovery and knowledge-based systems at the University of Southern California (USC). She served as chair of SIGAI the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group (SIG) on Artificial Intelligence, and the president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).

John Appel Postley was an American entrepreneur. He is recognized as one of the founders of the computer software industry and creator of the first computer software products, Mark IV. Mark IV pioneered the concept and business model of software as a product and became the earliest successful example of that model. In conjunction with Mark IV, Postley was responsible for the creation of the first software users' group, the "IV League", and the first Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group.

References

  1. ↑ "Sig conference community". historywiki.acm.org.
  2. ↑ CompuServe. Trs-80.org (1980-07-01). Retrieved on 2014-06-16.
  3. ↑ SIGs. Gsbrown.org (2010-04-08). Retrieved on 2014-06-16.
  4. ↑ Modems - The Secret Guide to Computers. Computercraft.com. Retrieved on 2014-06-16.
  5. ↑ "Birds-of-a-feather FAQ". SC17. 14 October 2016.
  6. ↑ "Special Interest Groups". www.acm.org.
  7. ↑ "SIGMAA: Special Interest Groups of the MAA". Mathematical Association of America. 2008-08-22. Retrieved 2009-01-19.
  8. ↑ "History of SIGMAAs | Mathematical Association of America". www.maa.org.
  9. ↑ The Community Discovered Special Interest Groups, groups for specific interests within an educational organization.
  10. ↑ Friends General Conference Summer Gathering Adult Young Friends Program, a young adult-focused SIG in a Quaker organization.
  11. ↑ "Special Interest Groups ("SIGs")". OC Mensa. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
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