• Early 1900s: physics split from mathematics
• Engineering split from physics and mathematics
• 1980s-1990s: computing split from mathematics, physics, engineering
• Association for Computing Machinery (the oldest and largest society for computing professionals)
  • Now has 34 distinct Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
  • Newest split in February 2003: SIG on information technology education
• SIGCSE used to hold its major annual conference with a general ACM conference
  • SIGCSE's conference has continued to expand for over 30 years
  • ACM's general conference collapsed
• Some computing groups (both ACM and Australia/NZ) now holding separate conferences in cooperating venues

Documented Problems

• Isolation of practitioners
• Duplication of efforts, resources
• Lack of integration, collaboration on common problems
• Emergence of parallel vocabularies, techniques, results
• Lack of consideration of social and ethical ramifications

Some Current Questions

• Position of bioinformatics with regard to biology, computing, mathematics
• Relationship among primary, secondary, and tertiary education regarding computing
• Relationship between theory and applied technology
• Relationship between academic and industrial communities

created May 6, 2003 last revised May 11, 2003

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