"The Australian Computer Society should be stripped of its ability to accredit university courses and disbanded," Matt Barrie, CEO of Freelancer.com wrote during a rant yesterday on social networking site LinkedIn.
Barrie was attacking the content of ACS Foundation brochures he received at an NICTA forum on improving technology education in Australia.
He said the ideas about IT and technology, as shown in the brochures, were outdated. For example, some brochures described IT to be about “electrical & electronic engineering: install, repair and service technology equipment”, and “network & communications: provide technical support to help people use software and hardware".
He then went on to call the ACS “morons” who are “doing more damage to the industry than help”.
ACS President Nick Tate commented on Barrie’s LinkedIn post to clarify that the brochures belong to the ACS Foundation, which is not part of the ACS.
“We are surprised to see such strong statements about the ACS based on such incorrect information,” Tate wrote.
“The great thing about the ACS is that in representing the ICT profession, we are happy to engage with and listen to those who wish to contribute to the profession.
“We think it would be useful, however, to start our discussions about meetings that the ACS has actually held and about documents that we have actually produced.”
Barrie made comments in response to Tate’s response saying that he won’t withdraw his statements on LinkedIn, and he doesn’t believe the ACS should go without some responsibility of issuing the brochures.
He also wrote that there needs to be an industry body that can represent a “modern technology industry”.
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