British Computer Society

The Coat of Arms of the British Computer Society.

The former logo of The British Computer Society.

Sir Nigel Shadbolt was President of BCS from 2006-2007

Dame Wendy Hall was President of BCS from 2003-2004

Prince Edward was President of BCS from 1982-1983

Louis Mountbatten was President of BCS from 1966-1967

Sir Maurice Wilkes served as first President of BCS in 1957.

The British Computer Society (BCS) is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in Information Technology, both in the United Kingdom and internationally. Founded in 1956, BCS has played an important role in educating and nurturing IT professionals, computer engineers, upholding the profession, accrediting chartered IT professional status, and creating a global community active in promoting and furthering the field and practice of computing.

Overview

With a worldwide membership of over 82,000 members in over 100 countries, BCS is a registered charity and was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1984. Its objectives are to promote the study and application of communications technology and computing technology and to advance knowledge of education in ICT for the benefit of professional practitioners and the general public.

BCS is a member institution of Engineering Council, through which it is licensed to award the designation of Incorporated Engineer and Chartered Engineer and therefore is responsible for regulation of ICT and computer science fields within the UK. The BCS is also a member of the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS) and the Seoul Accord for international tertiary degree recognition. BCS is also a member organisation of the Science Council through which it is licensed to award the designation of Chartered Scientist.

BCS has offices off the Strand in Southampton Street, south of Covent Garden in central London. The main administrative offices are in Swindon, Wiltshire, west of London. It also has two overseas offices in Sri Lanka and Mauritius.

Members are sent the quarterly IT professional magazine ITNOW (formerly The Computer Bulletin).

BCS is a member organization of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO), a worldwide association of professional organizations which have come together to provide a forum to standardize, professionalize, and otherwise advance the discipline of Enterprise Architecture.

History

The forerunner of BCS was the "London Computer Group" (LCG), founded in 1956. BCS was formed a year later from the merger of the LCG and an unincorporated association of scientists into an unincorporated club. In October 1957, BCS was incorporated, by Articles of Association, as "The British Computer Society Ltd": the first President of BCS was Sir Maurice Wilkes (1913–2010), FRS.

In 1966, the BCS was granted charitable status and in 1970, the BCS was given Armorial Bearings including the shield and crest. The major ethical responsibilities of BCS are emphasized by the leopard's face, surmounting the whole crest and depicting eternal vigilance over the integrity of the Society and its members.

The BCS patron is HRH The Duke of Kent, KG. He became patron in December 1976 and has been actively involved in BCS activities, particularly having been President in the Silver Jubilee Year in 1982–1983.

In 2007, BCS launched BCSrecruit.com — a job site specifically aimed at IT professionals.^[4] In 2008 the BCS was labelled "irrelevant" by an IT training company, in connection with claims it made that nine out of ten IT professionals were "unaware" of the BCS's Chartered accreditation scheme.^[5]

On 21 September 2009, the British Computer Society went through a transformation and re-branded itself as "BCS — The Chartered Institute for IT".^[6] In 2010, an Extraordinary General Meeting was called to discuss the direction of the BCS.^[7] The debate has been covered by the computing press.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Governance

BCS is governed by a Trustee Board comprising the President, the Deputy President, the immediate past President, up to nine Vice Presidents (including Vice-President Finance), and five Professional Members elected by the advisory Council.^[12] Sir Maurice Wilkes, Professor of Computer Science at Cambridge University, served as its first president. Each president serves for a 2-year term. A list of presidents of the British Computer Society can be found at BCS web site ^[13].

The BCS advisory Council elects the Honorary Officers — the President, the Deputy President and up to nine Vice-Presidents, together with the immediate past President and five members of Council.^[14] Lists of Trust Board and Advisory Council members are maintained online.^[12]

The advisory Council provides advice to the Trustee Board on the direction and operation of BCS; in particular it is consulted on strategic plans and the annual budget. The Council is a representative body of the membership, with members elected directly by the professional membership, and by the Branches, Groups and Forums.^[14]

Fellowship (FBCS)

The Fellow of BCS (FBCS)^[15] title is conferred to individuals to recognize achievement and contributions to Information Technology. Fellows are expected to give something back to the profession, by promoting and evangelizing the profession to the public and society, and contributing to debates in conferences, panels, meetings, etc. Fellows are nominated to the society each year and have to be supported by one or more existing fellows. Criteria^[16] for election to fellow include:

• Demonstrate leadership in the profession
• Wide acknowledgement of specific IT expertise
• Contribution to advancement of knowledge
• Eminent individual
• Authority and seniority, including leading major projects and managing teams

Current fellows^[17][18] include distinguished individuals from industries and universities. Some of the prominent fellows include:

• Dame Wendy Hall, FBCS - ex-President of BCS
• Andy Harter, FBCS - CEO of RealVNC
• Tony Hey, FBCS - ex-VP of Microsoft Research
• Hermann Hauser, Distinguished FBCS - founder of ARM Ltd.

Chartered IT Professional

The BCS is the only professional body in the United Kingdom with the ability to grant chartered status to IT professionals under its Royal Charter, granted to them by the Privy Council.^[19] Thus having the ability to grant Chartered (Professional) status to both its Fellows and Professional members. Known as Chartered IT Professional, they are entitled to use the suffix CITP. The BCS keeps a register of current Chartered Members and Fellows.^[20]

Other Professional membership bodies apply to the BCS for a licence that enables them to award CITP to their eligible members. The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is the first such membership body licensed to award CITP.^[21]

Grades of Membership

BCS has different grades of membership:

Honorary grades

• Distinguished Fellow (Only 24 awards since 1971^[22])
• Honorary Fellowship (Hon FBCS)^[23] (Only 104 awarded to date)

Professional grades

• Fellow (FBCS)
• Member (MBCS)

Ordinary grades

• Associate Member (AMBCS)
• Student Member

Group, corporate and other membership categories

• Affiliate: for those with an interest in IT but not yet employed in an IT role.
• Group membership: nearly 200 organisations now encourage their IT professionals to join the Society through its Group Membership Scheme.^[24]
• Education affiliates: education intuitions can also be accredited by BCS.^[25]

Other Chartered designations

• The Engineering Council UK has licensed BCS to award Chartered Engineer status (CEng) and Incorporated Engineer status (IEng).
• The Science Council has licensed BCS to award Chartered Scientist status (CSci).
• Members may also apply through BCS to the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI) for European Engineer (Eur Ing) status.

Designatory (post-nominal) letters

Members are encouraged to display the designatory letters to which they are entitled whenever appropriate. The order of designatory (post-nominal) letters is complex and open to a certain amount of interpretation. The accepted authority on this subject is Debrett’s Correct Form. Normally these should appear after decorations, degrees and chartered letters. Members holding CEng should also display the designatory letters of the institution through which they are registered immediately after the CEng. Conventionally, members holding Chartered status (CITP) display this immediately after their membership letters (e.g., FBCS CITP or MBCS CITP). However, as CITP may now be awarded by other organisations it may also be displayed separately, following that of the awarding institution.

Some examples of BCS-related post-nominals:

• Mr Frank James MBE, FBCS.
• Mr Frank James MBE, MSc, CEng, MBCS, MIET.
• Mr Frank James MBE, BSc (Hons), MBCS, CITP.
• Mr Frank James MBE, MSc, CSci, MIET, CITP.

Qualifications

BCS provides a range of qualifications both for users of computers and IT professionals.

BCS IT User Qualifications

BCS offers qualifications that cover all areas of IT, including understanding Spreadsheets and Presentation Software, Animation, Video Editing and Social Networking safety.^[26]

The current IT user qualifications are:

• European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) - BCS is the only organisation licensed to offer ECDL qualifications in the UK.
• Advanced ECDL - the advanced course of ECDL ("Advanced ECDL") has four sections, each a qualification in its own right. Upon achieving all four advanced qualifications, the individual will receive a qualification as an "ECDL Expert" — in the UK, this confers upon the person Associate Membership of The British Computer Society, should that person wish to sign up to a code of conduct and join BCS.

Structure

In common with many professional institutions, BCS has a number of regional branches and specialist groups. Currently there are 45 regional branches in the UK, 16 international sections and 50 specialist groups.

Works

In September 2010, BCS sponsored the one-off 'Digital Revolutions Film Workshop' for amateurs and professionals to "hone their skills", and in October 2010, in conjunction with Sheffield Doc/Fest, sponsored the 'Digital Revolutions Film Competition'.^[31]

BCS magazines include:

• ITNOW (formerly The Computer Bulletin), a quarterly IT professional magazine, ISSN 1746-5702

Their journals are mostly published by Oxford University Press and include:

• The Computer Journal, a monthly journal, online ISSN 1460-2067, print ISSN 0010-4620
• Interacting with Computers, the interdisciplinary journal of Human-Computer Interaction, ISSN 0953-5438

Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC) is a series for conference and workshop proceedings, published by the BCS.

References