There are three codes which I am aware of for software professionals as I am a member of these organizations:

• IEEE Computer Society
  • More generally, all members of the IEEE are expected to follow the IEEE Code of Ethics.
• CIPS (Canadian Information Processing Society)
  • Members are only “encouraged” to follow their Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
• ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
  • Like CIPS, they realize that following the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is voluntary. They have a nice flyer about it though.

Upon arriving at the basement room, I found only a handful of people sitting around a table chatting. I was greeted by Cameron McKay (the president of CIPS Toronto) and Jeff Knetchel. I also remember Adam Cole being there, but I did not remember everyone else’s name. I was the only student there and, by far, the youngest.

Cameron had brought along a large microphone to record the talk in hopes of turning it into a podcast. It started as a roundtable discussion where Cameron would ask a question and then go around the table asking the other people (around 10 at this point) what their thoughts or experiences were. I tried to contribute a few times, but I think I only really spoke at any length maybe three times. I asked a question of the others since they all seemed fairly successful and it was very enlightening to hear their experiences and advice on how to manage the balance in our lives. Hopefully the podcast is put up on the CIPS Toronto website.