Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2011
From The Eponymous Pickle
Windows Phones
I was briefly involved with a proposal for a Windows phone App that addressed retail analysis. So it is interesting to see it has now, in its first anniversary, exceeded 40,000 Apps. It is good to see that there are other options…
From Putting People First
Tablets, sensors, foot boards and other gadgets for (French) seniors
As the first baby boomers turn 65 this year, high-tech is gradually making its way into the lives
From Putting People First
The invisibility of ethnography
Tricia Wang reflects on the fact that ethnographic work is often invisible. One way to overcome this, she argues, is for ethnographers to find ways to visualize their work. Visuals make recommendations tangible and demonstrate…
From Putting People First
Social computing
The Interaction-Design.org Foundation is a labour of love founded by Mads Soegaard in 2002, and in 2010, his wife, Rikke Dam, joined the project (and their exotic office on a semi-deserted island in Thailand). Apart from Rikke…
From Putting People First
Out with the old, in with the new: a conversation with Don Norman & Jon Kolko
Richard Anderson has interviewed many people on stage, but, he says, the best of these, for multiple reasons (some very personal), might have been the most recent: a “conversation” with Don Norman and Jon Kolko, which took place…
From Putting People First
Enabling codesign
The term co-design refers to a philosophical and political approach to design best applied throughout the design life cycle. Codesign builds on the methods and principles of Participatory Design which assumes
From Putting People First
Sketchnotes of Ezio Manzini at School of the Art Institute of Chicago
This past Monday evening, on an unseasonably warm night in Chicago, sustainability expert Ezio Manzini gave a thought-provoking lecture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Mr Manzini is a Professor of Industrial Design…
From Putting People First
On Culture and Interaction Design: an interview with Genevieve Bell
Recently Dianna Miller had a chance to talk to Genevieve Bell, anthropologist and researcher, and the director of Intel Corporation
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Delicacy of Anonymity Online
How services like Google Analytics make it hard to be anonymous online. Anonymity can be just a matter of choice, or even a life or death thing. Also some suggestions about protecting your identity. Eye opening.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Why is Angry Birds Compelling?
Understanding why a particular game like Angty Birds is so compelling. And how the aspects of the game might be repeated. " ... carefully scripted expansion of the user's mental model of the strategy component and incremental…
From The Noisy Channel
CIKM 2011 Industry Event: Khalid Al-Kofahi on Combining Advanced Search Technology and Human Expertise in Legal Research
This post is part of a series summarizing the presentations at
From The Eponymous Pickle
Modeling Businesses
Thinking this yet a step forward .... Concept mapping for company processes can be seen as a simplified approach to Business Process Management (BPM). Which seeks to model the flow of a business, as opposed to just its interconnected…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Talk to your DARPA Program Manager!
On November 15, seven University of Washington faculty members from Biology, Bioengineering, and Computer Science & Engineering were privileged to share a 2-hour breakfast in Seattle with DARPA Director Regina Dugan, Deputy Director…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Computing in Science and Engineering
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google and Microsoft Talk Artificial Intelligence
An optimistic view of the future of AI. It is nice to see two big players talking this. " ... Google and Microsoft don't share a stage often, being increasingly fierce competitors in areas such as Web search, mobile, and cloud…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Big App On Campus
Microsoft announced a Windows Phone development contest for college/university students in the US (sorry about both the US only and the 18+ only
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Using Corporate Advertising to Promote CS Education
I've attended quite a few Computer Science conferences over the years including many years of SIGCSE and the past two years of the K-12 Workshop at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. Typically, I sift through…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Camouflage
Some squid can switch their camouflage instantly.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Beauty Brands and Emotions
Former colleague Donna Sturgess, president of Buyology Inc. Talks about the the large emotional component of beauty brands. " ... Donna Sturgess, president of Buyology Inc., also talked about conscious versus non-conscious…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Shop - Scan - Buy
ShopSavvy brings instant scan and buy to mobile shoppers. This connects with my recent post about Amazon delivering a scan and price check application. Of course many scanning apps already automatically search for items online…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Collection of Kinect in Education Links
Thanks to Johnny Kissko (9 Excellent Programming Resources for Kinect) I recently discovered Ray Chambers who is
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
From our friends at The Chronicle of Higher Education‘s Wired Campus Blog: Anyone can now track his or her citations via Google Scholar. The free citation service is
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bezos
Fascinating interview with Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. Their delivery this week of a budget tablet will create a new more focused channel for products. I have read some early reviews and they were not positive.
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Event Idea: The Truth About Women in Science and Engineering
I recently came up with what I thought was interesting event idea. Our Dean of Engineering had expressed some interest in CU-WISE coming up with an idea for a recruitment event that would attract the media and encourage high…
From Computational Complexity
Short Bits
Because some things are too long to tweet and too short for their own blog post. What's the algorithm for the perfect sushi? Enjoy it with some cool refreshing SODA in Kyoto. Early registration deadline is December 20th andtravel…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
USAID, ED Seeking to Tap Technology to Teach Children
At 10am EST this morning, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) — together with its Australian counterpart
From Schneier on Security
A Link between Altruism and Fairness
I write a lot about altruism, fairness, and cooperation in my new book (out in February!), and this sort of thing interests me a lot:
In a new study, researchers had 15-month old babies watch movies of a person distributingBut…From The Eponymous Pickle
Balanced Insight
Attended an excellent talk by Tom Hammergren, CEO of Balanced Insight as part of the local BI group here last night. See also their blog. Quite insightful view of agile business intelligence. And their newest development…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Organizations as Decision Factories
Thinking about organizations as decision factories. I like to think about decisions being made within processes as a way to understand how to improve the operation of an organization.
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Kicking Off CS Ed Week
What better way is there to kick off CSEdWeek than to hold an open house showcase of great student work and projects? This will answer for my community the age old question, "What is Computer Science?"
The open house is also…