Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2013
From Wild WebMink
WebDAV Direct
LibreOffice can connect natively to a WebDav server, apparently. Here’s another video in the same series as the ones I posted about CMIS connections, showing LibreOffice connecting to a WebDAV server (in this case running on…
From Putting People First
Call for Papers for EPIC 2013 London
Since its inception, the EPIC conference has brought together a dynamic community of practitioners and scholars concerned with how ethnographic thinking and methods for understanding the contemporary social world are used to…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Empathic Design
The term was a new one to me. I do agree that users are people, and you have to consider their needs to make a system that supports their decisions. Thus all design should be empathic. I have seen many designs that are non…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Thinglist
A very simple App for saving ideas and recommendations that I am currently trying. Simple is good. Is it more simple than using a basic note taking function?
From CERIAS Blog
Some thoughts on “cybersecurity” professionalization and education
[I was recently asked for some thoughts on the issues of professionalization and education of people working in cyber security. I realize I have been asked this many times, I and I keep repeating my answers, to various levels…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Looking At Curriculum From Different Angles
My job at Microsoft was to promote the use of Microsoft tools for computer science education. It was a great job and I was promoting tools that I had and that I currently use for teaching. I am loving teaching using Visual Basic…
From Putting People First
Designing empathy into an open Internet of Things
The mobile technology of tomorrow may be real-time, always on and algorithm driven in its characteristics, writes designer Jessi Baker, but there is a real opportunity to design, create and promote open, empathetic systems allowing…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Why BI Fails
I agree with some of the commenters. Tools may be necessary these days, but they are not sufficient. Your BI project will mostly likely fail not because features you have in the latest tool, but because you do not understand…
From Putting People First
Cultivating empathic design in an analytical world
There is an empathy gap in technology development, argues April Demosky on the FT’s Tech Blog. “In the analytic, data-driven world of Silicon Valley, emotions often do not get factored into the latest product design. This comes…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
OSTP mandates free public access to publications
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has directed that the published results of federally funded research (final peer-reviewed manuscripts or final published documents) be freely available to the public within…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Congressional Briefing on Software Patent Reforms
Leading high-tech executives spoke this week on the best ways to promote innovation and improve the quality of software patents at an industry-sponsored Congressional briefing. The briefing was organized by the Business Software…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Land Squids
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 Computing Community Consortium Blog
Nominations sought for CCC Council
The Computing Community Consortium is governed by an 18-member Council, with members on 3-year staggered terms. The CCC’s Nominating Committee invites nominations (including self-nominations) for members to serve on the CCC Council…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Safeway Avoids Print
In Adage: Safeway looks at a world without print ads, moves digital. " ... Safeway is doing its best to eliminate print advertising in favor of more personalized digital ads. The fifth largest grocery player in North America…
From Schneier on Security
I Was on <i>Inventing the Future</i>
I was a guest on Inventing the Future, for an episode on surveillance technology. The video is here.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Nominations Form Available for CRA Outstanding Undergrad Researchers Award
The Computing Research Association (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers award program recognizes undergraduate students in North American colleges and universities who show outstanding research potential in an area of…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Research Questions About MOOCs
In a Communications of the ACM Blog, Mark Guzdial raises some probing “Research Questions About MOOCs.” He points to recent articles that explore the impact of MOOCs, such as ”Will MOOCs destroy academia?” by Moshe Vardi and ”In…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
PD Points and Teacher Licensing: Chickens and Eggs
I am nearing the end of my five year cycle for recertification, so I am reviewing what professional development activities I have participated in to see what qualifies for PDP's (professional development points) towards my recertification…
From The Eponymous Pickle
iPad Addiction
In Baseline Mag: Some thoughts and statistics about how people are getting addicted to the tablet format. Retailers and marketers should notice this.
From Schneier on Security
Hacking the Papal Election
As the College of Cardinals prepares to elect a new pope, security people like me wonder about the process. How does it work, and just how hard would it be to hack the vote?
The rules for papal elections are steeped in tradition…From The Eponymous Pickle
How to Create a Mind
A piece on Ray Kurzweil's (now at Google) latest book: How to Create a Mind: the Secret of Human Thought Revealed. Always fascinating, sometimes over the top views of a very technological future. I have yet to read in full…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On the Cost of Suspicion
An interesting HBR case study of the cost of suspicion in the enterprise. Refreshingly different piece. Also hints at how this can go beyond just the usual personnel trust/suspicion domains. In particular about the general…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Obama Endorses Programming Classes in High School
On one hand this is great. The President of the United States promotes computer science education. On the other hand he talks about it primarily as a vocational subject. Something that will lead to a two year degree and an apprenticeship…
From Schneier on Security
All Those Companies that Can't Afford Dedicated Security
This is interesting:
In the security practice, we have our own version of no-man's land, and that's midsize companies. Wendy Nather refers to these folks as being below the "Security Poverty Line." These folks have a couple[…From Putting People First
The curious cult of the connected thermostat
Nick Hunn, CTO at Onzo, a “smarter than normal” Smart Energy start-up, criticizes the service model of the Nest thermostat: “A basic programmable thermostat in the US costs under $20, not the $250 price tag of the Nest. As such…
From Wild WebMink
Python Issue Slithers Away?
Looks like Python Hosting is no more. I’ve seen nothing official, but I note from veber.co.uk that the new name for their cloud hosting is Veber Cloud. My story at InfoWorld today has a few updates on what I wrote earlier in…
From Putting People First
Lean and user experience, again
When anthropologist Natalie Hanson was asked last year to contribute to a new book called The Handbook of Business Anthropology, edited by Rita Denny and Patty Sunderland (who also wrote Doing Anthropology in Consumer Research…
From Putting People First
How will big data change design research?
Will design researchers (and our models and explanations) be replaced by data tables and “experience actuaries” that tell us what to build, for whom, and what it should be like? Artefact’s Dave Mc Colgin doesn’t think so. “In…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Neural Networks Retooling the Android
We used so-called artificial neural nets (ANN) in the enterprise over a decade ago for specific kinds of focused analysis of consumer data. Inspired by the brain's infrastructure, but not attempting to use the form of real biological…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Evidence Tablets are Eroding PC Market
In GigaOM: Even a cursory observation in any airport waiting room will demonstrate this. " Naysayers may continue to ignore the trend, but tablets aren’t toys and the tablet market isn’t a fad, as 2012 shipments show. This…