Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2010
From Putting People First
How social networks influence our behaviours
Are some behaviours more contagious than others? This is the question that Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler address in their book, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. From…
From Putting People First
Making design research less of a mystery
David Sherwin argues in his blog that there are a few eerie similarities between the plotting of mystery novels and how designers should document design research findings. “So how is the design research process anything like…
From Putting People First
Can you design a service?
Jeff Howard alerts us in his “Design for Service” blog to the publication “Can You Design a Service?” by the Danish agency 1508. “Six brief case studies showcase service design
From The Eponymous Pickle
UK's Online Plan for Public Services
Online Plan for Public Services: ' ... Everyone in the country is to be given a personalised webpage for accessing Government services within a year as part of a plan to save billions of pounds by putting all public services…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Searches in Local Shelf Inventory
In StorefrontBacktalk: " ... The capability for a search engine to have a current and comprehensive list of products (SKU and sub-SKU) for every retailer in a given geography has huge potential to reshape E-Commerce. If nothing…
From My Biased Coin
Reading a Research Paper
In the category of "waste nothing", here's a handout I wrote way back when (over a decade ago) that I use for my standard graduate seminar class on How to Read a Research Paper. Others have found it useful enough to use it (with…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Interface Appeal in BI Tools
A good report, includes overview of a number of common BI packages. Requires registrationEase of Use and Interface Appeal in Business Intelligence Tools, by Cindi HowsonBusiness intelligence tools play a mission-critical role…
From Schneier on Security
Acrobatic Thieves
Some movie-plot attacks actually happen:
They never touched the floor
From The Eponymous PickleFax App With Signatures
A Fax App for the IPhone that includes a digital signature mode. Faxes are one of the oldest digital transmission modes. Yet despite their age, there is still a need for them, for example in relaying signed documents. A simple…
From ACM-W supporting, celebrating and advocating for Women in ComputingJanie Irwin - 2010 ACM-W Athena Lecturer
We celebrate Ada Lovelace Day today by honoring Janie Irwin, recent recipient of the ACM-W Athena Lecturer Award. I have known Janie for a while now, and she is inspirational both in her research and in her commitment to women…
From The Female Perspective of Computer ScienceAda Lovelace Day: A Researcher I Admire
Today is Ada Lovelace Day, a day we write about technical women we admire. Last year, I wrote about how much I admired my fellow CU-WISE executives. This year, I chose somebody that I bet will be surprised to see this. Her…
From Wild WebMink? Public Statements
OpenSolaris Board results, Stallman on SaaS, ACTA text leaked and seaweed.
From Schneier on SecurityDead on the No-Fly List
Such "logic":
If a person on the no-fly list dies, his name could stay on the list so that the government can catch anyone trying to assume his identity.But since a terrorist might assume anyone's identity, by the same logic…
From Computational ComplexityWhat I'm Doing Over Spring Break, Part I
It's spring break at Northwestern and as I write this Tuesday morning, I'm on a plane from San Francisco to Denver on my way to Columbus, Ohio. My kids have their spring break next week during my first week of classes for the…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred ThompsonAda Lovelace Day 2010
It
From The Eponymous PickleHerb Sorensen Articles
An index of a number of articles by consumer behavior scientist Herb Sorensen. See also my review of his recent book and other technical pieces on shopper behavior. All thought and value provoking. -
From The Eponymous PickleData Mining in Social Networks
In the World Flattener, from Sammy Haroon: ... ' ... Behram Mistree talks about his data mining and analytics experiment using Facebook while he was at MIT ... ' . We continue to gather data and have to consider the consequences…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACMUSACM and CRA Express Concerns Over Cybersecurity Legislation
Lost within all the health care legislation coverage was the release of a new draft of S.773, the Cybersecurity Act of 2010. The new draft was released a week before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee…
From Schneier on SecurityNew Book: <i>Cryptography Engineering</i>
I have a new book, sort of. Cryptography Engineering is really the second edition of Practical Cryptography. Niels Ferguson and I wrote Practical Cryptography in 2003. Tadayoshi Kohno did most of the update work
From Schneier on SecurityElectronic Health Record Security Analysis
In British Columbia:
When Auditor-General John Doyle and his staff investigated the security of electronic record-keeping at the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, they found trouble everywhere they looked. "In every key area…
From The Eponymous PickleThe Deep Dark Web
Instructive, most people assume the search engines find everything:" ... Google sees only a fraction of the content that appears on the internet. Stuart Andrews finds out what's lurking in the deep webWhen Google indexes so many…
From The Eponymous PickleInteraction Dynamics and Behavioral Economics
I recently discovered Interaction Dynamics via their Twitter presence. See also their blog: ' ... Interaction Dynamics is a tool to increase online customer conversions through personalized user experiences. Custom content is…
From Wild WebMink? Fixes, needed and delivered
The EU ACTA Consultation: European Commission vs. European Parliament
In the gentlest possible way considering the reactions of other commentators, Geist points to the “stakeholder meeting” held by the European Commission’s…
From Schneier on SecurityBack Door in Battery Charger
The United States Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) has warned that the software included in the Energizer DUO USB battery charger contains a backdoor that allows unauthorized remote system access.That's…
From Putting People FirstEleven gambits for influencing user behaviour
In his blog, Dan Lockton, a Ph.D. researcher at Brunel University (UK), describes eleven behavioural change patterns “drawn from games or modelled on more playful forms of influencing behaviour.” “My main interest here is to…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred ThompsonRethinking Hello World
Is it time to rethink and replace
From The Eponymous Pickle3M Tracking and Inventory System
In an interesting development: -- 3M Launches Asset and Inventory Tracking System ... The solution includes 13.56 MHz passive RFID tags, handheld and pad readers, and a hosted software application in which asset data can be stored…
From Putting People FirstConnectile dysfunction
Designers can play a pivotal role, writes Mark Baskinger, associate professor in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University, in empowering elders towards sustained autonomous living through improving the communicative…
From Computational ComplexityStoc Travel Support/WELCOME BACK LANCE!
(REMINDER AND UPDATE: If you are a a grad student you can apply for travel support for STOC 2010. See here for details. One update on that: since registration and hotel information for STOC 2010 is not posted yet, you can estimate…
From Schneier on SecurityPDF the Most Common Malware Vector
MS Word has been dethroned:
Files based on Reader were exploited in almost 49 per cent of the targeted attacks of 2009, compared with about 39 per cent that took aim at Microsoft Word. By comparison, in 2008, Acrobat was targeted…