Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2014
From The Eponymous Pickle
Unilever Project Sunlight Media Wall
Brought to my attention by a former colleague. See their twitter media Wall. Highly visual gathering point.
From Schneier on Security
Analysis of the FBI's Failure to Stop the Boston Marathon Bombings
Detailed response and analysis of the inspectors general report on the Boston Marathon bombings: Two opposite mistakes in an after-the-fact review of a terrorist incident are equally damaging. One is to fail to recognize the…
From Putting People First
Aiming for open source technology that is gorgeous and provides great UX
Designer and social entrepreneur Aral Balkan believes it is time to build an alternate future where we own our own tools, services, and data. And to do this we must create a new category of design-led, experience-driven ‘technology’…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Shoppers Want to Exchange Private Information for Value
Some fairly obvious results, but having some quantitative measure is good. " .... Conducted on PriceGrabber.com from February 7 – March 7, 2014, this survey includes responses from 3,449 U.S. shopping consumers. ... Respondents…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Why Visualize Data?
Good piece by Stephen Few. " .... We visualize quantitative data to perform three fundamental tasks in an effort to achieve three essential goals ... These three tasks are so fundamental to data visualization, I’ve long used…
From The Eponymous Pickle
How Big Data Influences Design
Tomorrow 5/2/2014, at 2 PM ET, I plan to attend online. Will provide some thoughts afterwards:" ... Over the past few years, the technology industry is filled with examples of how data analytics has reshaped our world and the…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Have Americans reached peak scholarship?
Bryan Alexander conjectured that Americans might be reaching peak scholarship. That is, whereas we are used to science as an ever expanding industry… it could be that American scientific production has reached its maximum. You…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Business Relevancy of Corporate Data
By Data Guru Bill Inmon. An instructive, non technical view of corporate data in multiple parts. Well worth a read. " ... There is a tremendous difference in business relevancy when looking at the different types of data…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Innovators Dilemma for the Supply Chain
Innovator's dilemma in the supply chain. A good reminder of the concept. An interesting view that is worth following. In particular positioning the use of simulation to understand what works, what does not, and the sensitivity…
From Schneier on Security
Really Weird Keith Alexander Interview
Comedian John Oliver interviewed now-retired NSA director General Keith Alexander. It's truly weird....
From The Eponymous Pickle
Watson as a New Ecosystem in Computing
We saw some the early Watson work, developed some of our related focused efforts. Continue to follow its direction. It is now positioned as an ecosystem:In A Smarter Planet By Michael Rhodin:When IBM’s Watson arrived on the…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Common Core and Computer Science
Last week my district offered common core workshops for all district teachers. The administrator whose responsibility was to plan the workshop for computer science/business works on my campus. A few weeks ago we discussed topics…
From Apophenia
New White House Report on Big Data
I’m delighted to see that the White House has just released its report on “big data” — “Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values” along with an amazing collection of supporting documents. This report is the culmination…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Now Remembers Where You Parked
I have often used my phone camera to take a picture of my car parking location. Now a feature to remember its location. A very useful assistant application. Nice idea for those that do lots of driving and parking in new places…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
ACM Presidential Award Winner – Mehran Sahami
The ACM Presidential Award is given at the discretion of the ACM President, to individuals whose contributions in computing fall within the goals of the ACM. The ACM Presidential Award goes to Mehran Sahami, a Professor and Associate…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
ACM Distinguished Service Award Goes to Gerhard Goos, Juris Hartmanis, and Jan van Leeuwen
The ACM Distinguished Service Award is given to individuals on the basis of value and degree of services to the computing community. Gerhard Goos of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Juris Hartmanis of Cornell University, and…
From Computational Complexity
Favorite Theorems: Equilibrium
The past decade has seen an explosion of work tying together theoretical computer science and micro-economics. Much has come in the area of market design, where tools and ideas from the algorithms community apply nicely in developing…
From Schneier on Security
The Federal Reserve System's Cyberdefense Force
Interesting article on the cybersecurity branch of the Federal Reserve System....
From Putting People First
Looking ahead in automotive UX with Mercedes
Steve Tengler recently sat down the user experience folks at Mercedes’ Research and Development Center in Sunnyvale, California, and interviewed Paolo Malabuyo (Vice President of Advanced UX Design), Vera Schmidt (Senior Manager…