Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2009
From Putting People First
The rise of the sensor citizen
Anne Galloway was one of the excellent presenters at the recent LIFT conference in Geneva. So it is with much pleasure to notice that she has written the latest contribution to Vodafone’s Receiver Magazine. In her critical contribution…
From Putting People First
Towards social business design
Social business design is a new concept that could potentially become quite important for businesses and corporations: In “From Social Media To Social Business Design, David Armano explores what businesses would be like if they…
From Putting People First
The revolution will be fetishised
Now that the refrains of “Twitter Revolution” and “the first uprising powered by social media” are fading into the distant memory that is 24 hours ago, we can start debating, says Jonathan Salem Baskin, what impact, if any, it…
From Putting People First
A range of new products will be created from social data
LinkedIn founder and CEO Reid Hoffman says in an interview on Nokia’s Ideas Project that the unprecedented accumulation of social network data provides fertile ground for the cultivation of products and applications that leverage…
From Putting People First
Technology is for revolution (and repression)
Far from being a tool for oppression, as often portrayed in old science fiction, technology has become a means of liberation, argues the Financial Times. “Technology gets a bad rap in the old media. In books and films, it is…
From Putting People First
As blogs are censored, it
The New York Times discusses extensively the “Cute Cat Theory of Internet Censorship”, as propounded by Ethan Zuckerman, a senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. His idea is deceptively…
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Future of TV
Dave Knox posts a good piece: I have seen the future of TV
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Brand Loyalty Fading
In a large scale study of loyalty card customers. In the Financial Times. Not unexpected, but note that the funders of the study stand to gain by these results!" ... Big brands
From BLOG@CACM
Designing Effective Interfaces For Usable Privacy and Security
I often cringe when I hear highly technical engineers talk about people. I usually hear broad generalizations tossed about, like "people are lazy, that's why they can't use the system", or "people don't understand security". …
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Hill Tech Happenings, Week of June 22
June 25
Hearing:
The House Science and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on cybersecurity activity at NIST and the Department of Homeland Security. 2 p.m., 2318 Rayburn Building
From The Noisy Channel
Marti Hearst
Those of you who know Marti Hearst or follow her work may have heard that she’s been writing a book on Search User Interfaces to follow up on her chapter in Ricardo Baeza-Yates and Berthier Ribiero-Neto’s textbook on Modern Information…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Blog
Long time colleague Richard James, who is always interesting, writes: 'Just got back from P&G Alumni event/few days holiday in Rome. Met some fantastic people and had an interesting time there. One of the people we had theKevin…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Escape from Cubicle Nation
Much enjoyed Pamela Slim's Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur. This is the kind of how-to book that I usually just skim, but I found myself reading through cover to cover. Deals with…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Five Minute Books
I see that Jerry Michalski is putting together an interesting conference call idea. See more at the link. Always love new ideas for sharing knowledge. See also at @yitan . "Howard Rheingold had a great idea several years…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Social Networking Inside the Enterprise
This short article makes the case that social networking inside the enterprise is more important than outside. This was precisely what I was involved with before graduating from the mega-enterprise. How do we use blogs, podcasts…
From Apophenia
xkcd meets reality
Earlier this week, xkcd posted a fantastic comic about the apocalypse happening and the dead rising to walk the earth. In the comic, mathematicians scribbled frantically and raced to Paul Erdos' grave to get him to sign a document…
From BLOG@CACM
Nudging Computing Education
The nudges of libertarian paternalism have insights for computing education.
From BLOG@CACM
E-Commerce in Latin America
Short talk about the evolution and actual status of e-commerce in Latin America
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google and Amazon Stifling Creativity?
In an interesting and detailed piece, Cory Doctorow writes: ' ... Now, it's not that I hate Amazon or Google, but I do understand that they are fast becoming the intermediary between creators and audiences (and vice-versa),…
From Putting People First
Mobile impact
Last week I quoted from Robert Fabricant’s contribution to a Fast Company discussion roundtable on the impact of the mobile phone. Robert has meanwhile posted the full text of his response to the questions. Here another quote…
From BLOG@CACM
The Fallacy of Rankings
The list of the world's fastest computers will soon be announced. As always, we can expect the latest announcement to garner interest among the technological community, receive coverage in the popular press, and secure bragging…
From BLOG@CACM
Changing Search Behavior on the World Wild Web
Are we at a turning point in search is the real $100M question of the month. It's more about adaptation then features as most regular Internet Users head toward 10k lifetime queries.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Unloaded Dice Program
Mind Hacks points to an excellent podcast program on the science of randomness. ' ... The hour long science trip largely focuses on how we make sense of random or unpredictable events, from coincidences to statistical white…
From The Noisy Channel
Great post from our commenter-in-chief Jeremy Pickens on his own blog, Information Retrieval Gupf, about comments from Google Director of Research Peter Norvig at a recent semantic technology search panel (at the same Semantic…
From Putting People First
Thomas Crampton on his transition from journalism to digital strategy
Thomas Crampton, a former correspondent for the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times, was asked to address an OECD gathering in Paris about his transition from journalism to digital strategy, focusing on his experiences…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Evolving Complicators and Simplifiers
From the Edge, a talk with John Bargh, professor of social psychology at Yale University and director of the ACME (Automaticity in Cognition, Motivation and Evaluation) Lab. ' ... They say that in science there are complicators…
From Putting People First
UK report on how cities use innovation to tackle social challenges
British Council press release: Breakthrough cities is a groundbreaking report on how cities can mobilise creativity and knowledge to tackle compelling social challenges. The report was commissioned by the British Council from…
From Putting People First
A complex vision of citizen media
MIT
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Computer Science For K-8? Yes! (With Curriculum Resources!)
From The Eponymous Pickle
New Neuroscience Blog
Looks to be interesting, I see the posts so far have considerable detail on marketing issues.'We are pleased to announce the launch of Lucid Thoughts, a blog devoted to the intersection of neuroscience, social science, and the…