Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2009
From Putting People First
IBM and the Internet of Things
From Putting People First
TEDGlobal:
Anthropologist
From BLOG@CACM
No, We're Not Losing Our Ability to Think Critically
A response to the July 2009 CACM article: "Are We Losing Our Ability to Think Critically?" In short: nope! There isn't much evidence to support this, so relax.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Artificial Brain Ten Years Away?
From the TED conference: ' ... Professor Markram said he would send a hologram to talk at TED in 10 years. A detailed, functional artificial human brain can be built within the next 10 years, a leading scientist has claimed.…
From Putting People First
How the digital world is changing the rules of modern courtship
As part of a feature series on Facebook (see below), Newsweek explores how the digital world is changing the rules of modern courtship: “It wasn’t so long ago that the idea of a college romance playing out online
From Putting People First
TEDGlobal updates
Both the Guardian newspaper’s PDA blog and TED itself are posting regular updates from the current TEDGlobal conference in Oxford, UK. (TED stands for technology, entertainment and design, and it’s an exclusive conference that…
From Putting People First
Designing for sustainability
In this three-part video series, originally posted on Adobe’s Inspire site (a publication from the Adobe Experience Design Team), watch highlights from the Adobe-sponsored roundtable discussion, moderated by former XD Director…
From Putting People First
Literature review on museums and libraries in a digital age
The Futures of Learning blog, which is associated with a MacArthur Foundation project, just completed an extensive literature review, conducted as part of the project, Inspiring the Technological Imagination: Museums and Libraries…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
The Computing Community Consortium: An Update
A GENI Engineering Conference presentation by CCC Chair Ed Lazowska describing major activities since the last GEC in October 2008, including:
Transition Team white papers (see them here) Library of Congress symposium (transparencies…From The Eponymous Pickle
Planning Under Uncertainty
Good Piece in Knowledge@Wharton: Eyes Wide Open: Embracing Uncertainty through Scenario Planning. Given our uncertain times, a technique that needs to be more commonly used. It is perhaps the discipline that is most lacking…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Creativity Centers
The Power Of Design IDEO redefined good design by creating experiences, not just products. Now it's changing the way companies innovate ... Also here about creativity in companies. For more about our innovation centers and…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Network Science & Engineering Research Agenda
At this week’s GENI Engineering Conference in Seattle, Ellen Zegura rolled out the Network Science & Engineering (NetSE) Research Agenda, an extensive effort of CCC’s NetSE Council, which Ellen chaired. Over the past forty years…
From Putting People First
Visions of Europe in 2030
The age of globalization is over. The coming 30 years will be shaped by the logic of scarcity, resulting in a turn away from global trade and the creation of self-reliant geopolitical zones. Wolfram Eilenberger argues on Spiegel…
From Wild WebMink
America Needs Open Source
Today sees the launch of a new coalition of businesses (large and small), organizations and individuals to speak up for Free and open source software in Washington DC. Open Source for America brings together a diverse alliance…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
Summer Learning for Teachers
Many people believe that teachers have it easy in the summer since they have summers off. But, many teachers have very busy summers. Some teachers need to work another job in the summer and many teachers take workshops and …
From The Eponymous Pickle
On the Neuroscience of Emotion
Interesting Google tech talk on the topic, a talk by Phillipe Goldin
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Stick
I see that there is now a 256GB USB memory stick. Expensive, but things like this will drive the price of others down. Will allow us to lose increasing amounts of data easily. Be careful.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Brands, Games and Phones
In Adweek, good overview about how brands can be integrated into games on phones. This is something we examined starting a number of years ago. How do you take this beyond a simple product placement model. Mentions Nissan and…
From Putting People First
Elsevier announces the
According to an Elsevier press release, the ew article prototype introduces non-linear structure, enhanced graphical navigation, and integrated multimedia. “Elsevier, the leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical…
From Putting People First
Touch me! An article on tactile experience
In this article Jessica Ching, Laura Henneberry and Shally Lee share the findings of a collaborative project between the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) and Canadian network operator TELUS. “Touch is a vital human need…
From Putting People First
Mobile Internet user experience is miserable: Study
While most people see mobile as the answer to so many problems, research from Nielsen Norman Group sees it as another problem on the list. “The key finding showed that users are 35 percent less successful completing Web site…
From Putting People First
Storytelling and interaction design
The urge to describe experiences by telling a story runs throughout human history. From pictograms to hieroglyphs to the songs of the wandering bard, argues Ben Fullerton, we have developed many different ways of using storytelling…
From Putting People First
We
Ross Mayfield (blog), a leading social software entrepreneur and founder of Socialtext, talks on Nokia’s IdeasProject site about a major transformation in the way organizations assimilate ideas. Whereas in the past companies…
From BLOG@CACM
Correction and Updates on Role of APCS in Undergraduate Enrollment
The number of students taking the Advanced Placement Exam in Computer Science (APCS) is distressingly low. My earlier data were wrong, but even with these data, the bottom line remains that most students have no access to the…
From Putting People First
Happy birthday Experientia
From The Eponymous Pickle
Objects Hit Jupiter
Also not in the usual realm of this blog, but I am in a space mood tonight. It is clear that this kind of thing occurs more often than we thought. It also is an example how advanced we have become in imaging and image analysis…
From The Noisy Channel
SIGIR 2009: Day 1
From The Eponymous Pickle
How Powerful were the Apollo Computers?
With the anniversary underway, its fun to consider the power of the guidance and systems computers during the Apollo days. Very primitive indeed. My phone is far more powerful. In Downloadsquad.
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Hill Tech Happenings, Week of July 20
July 21
Hearing: The Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship of the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on changes to employment verification. 2:15 p.m., 226 Dirksen Building
(note, the full …From Computer Science Teachers Association
Computer Science Certification-Why We Need to Care
First, I would like to encourage all of you to read the CSTA publication: Ensuring Exemplary Teaching in an Essential Discipline: Addressing the Crisis in Computer Science Teacher Certification http://www.csta.acm.org/ComputerScienceTeacherCertification…