Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2012
From The Eponymous Pickle
Offshoring and Innovation
In CIO: Can off shoring inhibit innovation? Only if it is poorly integrated with other corporate missions.
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Playable Quests
Quests in video games are a nice way to give players choices to make and offer a story line that seems a bit less linear. Have you noticed, though, that most quests seem to follow the same pattern? Usually, they're all about…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Facts No One Really Checks
Basic theorems that rarely get proved in full detail Laura Smoller is not a theorist, but a historian at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She sports the middle name “Ackerman,” which is one “n” off of the famous mathematician…
From Computational Complexity
The Combinatorics of Batman
(I wrote this post about a year ago but waited until the new Batmanmovie came out to post it. I haven't seen the movie yet sothere may more possibilities to add to this.)There have been many versions of the BATMAN story:comic…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
NSF Announces Video Contest for Graduate Research Fellows
To help mark the 60th anniversary of its Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), the National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced a new video contest — “Creating the Future” — that challenges Fellows to create short videos…
From The Eponymous Pickle
In Hospital Doctor Bedside Robotics
In Computerworld: A good overview of the development of telemedicine using robotics from iRobot. Includes images of how this would be implemented. I suggest again that the embedded intelligence, not the mechanical robot, will…
From Putting People First
Is UX strategy fundamentally incompatible with agile or lean UX?
The take of the author Paul Bryan: UX strategy and agile UX are neither compatible nor incompatible. In an agile shop, UX strategists have to get ahead of the curve and do their work before agile development starts. They need…
From Putting People First
UX for learning: design guidelines for the learner experience
With educational applications for kids, corporate eLearning, and online degree programs, more and more UX designers face design briefs for creating digital experiences with an educational purpose. In this article, Dorian Peters…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Less Groupthink
The broad concept of 'brainstorming', beloved by big business for many decades, has taken a hit recently as creating group think pablum that was not worth the effort expended. An over reach criticism I thought. Now in thebrainstorming…
From Schneier on Security
Making Handcuff Keys with 3D Printers
Handcuffs pose a particular key management problem. Officers need to be able to unlock handcuffs locked by another officer, so they're all designed to be opened by a standard set of keys. This system only works if the bad guys…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Making Wearable Tech Wearable
From Artefactgroup: A good overview of the subject. When we explored this we discovered that the devices were not very wearable in the context of performing maintenance tasks. This takes a step further if we expect them to…
From Putting People First
Making wearable technology wearable
This week at the San Francisco Wearable Technology Conference, Jennifer Darmour, UX designer at the Artefact Group, shared with other wearable technology experts her perspective and insights on the principles we must follow to…
From Putting People First
Experientia collaborating with UCLA Anderson School of Management
Experientia is one of 15 Italian companies and 53 companies worldwide participating in UCLA’s exclusive 2012 Global Access Program (GAP). GAP pairs Fully Employed MBA (FEMBA) students with existing international companies to…
From Wild WebMink
Portland Submarine tour
Portland Submarine tour, a set on Flickr. One enjoyable perk of being a speaker at OSCON and a new author at O’Reilly Media was an invitation to their “Friends” reception at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Fluid Catalogs
Are we ready for shopping in a post Pinterest world? Fluid HTML5 layouts replace the simulated shelf layout in old online retail. More here. Better I think than walking avatars through simulated shelves.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Digitizing Historical Maps
An interesting example of the digitization of some 200,000 historical maps, which will ultimately give them much larger distribution and preserve them for the future.
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
“Continuing Innovation in Information Technology”:New NRC Report Links Government Research Investments to Nation’s Leadership
At the Computing Research Association’s (CRA) biennial Snowbird Conference today, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) will roll out a new report — “Continuing Innovation in Information Technology” — updating…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sociologically Inspired Technology
In the Edge: Looking at how people and animals socially interact and applying that organization more broadly. Akin to agent-based simulation methods we applied in marketing. Still being used today by companies likeThinkvine…
From Putting People First
Silicon Valley worries about addiction to devices
Computers, smartphones and other gadgets have made life easier, but now tech firms are worried that they may be harming people. Huh? Tech firms worried about addiction to devices? As also the author of the New York Times piece…
From Schneier on Security
Implicit Passwords
This is a really interesting research paper (article here) on implicit passwords: something your unconscious mind remembers but your conscious mind doesn't know. The Slashdot post is a nice summary:
A cross-disciplinary team…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Virtual Windows 8 Hands-on-Labs
Ready to learn how to develop for Windows 8? Well perhaps not quite ready for a dedicated machine or concerned about complicated set-up? Well in those cases the new Virtual Windows 8 hands-on-labs may be just what you need!
…From Putting People First
Make your users do the work
“Make your users do the work< ” is the not very people-centred title of a guest piece by Nir Eyal on Techcrunch. He argues that putting users to work is critical in creating products people love, and he has a point. Some excerpts…
From Putting People First
Awesome experiences make us nicer
New research by published in the journal Psychological Science shows that awe-inspiring moments can literally make time seem to stand still, or at least slow down. That feeling improves our mental health since many people often…
From Putting People First
Making sense of the cross channel experience
In this short essay, Jon Fisher of UK consultancy Nomensa presents some introductory thoughts about Nomensa’s framework for ”sense making in cross channel design”. In particular, he demonstrates a potential method for visualising…
From Putting People First
mHealth: the next frontier or too much hype?
mHealth: The Next Frontier For Mobile Service Growth By Scott Wilson and Phil Asmundson of Deloitte Advances in wireless remote patient monitoring (RPM) are expected to have a big impact across targeted disease areas where chronic…
From Putting People First
Debate on the UXPA name change
At the beginning of June, the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) announced that from now on it would be known as the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA). This didn’t go unnoticed, and UX publisher Louis Rosenfeld…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Walgreen's Mobile Store Map
Walgreen's maps every store with a mobile application, but does not communicate it very well, writes Storefrontbacktalk. We worked extensively with store mapping applications, which show product via a search, route to their…
From Putting People First
Our Frugal Future: Lessons from India’s innovation system
Drawing on the latest data and over 130 interviews with Indian policymakers, entrepreneurs and academics, this report by NESTA, the UK innovation agency, explores the policies, institutions and industries that are driving research…
From BLOG@CACM
Quantum Gaming
Scientific discovery games are an exciting new approach to solving thorny scientific problems using contributions from a distributed group of non-expert humans. The approach has been successful in the domain of biochemistry,…
From Putting People First
Co-design in innovation
In a short post on the Huffington Post blog, author Soren Petersen describes how co-design – when firms and non-design users jointly design business and product offerings – is seen as a potential new avenue for breakthrough innovation…