Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2011
From Apophenia
I do not speak for my employer.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when people imply that when I make arguments, I’m speaking on behalf of Microsoft. Anyone who knows me knows that my opinions are my own. (This blog sez so too but no one ever seems to reads…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Advice for Beginning Graphic Facilitators
David Sibbet posts a piece on starting the process of graphic facilitation. It is a powerful method we often used. I found it hard to do myself, even after going through the training. Still well worth it when done by an expert…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Collaborative Search: SearchTeam
I wrote a note about Zakta's new Collaborative Search Tool: SearchTeam back in mid July. Wanted to repeat that as I start to take a yet deeper dive look at the tool. I think this is really innovative idea. Could have used this…
From The Eponymous Pickle
P&G a Supply Chain Leader
In The Financial Times: Procter works very hard on supply chain improvement. . Note that P&G is the only 'old world' non tech company in the top three. I highly commend their supply chain operation and use of advanced analytical…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Virtual Supermarkets
I have spent some time over the years looking at how to build virtual retail spaces, everywhere from the classic local grocery store to large hypermarkets, to the intricacies of understanding the last hundred yards of the supply…
From Putting People First
Designing for a workforce that acts more sustainably
In a six part article series Gerd Waloszek of SAP User Experience [who is very inspired by Nathan Shedroff's latest book 'Design is the Problem'] approaches the topic of the sustainable behavior of a workforce from a designer’s…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Computational Tales
I recently found out (thanks to the SIGCSE mailing list) that Dr. Jeremy Kubica, software engineer and manager at Google, has been putting together a set of examples of CS concepts written as fairy tales. From what I understand…
From Putting People First
The web brings people together and keeps us sociable, not lonely
The commonly held belief that the internet is turning an entire generation into solitary web-junkies is a myth, according to new research. In a paper to be presented to a gathering of Nobel prize winners later this month, three…
From Putting People First
Storytelling in the digital age
Digital technology allows us to tell tales in innovative new ways. As the tools available to publishers grow more sophisticated, it’s up to us, writes Aleks Krotoski in The Guardian, to experiment and see what sticks. “The Edinburgh…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
(This post has been updated.) David Ferrucci, the lead researcher for IBM’s Watson, was recently selected by Slate Magazine as one of “five American technology gurus” — for being “both wildly inventive and incredibly practical…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Neputation: Business Intelligence and Reputation Management
Neputation: Talked to these folks recently, very impressive. I like thinking of Business Intelligence/Competitive Intelligence as a form of reputation management. Your Reputation is your Business and your Business is yourAt…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Learn AI at Stanford Free
We worked with the Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory in the mid 1980s when actively involved in artificial intelligence, impressive group, and took a number of the courses before linking up with a vendor in the space. Inow…
From Putting People First
Insights from Research Magazine
Four interesting articles in Research Magazine, a UK industry magazine. This month we… browsed a virtual supermarket Robert Bain explores a simulated supermarket used to research products and store designs. Behind the sofa Simon…
From Putting People First
How to determine what media airline passengers will choose while travelling
Kevin Miller, global head of insight at in-flight magazine publisher Ink discusses how the environment impacts airline travellers psychologically and in turn affects their choice of media. “The airline passenger journey, from…
From Putting People First
Home builders need to look beyond the focus group to learn what buyers want
Architects and construction companies can learn a lot still from the techniques of ethnographers and UX designers. Here is an example from the Real Estate section of the Washington Post: “What do home buyers want? For more than…
From Putting People First
Journal of IA Issue 1, Volume 3 Released
The Spring 2011 Journal of Information Architecture, Issue 1, Vol. 3 is now available, with an editorial by IA Institute Board member, Dan Klyn describing this addition’s articles as a collection of “…no-fuss, panoramic views…
From Putting People First
Designing for social norms (or how not to create angry mobs)
Danah Boyd thinks we need a more critical conversation about the importance of designing with social norms in mind. “Good UX designers know that they have the power to shape certain kinds of social practices by how they design…
From Putting People First
Five lessons from a year of tablet UX research
Tablet platforms break traditional paradigms of computer and mobile use, shows ethnographic and interview-based research conducted over the last year by UX research firm AnswerLab. “We have learned that although many people purchased…
From U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM
Former Microsoft Executive to Replace Kundra as Federal CIO
Shortly before Vivek Kundra’s scheduled departure from the position of federal Chief Information Officer, the White House has named his replacement. Steven VanRoekel moves into the position from the U.S. Agency for International…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Severed Hand is Actually A Dried Squid
I just can't make this stuff up:
A report of a severed hand found at an Oahu seabird sanctuary has turned out to be dried squid.
Remember: if you see something, say something.
From Schneier on Security
XKCD on the CIA Hack
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Helping to Restore Bletchley Park
Google reports that they are contributing to the restoration of Bletchley Park, one of the birthplaces of both computing and code breaking. I am a long time follower of the history of both these topics. Hope to visit some…
From Schneier on Security
Zodiac Cipher Cracked
I admit I don't pay much attention to pencil-and-paper ciphers, so I knew nothing about the Zodiac cipher. Seems it has finally been broken:
The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who preyed on couples in Northern California…From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Our First Ultrasound (Technology is Awesome!)
I got my first ultrasound on Wednesday. Baby was 20 weeks old. I think the grandparents-to-be were more excited about the baby itself; we just might have been more enthralled with the technology that allowed us to see it.Still…
From Apophenia
Designing for Social Norms (or How Not to Create Angry Mobs)
In his seminal book “Code”, Larry Lessig argued that social systems are regulated by four forces: 1) the market; 2) the law; 3) social norms; and 4) architecture or code. In thinking about social media systems, plenty of folks…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Why Democracy Needs Computer Science Education
The following is a special contribution to this blog from Henry Kautz, Chair of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Rochester. His research interests are in knowledge representation, satisfiability testing…
From Schneier on Security
German Police Call Airport Full-Body Scanners Useless
I'm not surprised:
The weekly Welt am Sonntag, quoting a police report, said 35 percent of the 730,000 passengers checked by the scanners set off the alarm more than once despite being innocent. The report said the machines…From The Eponymous Pickle
Feedback Method
We effectively used this method for personal feedback in the enterprise. Simple, easy to remember.
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Education Leadership Day 2011
Leadership Day is a project started by Scott McLeod and is now in its fourth year. The idea is for people to “blog about whatever you like related to effective school technology leadership: successes, challenges, reflections,…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Layer Adding Object Recognition
In Fast Company. QR codes has received lots of positive press recently. But Augmented Reality had the potential of replacing QR codes by providing information either by using virtual locations, or by interpretation of any object…