Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2013
From Putting People First
Book: Why We Fail
Why We Fail: Learning from Experience Design Failures By Victor Lombardi 248 pages Rosenfeld Media Why did Twitter succeed while Pownce plotzed? Why has “to Plaxo” become a verb? And Zune: great product, but are you using one…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Advances in Tagging
In GigaOM: Tagging is a long time interest. Costs and power requirements have always been a issue. This also relates to an internet of things, where simply finding a physical thing can be a first step Note also the use of"…
From Schneier on Security
Restoring Trust in Government and the Internet
In July 2012, responding to allegations that the video-chat service Skype -- owned by Microsoft -- was changing its protocols to make it possible for the government to eavesdrop on users, Corporate Vice President Mark Gillett…
From Schneier on Security
Has Tor Been Compromised?
There's speculation that the FBI is responsible for an exploit that compromised the Tor anonymity service. Note that Tor nodes installed or updated after June 26 are secure.
From The Eponymous Pickle
GotoGlue and the Personal Brand
An enterprise colleague of mine pointed me to GotoGlue. I much like the idea of having a personal brand while connecting Job Seekers, Organizations and Employers. Just launched. " ... In Glue, users populate a series of content…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Innovation Mindset in Action at 3M
In the HBR Blogs (requires registration): The methods used by 3M have always been of interest. See also the previous posts. " ... In three recent blog posts we looked at the innovation mindset in individuals, profiling game…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Going Global Faster with Cloud and Mobile
I have been in the midst of looking at how companies use mobile, focused data, cloud and ultimately analytical support. So have developed interest in how all these elements work together. An article by IBM Midmarket GeneralJohn…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Linkedin Review
In Readwrite Web: A good overview of why the author thinks Linkedin is their favorite social network. I agree, because it does maintain a business focus. Second is Twitter, which is better at getting you to select and precise…
From Schneier on Security
NSA Surveillance and Mission Creep
Last month, I wrote about the potential for mass surveillance mission creep: the tendency for the vast NSA surveillance apparatus to be used for other, lesser, crimes. My essay was theoretical, but it turns out to be already…
From Putting People First
The business case for service design
Service designer Bill Hollins shares his thoughts on why service design makes business sense and argues that more businesses should invest in employing a service designer. 1. Good customer service + quality product = brand loyalty…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
CS Educator Interview: Norm Messa
Today we visit a career/technical school in the seacoast area of New Hampshire. Norm Messa is the teacher we talk to there. Norm is a second career teacher who does an amazing job at his school. Seacoast School of Technology Where…
From Putting People First
User experience is not just design, it’s the key to innovation and growth
Brian Solis met up with Jesse James Garrett (author of The Elements of User Experience and Co-Founder of Adaptive Path) to talk about the state of user experience (UX), its role in the future of business, and how UX deserves…
From Putting People First
User experience is more than design – it’s strategy
t’s time that we expand the role of User Experience beyond execution, beyond output, and yes, even beyond design, writes Christopher Grant Ward, Director of Product Strategy and User Experience at SUBTXT. “The most important…
From Putting People First
Putting the customer at the centre of your retail business
Oracle recently conducted some research into the shopping needs and expectations of shoppers in Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US – in an effort to better understand the role and importance of service to…
From Putting People First
Making the most of ethnographic research
Applying ethnographic methods to digital experiences can yield myriad benefits that go beyond simply validating that something works or identifying opportunities for improvement, write Jessica Weber and John Cheng of AnswerLab…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Emotion Sniffing from a Phone
In Fastcompany: This could be a very useful thing to understand how people are reacting to an environment. Pay people to use the idea. And their phone is always there. Once again an interesting stream of data " ... Rice University…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Understanding Analytical Databases
Interesting piece by Wayne Eckerson. Linking to an upcoming talk. How to get data to advanced analytical methods effectively? The world has changed from the relational database of the near past: " .... Today, these so-called…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Bezos Buys Washington Post
Another example of the old information systems combining with the new. It had become too cheap not to acquire. Perhaps they should also buy Barnes & Noble? I do hope this removes the pay wall, while finding other ways to monetize…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Advanced Maths Win Wall Street
A view of what used to be called 'rocket scientists' in Wall Street. I recall going to a talk at the Santa Fe Institute and hearing a talk about this phenomenon, just before the crash. Now its math, big data and analytics…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Informs
Informs is a A professional organization I have been part of for many years. The science of better ... Industrial mathematics and decision making. It uses what is now called business analytics for all sizes of businesses…
From Computational Complexity
Longest time between posing a math problem and it being answered?
(We were asked to remind you: ITCS 2014 Call for papers: call for papers.) What problem in math had the longest time between POSING IT and SOLVING it? This might not be a well defined question since the notion of when waswhen…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Big Data for the Masses
Can everyone be a data scientist? You will at very least need the strong support of data scientists. Similar to delivering analytics to everyone. Its not so much about the technology to extract data from large and volatileTableau…
From Schneier on Security
The Public/Private Surveillance Partnership
Imagine the government passed a law requiring all citizens to carry a tracking device. Such a law would immediately be found unconstitutional. Yet we all carry mobile phones.
If the National Security Agency required us to notify…From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 5 August 2013
I turned 3C years old yesterday. That’s in Hex of course. 110 1100 in binary. In place of presents post a link to my blog on your blog, Facebook and/or Twitter. I spent much of last week at Walt Disney World having a real…
From Putting People First
Smart cities workshop with the Design Center Busan
A few days ago Experientia’s latest collaboration with Korea’s Design Center Busan wrapped up, as 21 South Korean students completed a summer study program in Turin. Experientia ran a creative workshop for the students, titled…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
Crypto Aspects of The Jacobian Conjecture
Crypto concepts promise partial progress via partial inversion cropped from source. Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali recently won the prestigious Turing Award. Our congratulations again to both of them. Shafi asked that we…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Nature Blog on Visualization
Just discovered this blog that covers visualization methods for Nature Methods. This post acts as an index to all other pieces in the blog. Points of view, certainly, but appear to be very useful examples. The blog is apparently…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On Not Trusting Data Science
Language Lab of the University of Pennsylvania comments on a recent article about the nature of the data scientist. Essentially making the case that the label of 'scientist' is less valuable than it seems. Most science in reviewed…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Innovation Excellence Weekly
I quote this group frequently. Here is their weekly review. I am loosely connected to this effort. Worth following. " ... News and Insights from the Global Innovation Excellence Community ... "
From The Eponymous Pickle
Retail Glossary
A useful glossary of retail terms. " ... The Path to Purchase Institute’s Shopper Marketing Glossary is an evolving work-in-progress. We invite your critiques, additions and suggestions ... "