Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2010
From Putting People First
Extensive interview with user interface expert Bill Buxton
Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail has published an extensive, three-part interview that Chad Sapieha conducted with Microsoft Principal Researcher (and fellow Canadian) Bill Buxton. “You
From Putting People First
Cellphones, social networks make eavesdropping OK?
Not only are many unconcerned about strangers overhearing cellphone calls, we purposely broadcast our personal business on Facebook and Twitter. Sharon Jayson reports on the implications in USA Today. “A century ago, when the…
From Putting People First
Human-computer interaction for development
Human-Computer Interaction for Development: The Past, Present, and Future Research article by Melissa R. Ho (University of California, Berkeley), Thomas N. Smyth (Georgia Institute of Technology), Matthew Kam( Carnegie Mellon…
From Wild WebMink
? Community Types Essay
My essay on Community Types is now available in the Essays section of the site. It defines what I mean by terms like “co-developer” and “deployer-developer” when I use them in conversation.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Enabled Surfaces
We talked to several office furniture and space manufacturers and they were all looking at the possibility of making work surfaces, walls and even floors into interactive surfaces. The idea had been around for some time, butSurface…
From Apophenia
Call for Papers: Digital Media & Learning Conference
Interested in Digital Media & Learning? Well, the 2011 Digital Media & Learning Conference is looking for some interesting talks, papers, and sessions. They’ve just launched the call for proposals. (I’m on the conference committee…
From The Eponymous Pickle
The Promise of Computers in Patient Care
In the latest Communications of the ACM: Computers in Patient Care: Why has progress been so slow?. A good readable article that includes a good narrative about how the lack of progress effects individuals. " ... Some of the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Wal-Mart Brands a Wireless Plan
Wal-Mart has branded its own wireless plan. " ... it is introducing the first cell phone plan that uses the chain's own branding, further demonstrating its clout in getting special deals from wireless carriers. The Wal-Mart…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Recorded Future Full Text Search
I see that the exciting temporal search engine 'Recorded Furture' has added full text search to its premium interface. A very nice ability, which makes you depend less on their breakdown of the text involved. See much more I…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Hold the In-App Ads
As is obvious, mobile users do not like Ads with their mobile Apps. As in the early days of the Web until now, they will accept them for the right value trade off.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Rise of Social Commerce
Charlene Li, always interesting, on the what she calls the rise of social commerce. Which will be talked about at an upcoming meeting.
From Schneier on Security
Kenzero
Kenzero is a Japanese Trojan that collects and publishes users' porn surfing habits, and then blackmails them to remove the information.
From Apophenia
Musing on Child Naming and the Internet
I am of the age where many of my friends are having kids and so I’ve been exposed to more conversations about what to name one’s child than I ever could’ve imagined. I’m sure people have always had long contested discussions…
From Computational Complexity
FOCS Travel Support (Guest Post by Paul Beame)
The program for the FOCS 2010 has an excellent set of selected papers and in addition has tutorials on Saturday by Ketan Mulmuley, Mihai Patrascu, and Tim Roughgarden, a memorial for Avner Magen, and an invited talk by recently…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interesting Links 13 September 2010
Lots of good links this week. And if you are visiting via the web I wrote a rare week-end post on Object Oriented Programming.Design that I hope you
From Putting People First
A tech world that centers on the user
I live in the future & here’s how it works Why your world, work, and brain are being creatively disrupted by Nick Bolton Crown Business, Sept. 2010 304 pages Amazon The New York Times has published an article that was adapted…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Right vs Left Brain
At the enterprise a dozen years ago there was much talk about the difference between left and right brains, engineering and design minds. The specifics of the 'sided-ness' was debunked some time ago, but we still used the convention…
From Computer Science Teachers Association
New Challenges in the School Year
Back to school. At the K-12 level, it used to mean parents had to deal with the expense of pens, pencils, notebooks, and paper, maybe some art supplies, the occasional protractor, and a simple calculator. Now, of course, it means…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Cute Geographic Maps
Yet another example of a geographic display with relatively little relationship between the geographic structure and the data itself. As I have said before, these maps are useful mostly in a sense that they show all the topics…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Graph Networks for Predictive Analytics
Interesting thought here. We used graph network methods for years to understand and optimize supply chains. It is also useful because it can show the relationship between competing entities. Its also a useful way to present…
From Apophenia
Favorite myth-making news articles?
The book that I’m writing is focused on myths that we have about teens and social media. I’m trying to find some good quotes from news media that perpetuate these myths and I’m hoping that you might be able to help. The more…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Objects When? If Ever?
This post started as a comment on Mark Guzdial
From BLOG@CACM
Can the U.S. Afford Universities Focusing on Research Over Teaching?
The American University system is increasingly turning toward research and away from teaching. The result is higher costs, and we can get quality education without the research programs.
From The Eponymous Pickle
David Sibbet's Book Launch
I have mentioned it here before ... Colleague David Sibbet's new and provocative book: Visual Meetings. He video posts about his book launch. A descriptive video. Looks to be great material, congratulations, David!
From The Eponymous Pickle
Conference App
Long-time correspondent Sy Truong and his company Meta-Xceed, Inc. have developed an IPhone App for the upcoming SAS Global Forum 2011 Conference. This is an interesting example of how an App can be used as a standalone application…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Barcode Hero Addictive Shoppng Game
Including games into arduous or boring tasks is a good idea, but in a few examples I have seen, has not worked well. Just starting to take a look at this example, Barcode Hero, a smartphone App, which links shopping and games…
From The Noisy Channel
New Web Site for HCIR Workshop
In 2007, I persuaded MIT graduate students Michael Bernstein and Robin Stewart (who was interning at
From Wild WebMink
links for 2010-09-11
Licensing Change for Solaris 10 and Solaris Cluster It's still only an evaluation license, but at least they have got rid of the limited period. (tags: Solaris Oracle)
From The Eponymous Pickle
A Glucose Meter App for the Android
Via Mark Montgomery of KYield: An example of Smartphone mHealth: A standard meter connected the Android smartphone via a bluetooth connection. Includes a video and some analysis screenshots. We will see much more of this. Some…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Neuromarketing: Fantasy or the Future
In Adage: Is Neuromarketing a Fantasy or the Future? It Could Give Marketers an Edge, but Questions Remain About Effectiveness and EthicsNeuromarketing, and the research that supports it, potentially circumvents the battle between…