Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2010
From ACM Opinion
Declare War on Wikileaks
The Pentagon looks defenseless against cyberwarfare.
From ACM Opinion
On the Threshold of the Avatar Era
In a garage in Palo Alto, Calif., in the 1980s, some friends and I were the first humans to experience becoming avatars—that is, movable representations of ourselves in cyberspace. Amazingly, all these years later, almost…
From ACM Opinion
Ray Ozzie: Dawn of a New Day
Five years ago, having only recently arrived at the company, I wrote The Internet Services Disruption in order to kick off a major change management process across the company. In the opening section of that memo, I noted…
From ACM Opinion
efa President Platini Opposed to Goal-Line Technology
Uefa president Michel Platini believes goal-line technology would lead to "Playstation football."
From ACM Opinion
3 Questions: Arpa-E Chief on the Energy Challenge
During a visit to MIT, Arun Majumdar, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), discussed the global energy challenge and the role his agency plays in trying to foster transformational…
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Lightspace, One Step Closer to Star Trek Holodeck
Microsoft researchers Andy Wilson and Hrvoje Benko have developed LightSpace, a project that uses an array of projectors and depth-sensing cameras to sense human forms and enable users to move two-dimensional digital objects…
From ACM TechNews
Cybersecurity as a Catalyst For Economic Growth
Patrick Gorman, former associate director of the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, says the United States should apply the lessons of the space race to the investment of educating and training a cohort of…
From ACM Opinion
What We're Driving At
Larry and Sergey founded Google because they wanted to help solve really big problems using technology. And one of the big problems we’re working on today is car safety and efficiency. Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents…
From ACM Opinion
William Gibson Says the Future Is Right Here, Right Now
"In the 1960s I think that in some sense the present was actually about three or four years long," he said, "because in three or four years relatively little would change."
From ACM Opinion
Why Telecom Regulation Needs to Change
Research suggests that the approach that worked with a few large companies with aligned interests needs revisiting in the Internet age.
From ACM Opinion
Don't Stick It In: The Dangers of sb Drives
Talking to a computer security researcher about Stuxnet is like asking an art critic to describe the finer points of the Mona Lisa. The world's top cybersecurity minds are absolutely in awe.
From ACM Opinion
What Steve Jobs Learned in the Wilderness
The saga of Steven P. Jobs is so well known that it has entered the nation’s mythology: he’s the prodigal who returned to Apple in 1997, righted a listing ship and built it into one of the most valuable companies in the world…
From ACM Opinion
Why Graphene Is the Stuff of the Future
Everything in our three-dimensional world has a width, length and height. That was what we thought, at least. But this picture overlooks a whole class of materials: crystals one atom or molecule thick, essentially two-dimensional…
From ACM Opinion
If We Aren't Ready For Cyberwar, We Will Lose the Next War
In an increasingly digital world, ironically, there may yet be a silver lining to the primitive nature of India's infrastructure: that it is not computer-controlled may make India less vulnerable than some other nations. Cyber…
From ACM Opinion
Sorkin vs. Zuckerberg
"The Social Network" is wonderful entertainment, but its message is actually kind of evil.
From Communications of the ACM
Platforms and Services: Understanding the Resurgence of Apple
Combining new consumer devices and Internet platforms with online services and content is proving to be a successful strategy.
From Communications of the ACM
Score: Agile Research Group Management
Adapting agile software development methodology toward more efficient management of academic research groups.
From Communications of the ACM
Victorian Data Processing
The Victorian world was awash with data and with organizations that processed it; and they usually used nothing more technologically advanced than pen and paper.
From Communications of the ACM
Risks of Undisciplined Development
An illustration of the problems caused by a lack of discipline in software development and our failure to apply what is known in the field.
From Communications of the ACM
Version Aversion
The way you number your releases communicates more than you might think.