Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
Critical Mass: How to Maintain the Power of Online Reviews
The wisdom of crowds can be brilliant. It can also be corrupt.
From ACM Opinion
The STEM (aka "smarty Pants") Conundrum
The promotion of science and math degrees is hampered by the impression that only the smartest of the smart can obtain them. What can educators do to make STEM's...
From ACM Opinion
When the Internet Thinks It Knows You
Once upon a time, the story goes, we lived in a broadcast society. In that dusty pre-Internet age, the tools for sharing information weren’t widely available....
From Communications of the ACM
Computer Science Can Use More Science
Software developers should use empirical methods to analyze their designs to predict how working systems will behave.
From Communications of the ACM
The Risks of Stopping Too Soon
Good software design is never easy, but stopping too soon makes the job more difficult.
From Communications of the ACM
Practical Application of Theoretical Estimation
One of the most popular and successful approaches to estimating software projects is the Putnam model. Developed in the 1970s by...
From Communications of the ACM
Who Are We - Now?
Considerable progress has been made toward the formation of a computing profession since we started tracking it in this column a decade ago.
From Communications of the ACM
Identity Management and Privacy: A Rare Opportunity To Get It Right
The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace represents a shift in the way the U.S. government is approaching identity management, privacy, and the...
From ACM Opinion
Why Library Privacy Matters
Without library privacy, individuals might not engage in free and open inquiry for fear that their interactions with the library will be used against them.
From ACM News
How Computers Got US Into Space
When you look back at the past 50 years of human spaceflight, don't forget the computer scientists who helped make it possible.
From ACM Opinion
Let in the Super-Immigrants!
The best way to improve the U.S. economy fast is to poach entrepreneurs from the rest of the world. So why do we make it so difficult for them to immigrate?
From ACM Opinion
There's No Data Sheriff on the Wild Web
A company suffers a catastrophic attack on its servers. Gone are names, email addresses, home phone numbers, passwords, credit card numbers. Everything ends up...
From ACM Opinion
Five Gadgets that Will Be Dead in Five Years
If there's one thing that's predictable in the technology world, it's that things change. Products that were commonplace 10 years ago (PDAs, CRT televisions,...
From ACM Opinion
Sputnik Helped Launch Career of Professor
The Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth, had a profound impact on American higher education, and drove Andrew Romberger...
From ACM Opinion
The Names
As long as it took to find and kill Osama bin Laden after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, it has taken even longer to commemorate the thousands...
From ACM Opinion
Can Tech Experts Save the .s. Postal Service?
Some of the folks responsible for developing and promoting the technologies that have undermined the U.S. Postal Service are banding together in an attempt to save...
From ACM Opinion
In the Tech Industry, Power Management is a Key to Going Green
Reuse, recycle, repurpose, renewables. This past Earth Day, we heard a lot about these concepts. As important as they are, I've noticed one phrase missing from...
From ACM Opinion
Your Data Isn't Secure, Don't Trust Companies to Keep It Safe
It's time for a major change in the way our personal, private data is handled. We need to take back our data from companies that are unwilling and unable to protect...
From ACM Opinion
Conspiracies Say Bin Laden Lives
The decision to drop terror chieftain Osama bin Laden’s corpse into the Arabian Sea was the final meticulous step in a raid whose details were calculated to exert...
From ACM Opinion