Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From Communications of the ACM
Bell Labs and Centralized Innovation
In early 1935, a man named Clarence Hickman had a secret machine, about six feet tall, standing in his office. Hickman was...
From Communications of the ACM
Reaching Learners Beyond Our Hallowed Halls
Rethinking the design of computer science courses and broadening the definition of computing education both on and off campus.
From Communications of the ACM
Online Advertising, Behavioral Targeting, and Privacy
Studying how privacy regulation might impact economic activity on the advertising-supported Internet.
From ACM Opinion
In the Digital Era Free Is Easy, So How Do You Persuade People to Pay?
To compete with piracy, content providers need clear value propositions that don't conflict with the product.
From ACM Opinion
Got an Iphone or 3g Ipad? Apple Is Recording Your Moves
A hidden file in iOS 4 is regularly recording the position of devices.
From ACM Opinion
Patently Obvious
On Monday the Supreme Court will consider whether to fundamentally alter the way American patent law is litigated. Specifically, in the context of an otherwise...
From ACM Opinion
The Web's Trust Issues
The most dubious phrase in English after "act natural" is "trust me." A party asking for trust without offering a reason why is probably untrustworthy. And yet...
From ACM News
Just How Creepy Is 'creepy'? A Test-Drive
You probably know that some Internet and cell phone applications like Foursquare or Twitter can broadcast your location to the world. And you might know that...
From ACM News
Why Cisco's Flip Flopped in the Camera Business
Cisco is shutting down a business unit that it bought for over half-a-billion dollars: the Flip camcorder division. That's a shame, considering how high the Flip...
From ACM Opinion
Forget Space Travel: It's Just a Dream
The clash of two titans—physics and chemistry—are major barriers to human space travel to Mars and beyond, and may well make it impossible... at least with current...
From ACM Opinion
No More Privacy Paranoia
Want Web companies to stop using our personal data? Be ready to suffer the consequences.
From ACM Opinion
Âbiquity Symposium: What Have We Said About Computation?
A recent ACM Ubiquity symposium considered the question: “What is computation?” In this closing article, Ubiquity's editor-in-chief Peter J. Denning shares what...
From ACM Opinion
Why I Don't Own a Kindle
I've done my part to prop up the consumer-electronics industry in recent years: a flat-panel TV downstairs and one upstairs, his and hers smartphones, not-too...
From ACM Opinion
In Praise of Distraction
For many Americans, March Madness has been a time to worry about office pools, busted brackets, and buzzer beaters. For American businesses, though, the N.C.A...
From ACM Opinion
Patents and Innovation
The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to stifle innovation.
From ACM Opinion
Where Will Larry Page Lead Google?
In the 10 years since the last time Larry Page was Google's chief executive, the company has changed a bit. It has gone from an ambitious startup to a publicly...
From ACM Opinion
China's War in Cyberspace, August
Strategic theorists frequently lament that military planners are very effective at preparing for the last war, not the next one. Planners today must cope with...
From ACM Opinion
Have Computers Made Architects Less Disciplined?
We generally assume that technological advances save time, boost efficiency, increase productivity, and so on. Once we get used to the latest conveniences, we...
From ACM Opinion