Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
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
Three Cheers For the Judge Who Smacked Down Google Books
For a company with the audacity to make "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible" its mission statement, it takes a lot to take...
From ACM Opinion
Teaching to the Text Message
I've been teaching college freshmen to write the five-paragraph essay and its bully of a cousin, the research paper, for years. But these forms invite font-size...
From Communications of the ACM
Asymmetries and Shortages of the Network Neutrality Principle
Since the beginning of the debate on network neutrality, and perhaps as an inheritance of that beginning, the controversy has been restricted...
From Communications of the ACM
Coder's Block
Programming is a creative endeavor, and therefore there is such a thing as coder's block. What does it take to clear the blockage?
From Communications of the ACM
Platform Wars Come to Social Media
The world can absorb more social media sites, but how many?
From Communications of the ACM
Building Castles in the Air
Reflections on recruiting and training programmers during the early period of computing.
From Communications of the ACM
Managing Global IT Teams: Considering Cultural Dynamics
Successful global IT team managers combine general distributed team management skills enhanced with cultural sensitivity.
From ACM Opinion
Berners-Lee Warns Isps on Net Neutrality
The inventor of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has warned internet service providers (ISPs) that plans for a "two-speed" Internet go against the principles...
From ACM News
Japan Has Shifted 13 Feet!
What does Japan's earthquake mean for GPS? Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake was so powerful that it actually widened Japan. While parts of the country barely...
From ACM Opinion
The Future of Mobile Gadgets
I got my first cell phone a little more than a decade ago, just as I was finishing college and looking for my first job. I didn't need a mobile phone; none of...
From ACM Opinion
The Future of Things "cyber"
Years ago, when I was an ROTC instructor, the first unit of instruction for rising juniors dealt with communication skills. Near the beginning of the unit, I...
From ACM Opinion