Communications of the ACM
Innovation Is Overrated: A Provocation
Digital innovation is not working in the interest of the whole of society. It is time to radically rethink its purpose without…
From ACM Opinion
Human Genome, Then and Now
Eight years of work, thousands of researchers around the world, $1 billion spent—and finally it was done.
From ACM Opinion
More Cracks ndermine the Citadel of Tv Profits
For the longest time in the media business, the concept of the bundle has been foundational.
From ACM Opinion
Mark Pincus Thinks Angry Birds Won't Hurt Your Kids
You are the founder and C.E.O. of Zynga, a company responsible for addictive games like FarmVille and the forthcoming Draw Something 2. You know, every time I see...
From ACM Opinion
The Child, the Tablet, and the Developing Mind
I recently watched my sister perform an act of magic.
From ACM Opinion
The Era of Deep Archiving Begins
As a Dartmouth student in the early 1970s, William McDonough went, somewhat casually, to hear a lecture by a visiting celebrity. Mr. McDonough had little idea beforehand...
From ACM Opinion
Googling You
The settlement last week between a group of state attorneys general and Google over the company’s improper data collection from home wireless networks shows the...
From ACM Opinion
A Museum's Games Are Not on Pedestals
Video games, as their name suggests, combine the ancient human practice of formal play with moving pictures, a younger form.
From ACM Opinion
The Next Frontier Is Inside Your Brain
The Obama administration is planning a multiyear research effort to produce an "activity map" that would show in unprecedented detail the workings of the human,...
From ACM Opinion
With Playstation 4, Sony Aims For Return to Glory
For the Sony Corporation, a tech industry also-ran, the moment of reckoning is here.
From ACM Opinion
After Adding Online Privacy Protections, F.t.c. Chief Resigns
Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, said on Thursday that he would resign effective mid-February.
From ACM Opinion
Talking, Walking Objects
Meeting Simon for the first time was one of the most sublime experiences I've had. With every coy head nod, casual hand wave and deep eye gaze, I felt he already...
From ACM Opinion
Ben Horowitz on the Impact of Software Everywhere
Ben Horowitz may have the skeleton key to the decimation—sorry, transformation—of our economic and political lives.
From ACM Opinion
I Am Not Big Brother
I've grown accustomed to reading inaccurate accounts of my day job. I'm in political data.
From ACM Opinion
Planning His Legacy, Cisco Chief Maps an Expansion
John T. Chambers has readied his last great act as the leader of Cisco Systems, fearing major changes in the technology business that could doom his company.
From ACM Opinion
At Dawn We Sleep
If you read the newspapers on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, you would have been led to believe that Japan was poised to attack—but in Southeast Asia, not Pearl Harbor...
From ACM Opinion
Jeff Hawkins Develops a Brainy Big Data Company
Jeff Hawkins has been a pioneer of mobile devices, a distinguished lecturer in neuroscience, and a published author of a revolutionary theory of how the brain works...
From ACM Opinion
Long Day For a Professor Who Puts Elections nder a Microscope
Monday afternoon, just half a day before the polls opened, Prof. Mark Crispin Miller was feeling pessimistic about the electoral process.
From ACM Opinion
How to Devise Passwords That Drive Hackers Away
Not long after I began writing about cybersecurity, I became a paranoid caricature of my former self.
From ACM Opinion
Killing the Computer to Save It
Many people cite Albert Einstein's aphorism "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." Only a handful, however, have had the opportunity...
From ACM Opinion