acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

Recent Opinion


bg-corner

Censoring the News Before It Happens
From ACM Opinion

Censoring the News Before It Happens

Every day in China, hundreds of messages are sent from government offices to website editors around the country that say things like, "Report on the new provincial...

In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal
From ACM Careers

In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal

Q. How is Big Data being used more in the leadership and management field? 

The Hut Where the Internet Began
From ACM Opinion

The Hut Where the Internet Began

Let's start at the end point: what you're doing right now. You are pulling information from a network onto a screen, enhancing your embodied experience with a communication...

From ACM Opinion

The Crypto-Currency Ecosystem

Just like the IP protocol, bitcoin is the culmination of several important advancements, all combining to form a paradigm-changing innovation.

Internet Inventor: No Technological Cure For Privacy Ills
From ACM Opinion

Internet Inventor: No Technological Cure For Privacy Ills

Is there technological solution for protecting people from online surveillance?

What Your Metadata Says About You
From ACM Opinion

What Your Metadata Says About You

As recently as a few weeks ago, "metadata" was an obscure term known mainly to techies and academics.

Edward Snowden's Nightmare Comes True
From ACM Opinion

Edward Snowden's Nightmare Comes True

Snowden's worst fear, by his own account, was that "nothing will change."

A Eulogy For Altavista, the Google of Its Time
From ACM Opinion

A Eulogy For Altavista, the Google of Its Time

Goodbye AltaVista. You deserved better than this.

From ACM Opinion

Social Media Free Speech Rights Complicated For Workers

An anonymous "Suzy Citizen" leaves fliers criticizing management in a public area of the St. Cloud Public Library, and the Great River Regional Library board of...

Intel's Justin Rattner on New Laser Chip Business
From ACM Opinion

Intel's Justin Rattner on New Laser Chip Business

Intel came to dominate computing by consistently beating others at packing transistors ever more densely onto chips for desktop computers and servers.

Meet the Most Important Tech Company You've Probably Never Heard Of
From ACM Opinion

Meet the Most Important Tech Company You've Probably Never Heard Of

Never trust gadget-makers’ claims about battery life.

Social Media Images Form a New Language Online
From ACM Opinion

Social Media Images Form a New Language Online

Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, had an epiphany about the simplicity of communication through images while wearing Google Glass, the company’s controversial high...

The 12 Best Designs from the Past 100 Years
From ACM Opinion

The 12 Best Designs from the Past 100 Years

Is the much-loved Piaggio Vespa more iconic than the floppy disk? Is the iPod more of a design classic than the Airbus A380?

Apple's Power Over Design, in 4 Words
From ACM Opinion

Apple's Power Over Design, in 4 Words

"Apple just permeates everything."

The Taming of the Spook
From ACM Opinion

The Taming of the Spook

On March 24, 2009, the National Security Agency’s inspector general issued a 51-page draft report on the President’s Surveillance Program, the warrantless authority...

A Eulogy For Altavista, the Google of Its Time
From ACM Opinion

A Eulogy For Altavista, the Google of Its Time

Goodbye AltaVista. You deserved better than this. Better than the one-sentence send-off Yahoo gave you today, when announcing your July 8 closure date.

Will Facebook's Robot Censors Know Porn When They See It?
From ACM Opinion

Will Facebook's Robot Censors Know Porn When They See It?

The old trope about pornography is that you’ll know it when you see it. Facebook is betting that not only will it know it, but that the social network will be able...

'maker Movement' Taps Deep and Rich Tradition
From ACM Opinion

'maker Movement' Taps Deep and Rich Tradition

Sometimes I worry we're becoming a culture of technology consumers, instead of creators.

Software Recognition Technology Is Amazing, but Not Amazing Enough
From ACM Opinion

Software Recognition Technology Is Amazing, but Not Amazing Enough

The gadget blogs may work themselves into a frenzy over megapixels and processor speed. But if you want to know what really dazzles the masses, consider a feature...

From ACM Opinion

Snowden, Through the Eyes of a Spy Novelist

For a spy novelist like me, the Edward J. Snowden story has everything. A man driven by ego and idealism—can anyone ever distinguish the two?—leaves his job and...
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account