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
How Big Data Can Solve America's Gun Problem
Big data might have stopped the massacres in Newtown, Aurora, and Oak Creek.
From ACM Opinion
Ford Engineers Have 3D Printers on Their Desks. When Will You Get One?
Ford has caught the DIY revolution and now puts 3D printers at workstations for its engineers.
From ACM Opinion
Social Media: Five Predictions For 2013
When you think of social media these days, you probably think primarily of Facebook and Twitter, and perhaps Instagram. But while those services have massive—and...
From ACM Opinion
We Don't Need More Data Scientists; Just Make Big Data Easier to se
Virtually any article today about big data inevitably turns to the notion that the country is suffering from a crucial shortage of data scientists.
From ACM Opinion
How Technology Has Restored the Soul of Politics
In 1979, I was an aeronautical-engineering major at San Jose State University, sneaking time in the laser lab to make holograms or running over to the computer...
From ACM Opinion
Forget Yolo: Why 'big Data' Should Be the Word of the Year
"Big Data" hasn't made any of the words-of-the-year lists I've seen so far. That's probably because it didn't get the wide public exposure given to items like "...
From ACM Opinion
Who Owns the Content You pload Online?
The outrage over Instagram's announcement that it is changing its terms and conditions has turned the spotlight on the relationship between websites and users who...
From ACM Opinion
Five Big Tech Stories to Watch For in 2013
We were dazzled by an array of smartphones. We were fascinated and then disappointed by Facebook's initial public offering. And we held our breaths as we awaited...
From ACM Opinion
Debunker of Doomsday: Nasa Scientist Tries to Talk Some Sense Into the World
Swirling with lunacy and paranoia, the theories warn of mayhem and cataclysm.
From ACM Opinion
Internet Regulation Seen at National Level As Treaty Talks Fail
The world's major Internet companies, backed by U.S. policymakers, got much of what they wanted last week when many nations refused to sign a global telecommunications...
From ACM Opinion
The Psychology of Tetris
Shapes fall from the sky, all you have to do is to control how they fall and fit within each other.
From ACM Opinion
How Design Can Help Voice Interaction Go Big
Recently there's been a lot of comparison between Apple's Siri and Google's Voice Search. Microsoft's voice breakthroughs have also captured headlines.
From ACM Opinion
Workplace Distractions: Here's Why You Won't Finish This Article
In the few minutes it takes to read this article, chances are you'll pause to check your phone, answer a text, switch to your desktop to read an email from the...
From ACM Opinion
'biology Is a Manufacturing Capability'
Soon we'll be able to engineer living things with mechanical precision, says Tom Knight, father of synthetic biology.
From ACM Opinion
Beyond Quad-Core: What's Next For Mobile Processing Power
Remember when a quad-core processor was the ultimate indicator of a super-smartphone?
From ACM Opinion