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
Does the Internet Make You Dumber?
The cognitive effects are measurable: We're turning into shallow thinkers, says Nicholas Carr.
From ACM Opinion
Does the Internet Make You Smarter or Dumber?
Amid the silly videos and spam are the roots of a new reading and writing culture, says Clay Shirky.
From ACM Opinion
Against Instant Replay
Extraordinary cases make bad law. In a sense, Armando Galarraga’s non-perfect perfect game, spoiled by an umpire’s call on what should have been the 27th out, offers...
From ACM Opinion
My (brief) Life as a Robot
On Wednesday I attended a Silicon Valley press conference dressed as a robot. Actually I was physically in New York City and virtually in Menlo Park, Calif. For...
From Communications of the ACM
An Interview with Ed Feigenbaum
ACM Fellow and A.M. Turing Award recipient Edward A. Feigenbaum, a pioneer in the field of expert systems, reflects on his career.
From Communications of the ACM
Plotting Away
Dear KV, I've been working with some code that generates massive data sets, and . . . I'm finding that more and more often I...
From ACM Opinion
From Facebook, Answering Privacy Concerns with New Settings
Six years ago, we built Facebook around a few simple ideas. People want to share and stay connected with their friends and the people around them. If we give people...
From ACM Opinion
Web Browsers Leave 'fingerprints' Behind as You Surf the Net
New research by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has found that an overwhelming majority of web browsers have unique signatures--creating identifiable "fingerprints"...
From ACM Opinion
Why Publishers Should Beware the App Store
In a brilliant column published 16 years ago, the Italian philosopher Umberto Eco explained the difference between Apple and Microsoft in terms of the divide between...
From ACM Opinion
Apple: The Microsoft of Mobile?
Apple could soon be the target of an antitrust investigation by either the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice, according to numerous press reports...
From ACM Opinion
Rest in Peas: The nrecognized Death of Speech Recognition
The accuracy of computer speech recognition flat-lined in 2001, before reaching human levels. The funding plug was pulled, but no funeral, no text-to-speech eulogy...
From ACM Opinion
Facebook's 'evil Interfaces'
Social networking companies don't have it easy. Advertisers covet their users' data, and in a niche that often seems to lack a clear business model, selling (or...
From ACM Opinion
Google's Nightmare: Facebook 'like' Replaces Links
Facebook dropped a bombshell on the tech industry last week in the form of a Web-wide "Like" button and the launch of the "Open Graph". Using this new platform,...
From ACM Opinion
Steve Jobs' Thoughts on Flash
Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting...
From ACM Opinion
Today Facebook, Tomorrow the World
With a dizzying array of announcements this week, it seems almost inevitable that the web will become, at least for the near future, an extension of Facebook. Like...
From ACM Opinion
App Rejected? There's a Rule For That.
The story could have been programmed to draw media coverage, were it not for its implausibility: Apple (a reader magnet) banned a future Pulitzer Prize winner's...
From Communications of the ACM
Cloud Computing and Electricity: Beyond the Utility Model
Assessing the strengths, weaknesses, and general applicability of the computing-as-utility business model.
From ACM Opinion
A Less Personal Computer
In Web parlance, "chrome" is the part of the browser that surrounds the page: the address bar, the "Back" button, and those all-important bookmarks. Chrome is also...
From ACM Opinion
Has Apple Reached the Limits of Industrial Design?
The next iPhone is going to look amazing. This is as close to a truism as you get in the tech industry--it's sort of like predicting that Warren Buffett will make...
From ACM Opinion