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
IBM Research Honcho: From the Pentagon to the 'toy Shop'
Zachary Lemnios, who was U.S. assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering, gave up his Pentagon role to become IBM's vice president of research...
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
The Fog of Cyberwar
In mid-2010, thousands of centrifuges, enriching uranium at Iranian nuclear research facilities, spun out of control.
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 Careers
How London's Silicon Roundabout Really Got Started
Four years ago developer Matt Biddulph jokingly coined "Silicon Roundabout" as a description of East London's small but growing startup scene—now it's become the...
From ACM Opinion
No Longer Vaporware: The Internet of Things Is Finally Talking
The rise of the machines has begun: Steve Sande’s household fan is now self-aware.
From ACM Opinion
Online Social Science: Can the Web Graduate from Digital Petri Dish to Virtual Laboratory?
In many ways the Internet is the ultimate virtual laboratory.
From ACM Opinion
How the nited Nations Could Ruin the Internet
The Internet has sustained some pretty intense assaults in the past couple of years. There was the heavy-handed attempt to stamp out content piracy with SOPA/PIPA...
From ACM Opinion
Intel Tech Chief Rattner Peers Into the Future
What does the future of computing look like? Justin Rattner has a better inkling than most.
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
No Warrant, No Problem: How the Government Can Still Get Your Digital Data
The U.S. government isn’t allowed to wiretap American citizens without a warrant from a judge. But there are plenty of legal ways for law enforcement, from the...
From ACM Opinion
Nest Ceo Fadell: Internet of Things Is a Decade Away
It will take 10 years before the "Internet of things" catches on widely, said Nest Labs Chief Executive Tony Fadell, whose smart-thermostat startup embodies the...
From ACM Opinion
How to Make Almost Anything
A new digital revolution is coming, this time in fabrication. It draws on the same insights that led to the earlier digitizations of communication and computation...
From ACM Opinion
Could a Syria-Style Internet Blackout Happen in the .s.?
The ongoing Internet blackout in Syria, like the one that occurred in Egypt early in 2011, prompts curiosity as to whether such an event could happen in one's own...
From ACM Opinion
Was a Texas Student Really Expelled for Refusing To Wear an RFID Chip?
The Texas school district that began requiring its students to wear RFID tracking chips this year is now facing a fight in federal court.
From ACM Opinion
Why We Must Fight For the Internet's Freedom
The Internet empowers each one of us to speak, create, learn, and share.
From ACM Opinion
'your Criticisms Are Completely Wrong': Stallman on Software Patents, 20 Years In
The large, bearded man bounded to the front of the room last Friday, hand thrust into the air, fingers shaking.
From ACM Opinion
Security Guru Pledges to Strengthen Critical Computers
Stuxnet, a piece of malicious software discovered in 2010, targeted industrial software controlling Iran’s uranium-enrichment centrifuges. But the code got loose—and...
From ACM Opinion
Can Schools Survive in the Age of the Web?
If you fancy a top-class education but can't afford the fee or the time, there is now an alternative.
From Communications of the ACM