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
One-Hit Wonders
For more than a year now, tens of millions of Americans have found time each day to devote themselves to an essential task: swiping at their phones and tablets...
From ACM Opinion
Language Barriers
The British scientist and polymath Stephen Wolfram has always had big ambitions.
From ACM Opinion
Social Physics
Since 2001, the Human Dynamics Laboratory at the MIT Media Lab has used digital technologies—from home-brewed portable sensors to cellphone call records—to try...
From ACM Opinion
Ballmer: Microsoft Missed the Mobile Market Over Last Decade
Microsoft Corp largely missed the mobile market in the last decade, its recently departed chief executive officer said Tuesday.
From ACM Opinion
Remembering Mit, When There Were Just 50 Women in a Class of 1,000
When Radia Perlman attended MIT in the late '60s and '70s, she was one of just a few dozen women (about 50) out of a class of 1,000.
From ACM Opinion
Encryption Would Have Stopped Snowden From sing Secrets
Edward Snowden could have been thwarted from leaking classified U.S. documents if the National Security Agency encrypted the information to make it unreadable,...
From ACM Opinion
The Job After Steve Jobs: Tim Cook and Apple
Shortly after Tim Cook succeeded Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple in August 2011, he told a confidant that he got up every morning reminding himself just to do the right...
From ACM Opinion
Bitcoin Mania Worse Than Tulip Craze
The global bitcoin community was rocked this week by a pair of tragic mishaps.
From ACM Opinion
Good Riddance to Mt. Gox
It is over. Mt. Gox, bitcoin’s oldest—and once its most popular—exchange, was taken offline Monday night, leaving behind angry customers and acrimonious debate...
From Communications of the ACM
How to Build a Bad Research Center
Sharing lessons learned from experiences creating successful multidisciplinary research centers.
From Communications of the ACM
The Impact of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Codifying human rights and inclusiveness in a technical context for people with disabilities.
From Communications of the ACM
'Surfing Toward the Future'
A new report from Chile about improving economic competitiveness advances a novel interpretation of innovation. Timing is everything.
From Communications of the ACM
Why Software Engineering Courses Should Include Ethics Coverage
Encouraging students to become comfortable exercising ethical discernment in a professional context with their peers.
From Communications of the ACM
Mass Digitization as Fair Use
Considering the implications of the late-2013 ruling in favor of Google in the Authors Guild case.
From ACM Opinion
Everything You Need to Know About the Latest Bitcoin Crisis
The once-popular Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has gone dark.
From ACM Opinion
How to Get a Job at Google
Last June, in an interview with Adam Bryant of The Times, Laszlo Bock, the senior vice president of people operations for Google—i.e., the guy in charge of hiring...
From ACM Opinion
Comcast's Deal with Netflix Makes Network Neutrality Obsolete
For the past two decades, the Internet has operated as an unregulated, competitive free market.
From ACM Opinion
Bitcoin's Crisis Is Turning Point For Currency
Many bitcoin users are probably too young to remember the Notorious B.I.G.'s 1997 rap hit "Mo Money Mo Problems."
From ACM Opinion