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 a Secret iOS Feature Could Change the Internet
A few weeks ago, a messaging app called FireChat launched.
From ACM Opinion
While Warning of Chinese Cyberthreat, .s. Launches Its Own Attack
The U.S. government has long complained about Chinese hacking and cyberattacks, but new documents show that the National Security Agency managed to penetrate the...
From ACM Opinion
Why the Black Box on Airplanes Needs to Go Away
In another 10 years, the very idea of a "black box" flight data recorder on an airliner will seem as naive and outdated as a smoking section.
From ACM Opinion
3 Ways to Make Software Patents Suck Less (without Abolishing Them Altogether)
This week, the Supreme Court tackled one of the thorniest problems in tech policy: software patents.
From ACM Opinion
Bots on the Beat
On March 24 at 2:36 p.m., the New York Post reported that the body of former Nets basketball player Quinton Ross had been found in a shallow grave on Long Island...
From ACM Opinion
Hey, Robot: Which Cat Is Cuter?
One recent morning, while contemplating writing this column, I scrolled through thousands and thousands of listings for mundane microgigs on Mechanical Turk, or...
From ACM Opinion
10 Years On, Gmail Has Transformed the Web as We Know It
Google loves to unveil a good gag product on April Fool's Day.
From ACM Opinion
Abstract Ideas Don't Deserve Patents
The Constitution gives Congress the power to grant inventors a temporary monopoly over their creations to "promote the progress of science and useful arts."
From ACM Opinion
Five Ways to Make Sure We Never Lose a Plane Again
For the past few weeks the world's attention has been focussed on the lost Malaysia Airlines plane and its 239 passengers and crew that has apparently crashed in...
From ACM Opinion
The Dream of Intelligent Robot Friends
Karotz is an Internet-enabled console in the shape of an abstracted rabbit.
From ACM Opinion
What Oculus's $2 Billion Payday Teaches S About Innovation
Tuesday's announcement that Facebook is buying the virtual-reality start-up Oculus for $2 billion no doubt left many people scratching their heads.
From ACM Opinion
A Conversation With Danah Boyd, Author of 'it's Complicated,' About Teenagers Online
Danah Boyd is a principal researcher at Microsoft Research, a research assistant professor in Media, Culture and Communication at New York University, and a fellow...
From Communications of the ACM
MOOCs Revisited, With Some Policy Suggestions
Assessing the rapidly evolving realm of massive open online courses.
From Communications of the ACM
Small Data, Where N = Me
Seeking personalized data-derived insights from analysis of our digital traces.
From ACM Opinion
Anger on Weibo Over Flight 370
Tragedy, when its cause and the fate of its victims are still unknown, is supposed to occasion solidarity.
From ACM Opinion
How to Win $1 Billion on Ncaa Basketball: A Mathematician's Tips
Last Thursday, the underground classroom at the National Museum of Mathematics in New York was filled to capacity for a college professor's PowerPoint-aided lecture...
From ACM Opinion
Discovering Two Screens Aren't Better Than One
For years, techies have argued that getting an extra monitor or two for your desktop computer is an especially effective way to increase personal productivity.
From ACM Opinion
Building Bicep2: A Conversation with Jamie Bock
Caltech Professor of Physics Jamie Bock and his collaborators announced on March 17, 2014 that they have successfully measured a B-mode polarization signal in the...
From ACM Opinion