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 News
The America Invents Act and the Individual Inventor
Much has been said about how the newly passed patent reform legislation, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, benefits large corporations. While that argument...
From ACM Opinion
Protect Our Right to Anonymity
In November, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that could redefine the scope of privacy in an age of increasingly ubiquitous surveillance technologies...
From ACM Opinion
How 9/11 Completely Changed Surveillance in .s.
Former AT&T engineer Mark Klein handed a sheaf of papers in January 2006 to lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, providing smoking-gun evidence that...
From ACM News
Can Brain Research Keep S Safe?
Human conflict is often associated with the emergence of a new science or technology. The Civil War's Gatling gun changed battlefield tactics and led to modern...
From ACM News
Bike Crash Wiped Details; Gps Data Filled Them In
After racing and biking back roads on the San Francisco Peninsula for almost half a century without serious incident, on July 3 I crashed while riding downhill...
From ACM Opinion
Post-9/11, Nsa 'enemies' Include s
Somewhere between Sept. 11 and today, the enemy morphed from a handful of terrorists to the American population at large, leaving us nowhere to run and no place...
From ACM Opinion
A Cloud Over Ownership
Online services set content free from the physical world's constraints—including those that have defined the very idea of possession.
From ACM Opinion
The Calm Before the Storm
Revelations of wholesale electronic fraud and massive data heists have become weekly, even daily affairs.
From ACM News
Cryptocurrency
The bitcoin, a virtual medium of exchange, could be a real alternative to government-issued money—but only if it survives hoarding by speculators.
From ACM Opinion
Eff to Court: Don't Let Government Hide Illegal Surveillance
The Electronic Frontier Foundation urged the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday to preserve lawsuits challenging the government's illegal mass surveillance...
From ACM Opinion
Technology Is Our Friend... Except When It Isn't
The technology in question starts with "gigapixel" photography. Gigapixel photos are giant panoramas that themselves consist of hundreds of component mega-pixel...
From ACM Opinion
How to Fix Our Math Education
There is widespread alarm in the United States about the state of our math education. The anxiety can be traced to the poor performance of American students on...
From ACM Opinion
Beware: Europe's 'unitary Patent' Could Mean nlimited Software Patents
Just as the U.S. software industry is experiencing the long-anticipated all-out software patent wars, the European Union has a plan to follow the same course....
From ACM Opinion
Apple Will Do Amazingly Well Without Steve Jobs
On Thursday morning, shares of Apple are going to plummet. As a journalist who covers the company, I'm ethically restricted from investing. But you're not, and...
From ACM News
Judge Says Warrant Required For Cell Phone Location Data
In recent years, the courts have struggled to decide whether the government needs a warrant to access historical records about a cell phone user's location. Some...
From Communications of the ACM
Arrogance in Business Planning
Technology business plans that assume no competition — ever.
From Communications of the ACM
Realizing the Value of Social Media Requires Innovative Computing Research
How social media are expanding traditional research and development topics for computer and information scientists.
From Communications of the ACM
Managing Time, Part 2
Masterful time management means not just tracking of messages in your personal environment, but managing your coordination network with others.
From Communications of the ACM
Corporate Social Responsibility and Global IT Outsourcing
How to improve IT outsourcing relationships while doing good for society.
From Communications of the ACM