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 Communications of the ACM
More Sight on Foresight
My previous column, "The Foresight Saga, Redux," began a discussion that is continued here regarding some lessons learned from the 2012 U.S. November elections. In...
From Communications of the ACM
The Tangled Web We Have Woven
Seeking to protect the fundamental privacy of network interactions.
From ACM Opinion
Talking, Walking Objects
Meeting Simon for the first time was one of the most sublime experiences I've had. With every coy head nod, casual hand wave and deep eye gaze, I felt he already...
From ACM Opinion
Meet the Man Who Would Make Blackberry Apps Cool
Alec Saunders needed a little bait.
From ACM Careers
Becoming Biohackers: Learning the Game
When you have lunch courtesy of the FBI, you are offered chicken Caesar salad, hamburger, or fish.
From ACM Opinion
Google's Approach to Government Requests For ser Data
Today, January 28, is Data Privacy Day, when the world recognizes the importance of preserving your online privacy and security.
From ACM Opinion
Ito: Think Twice About Immortality and the Singularity
Ray Kurzweil's vision of the "singularity"—when nanobots make humans immortal and computer progress is so fast that the future becomes profoundly unknowable—is...
From ACM Opinion
Don't Divorce Design from Manufacturing
The software company Autodesk doesn't manufacture anything.
From ACM Opinion
IBM Predicts Cognitive Systems As New Computing Wave
At year's end, IBM selects a new innovation that has the potential to change the world.
From ACM Opinion
Crapware Won't Crap Out
For a few years now, I've been expecting to write an obituary for crapware. Or not an obit, exactly—I was hoping to dance on its grave.
From ACM Opinion
Apple Shouldn't Make Software Look Like Real Objects
Last fall Apple fired executive Scott Forstall, considered by many to be a Steve Jobs protégé.
From ACM Opinion
Remembering Aaron By Taking Care of Each Other
My friend Will Morrell, brilliant and sardonic, was the first person I ever knew to make his living close to the machine.
From ACM Opinion
Jill and Scott Kelley on the Petraeus Scandal and Loss of Privacy
We woke up on the morning of Nov. 9 expecting the usual: for one of us, the tending to patients; for the other, the morning rush of packing lunches and getting...
From ACM Opinion
Hacktivism: Civil Disobedience or Cyber Crime?
When Reddit co-founder and internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide, he was facing up to 13 felony counts, 50 years in prison, and millions of dollars...
From ACM Opinion
Samsung's Secret Weapon in the Mobile Wars: Tizen
You've probably never heard of Tizen, but the companies behind it are some of the most recognizable brands in the tech industry.
From ACM Opinion
The Fbi Needs Hackers, Not Backdoors
Just imagine if all the applications and services you saw or heard about at CES earlier this month had to be designed to be "wiretap ready" before they could be...
From ACM Opinion
Chipmaker Races to Save Stephen Hawking's Speech as His Condition Deteriorates
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has long relied on technology to help him connect with the outside world despite the degenerative motor neuron disease he has...
From ACM Opinion
What the Fbi Doesn't Want You To Know About Its 'secret' Surveillance Techniques
The FBI had to rewrite the book on its domestic surveillance activities in the wake of last January’s landmark Supreme Court decision in United States v. Jones.
From ACM Opinion