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
Debugging on Live Systems
It is more of a social than a technical problem.
From Communications of the ACM
On Turbocharged, Heat-Seeking, Robotic Fishing Poles
There is a well-known proverb, "If you give someone a fish, they'll eat for a day; if you teach them how to fish, they'll eat for a lifetime." The point is obvious...
From Communications of the ACM
The Legacy of Steve Jobs
Reflecting on the career and contributions of the Apple cofounder.
From Communications of the ACM
Life, Death, and the iPad: Cultural Symbols and Steve Jobs
In the days that followed Steve Jobs' death, he was frequently compared to Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. But Jobs was creating experiences, not technologies or...
From Communications of the ACM
The Most Ancient Marketing
Before Apple, Steve Jobs famously went to India with a college friend. While I never had occasion to talk to Jobs about it, I have a theory I wish I had a chance...
From ACM Opinion
The Last Person
There is a concept in telecommunications called "the last mile," that part of any phone system that is the most difficult to connect—the part that goes from the...
From ACM Opinion
Slow Train to the Future
Tablets are in, computer labs are out, and the cloud is the new hard drive, according to technology futurists. But a new survey from Student Monitor suggests...
From ACM Opinion
Blogging the Stanford Machine Learning Class
After three weeks of frustrating math dealing with dull statistics problems, we’re on to frustrating math dealing with "neural networks"—models of how the cells...
From ACM Opinion
These Are the Greatest Geek Books of All Time, Readers Say
We revealed our ultimate reading list in "9 Essential Geek Books You Must Read Right Now" last month. Now Wired.com readers have spoken, voting for their favorites...
From Communications of the ACM
Information Seeking: Convergence of Search, Recommendations, and Advertising
How to address user information needs amidst a preponderance of data.
From Communications of the ACM
Gender Demographics Trends and Changes in U.S. CS Departments
Using the past 10 years of Taulbee Survey data to evaluate female student enrollment across varied academic institutions and departments.
From Communications of the ACM
Teaching-Oriented Faculty at Research Universities
Nine teacher-oriented faculty in computer science departments at research universities in the U.S. or Canada describe how their positions work, how they contribute...
From Communications of the ACM
Will Software Engineering Ever Be Engineering?
Considering whether software engineering and engineering can share a profession.
From Communications of the ACM
Why the Google Book Settlement Failed - and What Comes Next?
Assessing the implications of the Google Book Search settlement.
From Communications of the ACM
What Gets Measured Gets Done
"U.S. broadband is terrible" has become a familiar meme. Given the growing importance of broadband Internet connections, a poor broadband infrastructure would...
From Communications of the ACM
Security Risks in Next-Generation Emergency Services
Sounding the alert on emergency calling system deficiencies.
From ACM Opinion
The Importance of Word Choice: Terms with Multiple Meanings For Scientists and the Public
If you haven't seen the excellent post on Mountain Beltway—Words matter—you should head over there and take a look. The post brought up some interesting ideas about...
From ACM Opinion
Cold-Calling Dennis Ritchie
When I was a grad student at the University of Wisconsin in 1978, I called Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs to tell him about the work I was doing with the Unix line...
From ACM Opinion
Ada Lovelace and Brazil's Female It Pros
Computer science higher education classes today are heavily skewed towards men. Researcher Jamie Swim's Master's thesis at the University of Texas was focused...
From ACM Opinion