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
Research Bought, Then Paid For
Through the National Institutes of Health, American taxpayers have long supported research directed at understanding and treating human disease.
From ACM Opinion
Why America's Spies Struggle To Keep p
Before Sept. 11, 2011, there were 16 intelligence agencies in the United States.
From ACM Opinion
China Bankrolls R&d While India Plays the Miser
Did Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underplay China's superiority over India in the field of science, research, and technology? Analysis of new data shared at the...
From ACM Opinion
iPhone Celebrates 5th Birthday
Gadget fans may be focused on the CES trade show this week, but there’s something else notable going on today: It’s the iPhone’s fifth birthday.
From ACM Opinion
Building the Team That Built Watson
The assignment was one of the biggest challenges in the field of artificial intelligence: build a computer smart enough to beat grand champions at the game of...
From ACM Opinion
You Need To Learn How To Program
If you're looking for a New Year's resolution, let me suggest an idea that you might not have considered: You should learn computer programming. Specifically,...
From ACM Careers
Could You Make It Past Google's Gatekeepers?
How many taxis are there in New York City? You either know how to answer that question or you don't.
From ACM Opinion
Internet Access Is Not a Human Right
From the streets of Tunis to Tahrir Square and beyond, protests around the world last year were built on the Internet and the many devices that interact with...
From ACM Opinion
Four Industries Apple Can Disrupt in the Near Future
Over the past 10 years, Apple has done a rather amazing job of disrupting quite a few industries.
From ACM Opinion
Welcome to the 'knowosphere'
Here's my take on what I've begun calling the "knowosphere"—a word intentionally echoing the more allegorical "noosphere," the "planet of the mind" of Vladimir....
From ACM Opinion
Q&a with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto
It was a tough year for Nintendo. Revenue at the venerable game company plunged. Its stock price was cut in half. And initial sales of its new 3DS handheld game...
From ACM Opinion
Smoke Screening
Not until I walked with Bruce Schneier toward the mass of people unloading their laptops did it occur to me that it might not be possible for us to hang around...
From ACM Opinion
Why Windows 8 Tablets Will Surprise Everyone
Windows-based tablets haven't been treated kindly by the test of time. Those released in the Windows XP era relied on wonky, stylus-based data entry, and even...
From Communications of the ACM
Interfaces For the Ordinary User: Can We Hide Too Much?
Increasing the visibility and access to underlying file structure on consumer devices can vastly improve the user experience.
From Communications of the ACM
The IBM PC: From Beige Box to Industry Standard
Looking back at three decades of PC platform evolution.
From Communications of the ACM
The Difference Engine
Observations on cognitive diversity and team performance.
From Communications of the ACM
The Yin and Yang of Copyright and Technology
Examining the recurring conflicts between copyright and technology from piano rolls to domain-name filtering.
From ACM Opinion
The Year in Computing
2011 saw the personal computer continue to be marginalized. Although PCs are still the workhorse computing device in homes and offices, the most exciting innovations...
From ACM Opinion
A Few Simple Checks Would Transform Science Reporting
The U.K.'s Leveson inquiry is not just about illegally obtained tittle-tattle, it's a chance to curb sensationalist misreporting of science.
From ACM Opinion