about Communications

 

Moshe Y. Vardi has served as Editor-in-Chief of Communications of the ACM since 2008. Dr. Vardi is the Karen Ostrum George Professor of Computational Engineering and  Director of the Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology at Rice University, Houston, Texas.

A frequent question I hear about Communications, and about ACM publishing in general, involves its access model. I am asked: "Why don't you adopt the open-access model?" Good question! Why don't we? View full article

An old joke tells of a driver, returning home from a party where he had one drink too many, who hears a warning over the radio about a car careening down the wrong side of the highway. "A car?" he wondered aloud, "There are lots of cars on the wrong side of the road!" View full article

The 2008 presidential campaign slogan "Yes, We Can" is the English translation of the United Farm Workers' 1972 slogan "Sí, se puede," or "Yes, it can be done." View full article

A rabbinical story tells about an angry reader who stormed into a newspaper office waving the day's paper, asking to see the editor of the obituary column. He showed him his name in the obituary listing. "You see," he said, "I am very much alive. I demand a retraction!" View full article

It's been four months since we launched the "new CACM." By now, I hope it is quite clear to our readers that the revamped flagship publication of ACM has undergone a rather dramatic transformation. View full article

Booz Allen Hamilton recently issued a report identifying the world's 10 most enduring institutions of the 20th and 21st centuries. More interesting than their findings is their list of chosen determinants: innovative capabilities; governance and leadership; information flow; culture and values; adaptive response; risk structure; and legitimacy. View full article

The French adage "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose," or, the more things change, the more they stay the same, still rings true today. An April 24, 1964 report to the ACM Council stated, "It was felt that Communications was becoming too much of a journal and that a re-evaluation is in order." I suspect this ongoing need to rethink CACM will stay with us for the foreseeable future. View full article