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?

This issue marks the first anniversary of the completely revamped Communications, so I thought it would be appropriate to report on how we're doing so far.

Greg Linden reveals his new approach to reading research papers, Mark Guzdial discusses how to encourage students to write computer programs, and Tessa Lau shares her ideas about the importance of Web visibility.

Thanks to computer scientists like Barbara Liskov, researchers are making major progress with cost-efficient fault tolerance for Web-based systems.

Several software projects are narrowing the performance gap between browser-based applications and their desktop counterparts. In the process, they're creating new ways to improve the security of Web-based computing.

Computer technology has enhanced lives in countless ways, but some experts believe it might be affecting people's ability to think deeply.

Barbara Liskov muses about the creative process of problem solving, finding the perfect design point, and pursuing a research path.

Jon Kleinberg is honored for his pioneering research on the Web and social networking.

Among this year's distinguished honorees are Barbara Liskov of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Jon Kleinberg of Cornell University.

Why the Google Book Search settlement agreement under consideration could result in an extensive restructuring of the book industry.

Does the trend toward standardization and modularization of professional services make outsourcing inevitable?

A guide to playing the ploys frequently employed by cliché-driven management.

Aligning computer science with high school mathematics can help turn it into an essential subject for all students.

Considering the most effective methods for teaching students the fundamental principles of software engineering.

Revisiting Gray and Putzolu's famous rule in the age of Flash.

The laws of physics and the Internet's routing infrastructure affect performance in a big way.

Network software adapts to user needs and load variations and failures to provide reliable communications in largely unknown networks.

It takes a city of developers to build a big system that is never done.

Treasures abound from hidden facts found in imprecise data sets.

Autonomous helicopter flight is widely regarded to be a highly challenging control problem. As helicopters are highly unstable and exhibit complicated dynamical behavior, it is particularly difficult to design controllers that …

This paper reports on the development and formal verification (proof of semantic preservation) of CompCert, a compiler from Clight (a large subset of the C programming language) to PowerPC assembly code, using the Coq proof assistant …

Barbara Liskov talks about her ground breaking work in data abstraction and distributed computing.

The "Internet of Things," once reality, will have to rely on a global IT infrastructure that provides information about all those "things" in a secure and reliable manner. The …

Wireless service providers have invested heavily in upgrading their networks to the next generation standard (3G). However, consumer interest in data …

The literature in the field of project management, especially the literature about risk, is particularly rich in advice about addressing software failure …

Since SCADA networks were initially designed with little attention to security, they can be easy targets of attacks by terrorist groups.

Decades of evidence reveal a shockingly low success rate for software projects. Although the record is slowly improving, much work remains before software project success becomes …

In modern information societies, the ethical integrity and accountability of IT professionals is particularly important, given the extensive reliance …