Game-Based Ideas Management in the Workplace
A brief discussion of ideas management software used by the U.K. government.
BLOG@CACM
Advertisement
Trip Report on the 2011 International Computing Education Research Workshop
Last week's ICER 2011 conference was a smashing success. We learned how students believe in a "Geek gene," where students work on their programs, how to make compilers more friendly, how demonstrations can lead students astray, and how confusion is an indication of understanding.
Stonebraker on NoSQL and Enterprises
Michael Stonebraker discusses several reasons why NoSQL has not caught on with enterprise users.
What We Owe Google, and What Google Owes Us
We rely on online information sources—maybe too much. What is our responsibility to make sure that they're accurate, and what responsibility do the sources have to us?
Foggy Futures: The Confused Computing Career Aspirations of 12-Year-Olds
Based on recent interviews with 12 year olds about careers in computing, I argue that if we want to evaluate programs that encourage young people to study computing, we need a shared vocabulary of computing concepts.
Jeannette M. Wing discusses peer review and its importance in terms of public trust. Ed H. Chi writes about alternatives, such as open peer commentary.
Being Bilingual: Speaking Technology and Policy
How do we cross the intellectual divide, providing technical advice to policy experts in ways that they find useful and actionable? Equally importantly, how do we translate policy constraints — political, economic and social — into contexts intelligible and actionable by technical experts? The key in both cases is to respect the differences and values each bring to the discussion.
Interspecies Interaction Design at CHI
A description of new frontiers in animal/human interaction design emerging at CHI. No cats or chickens were harmed in the writing of this article.
On the Importance of Replication in HCI and Social Computing Research
How does replication of experiments and systems move HCI research forward? Wouldn't replication simply waste valuable researcher energy that might be better spent on actually creating new novel ideas or systems? This essay argues that replication is more than just duplication of work, but instead is an essential step in scientific explorations.
Why Don’t Languages Support Multimedia All the Way Down?
It's a hallmark of CS thinking, to be able to shift levels of abstraction down to the bytes. Why do programming languages make this so hard to teach students?
Research in Agile Development Practices
Recent research in Agile development practices has identified that self-organizing teams spontaneously assume some previously unclassified roles and practices to make themselves successful.
New SQL: An Alternative to NoSQL and Old SQL For New OLTP Apps
New SQL should be considered as an alternative to NoSQL or Old SQL for New OLTP applications. If New OLTP is as big a market as I foresee, we will see many more New SQL engines employing a variety of architectures in the near future.
Long Live Incremental Research!
“Break through!” clamor the funding agencies, which scorn “incremental” research. Sure, every human being needs hype; in truth, though, almost all research—good research included—is incremental.
Our Big Idea: Open Social Learning
Imagine a Facebook where the point is for students to study together, not trade pictures and jokes. Imagine a World of Warcraft where students earn levels and points by helping each other learn. Imagine an educational experience that is social and game-like.
Simple Design; Research vs. Teaching; and Quest to Learn
Daniel Reed writes about design and disruptive technologies. Mark Guzdial discusses the tension between teaching and research at U.S. universities. Judy Robertson argues in favor of educational video games in the classroom.
Improving Computer Science Research Collaborations Between U.S. and China
On March 23-24 2011, the National Science Foundation held a workshop looking at how to build more effective collaborations between computer science researchers in the U.S. and in China. This blog entry looks at some of the opportunities that were identified.
Obama Administration Announces Landmark Global Internet Strategy
The White House this week announced a comprehensive global strategy document bringing multiple agencies together in an effort to emphasize their commitment to a broad vision of online engagement moving forward. The goal: cyberspace should be open to innovation, interoperable, secure and reliable.
The Impact of Console Games in the Classroom
A summary of some interesting findings relating to the use of console games in Scottish primary and secondary school classrooms.
If You Want High School CS, Require Undergraduate CS
Pushing computer science classes into the high schools is a top-down approach. If there was required computer science in undergraduate education, the high schools would be seeking us out. That's the way it worked with calculus.
Research Directions For Machine Learning and Algorithms
An in-depth discussion of near-term research directions for machine learning and algorithms.
Is Google's new Chromebook a fundamental change in personal computing? Or is it just another netbook?
Information Privacy: Changing Norms and Expectations
That picture of you at a family reunion, squinting into the sun, can rarely be delimited by a physical location once it is placed on the web. Instead, information flows freely and often globally. We need to rethink our notions of information privacy, moving beyond concepts rooted primarily in person and place, and considering logical privacy.
When Everything Is Embarrassing: Designing With Teenage Girls
A discussion of the difficulties of conducting user-centered design with teenage girls.
Stonebraker on Data Warehouses
Data warehouses are not only increasing in size and complexity, but also in their importance to business. Michael Stonebraker shares 10 key ideas on the topic.
Shape the Future of Computing
ACM encourages its members to take a direct hand in shaping the future of the association. There are more ways than ever to get involved.
Get InvolvedCommunications of the ACM (CACM) is now a fully Open Access publication.
By opening CACM to the world, we hope to increase engagement among the broader computer science community and encourage non-members to discover the rich resources ACM has to offer.
Learn More