BLOG@CACM – Page 45 – Communications of the ACM

Sep 24 2011

The Modes and Uses of Scientific Publication

Publication is about helping the advancement of humankind. Let us take this basis for granted and look at the other, possibly less glamorous aspects. Publication has four modes: Publicity; Exam; Business; and Ritual.

Bertrand Meyer

Computing Applications

Sep 23 2011

U.K. Students Turned Into Goldfish By Social Networking

On the social networking obsession among U.K. students: It's the very air they breathe.

Judy Robertson

Computing Applications

Sep 8 2011

Gender Discrimination in the U.K. Research Excellence Framework

The U.K. research assessment framework will discriminate against female researchers. We can't afford to lose more women from CS research!

Judy Robertson

Computing Profession

Sep 2 2011

Why We Compute

Why do we, as researchers and practitioners, have this deep and abiding love of computing? Why do we compute? I suspect it is a deeper, more primal yearning, one that underlies all of science and engineering and that unites us in a common cause. It is the insatiable desire to know and understand.

Daniel Reed

Architecture and Hardware

Sep 1 2011

Jeannette M. Wing @ PCAST; Barbara Liskov Keynote

Jeannette M. Wing discusses her PCAST presentation about the importance of computer science and its impact. Valerie Barr shares highlights from Barbara Liskov's keynote at Grace Hopper.

Jeannette M. Wing and Valerie Barr

Computing Applications

Aug 23 2011

Password Policies Are Getting Out of Control

At least 9 characters long. No repeated characters. At least 1 number, 1 special character, and 1 capital letter. Cannot be same as last 10 passwords. Must change every 60 days. Oh, and don't write it down either, or use on other sites.

Jason Hong

Computing Applications

Aug 22 2011

The Nastiness Problem in Computer Science

Are we malevolent grumps? Nothing personal, but as a community computer scientists sometimes seem to succumb to negativism.

Bertrand Meyer

Computing Profession

Aug 19 2011

Game-Based Ideas Management in the Workplace

A brief discussion of ideas management software used by the U.K. government.

Judy Robertson

Computing Profession

Aug 19 2011

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.

Mark Guzdial

Education

Aug 1 2011

Stonebraker on NoSQL and Enterprises

Michael Stonebraker discusses several reasons why NoSQL has not caught on with enterprise users.

Michael Stonebraker

Computing Applications

Jul 28 2011

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?

Mark Guzdial

Computing Profession

Jul 25 2011

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.

Judy Robertson

Education

Jul 1 2011

Reviewing Peer Review

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.

Jeannette M. Wing and Ed H. Chi

Computing Applications

Jun 30 2011

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.

Daniel Reed

Computing Profession

Jun 24 2011

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.

Judy Robertson

Computing Applications

Jun 22 2011

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.

Ed H. Chi

HCI

Jun 22 2011

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?

Mark Guzdial

Computing Applications

Jun 20 2011

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.

Ruben Ortega

Computing Applications

Jun 16 2011

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.

Michael Stonebraker

Computing Applications

Jun 13 2011

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.

Bertrand Meyer

Computing Applications

Jun 2 2011

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.

Ashwin Ram

Education

Jun 1 2011

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.

Daniel Reed, Mark Guzdial, and Judy Robertson

Computing Applications

May 27 2011

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.

Jason Hong

Computing Profession

May 20 2011

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.

Sarah Granger

Computing Profession

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