Through the years, CACM held a forum for computer folks who
were looking for advice on how to bridge the divide between researchers in
the labs and those who were implementing programming, and the other
bridge between the developers and the end users.
computing pioneers in those early
days, and a journal was born. This
evolved into Communications of
the ACM debuting in 1958. That
1958 is a lifetime ago in com-puter-speak only reminds us of
the more innocent era this publication was born into. The average
home in the U.S., after all, cost a
paltry $12,220 and a gallon of gas
was 24 cents.
RESEARCH PLUS
Communications of the ACM has
chronicled the astonishing developments in the computer industry. In the pages of CACM, the
progress and change and possibility are dissected and explored.
Click through the archives of this
publication, and you’ll find
celebrities for the tech-obsessed,
like Leonard Kleinrock co-writing
“A Study of Line Overhead in the
Arpanet” in the 1970s, or a tribute for the late Jonathan Postel,
who helped create and run the
Internet and direct the Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority
(IANA).
But while the academic and
professional research that CACM
showcased was renowned and
revered, the publication was also
able to serve unofficially as a
watercooler, a paper version of a
newsgroup, not just programmers
trying to figure out language or
scholars debating standards, but
in real-world issues. Through the
years, CACM held a forum for
computer folks who were looking
for advice on how to bridge the
divide between researchers in the
labs and those who were implementing programming, and the
other bridge between the developers and the end users.
There are so many thought-provoking pieces in CACM history, articles that looked at the big
picture of a changing world, even
as the images were still unfolding.
In the early 1980s president
David Brandin asked if our society will be vulnerable as a result of
our growing dependence on computers and communication systems, an issue that is as relevant
today as ever. In an exchange in
“Letters to the Editor” decades
before, the fragile and controversial sides of developing artificial
intelligence are exposed and shine
a light on the same issues the
technology community, and culture at large, will have to address
going forward.
There are broader questions
raised in these pages too, ones
that have more to do with conscience than science. For instance,
Maurice Wilkes, in 1996, provides the argument for moving
toward a more diverse, non-U.S.-centric international Internet. And
in “The Net Progress and Opportunity,” Larry Press implores the
spread of the Internet to less
wealthy nations. “As a major professional society ACM should also
consider its role,” he wrote in
1992.
CACM has been able to capture and present both science and
commentary in a thought-provok-ing, educational way for 50 years.
What has made the organization
and the publication so enduring is
its promotion of the free exchange
of ideas. So Happy Anniversary,
CACM. And congratulations on
providing a forum where an ever-broadening community can discuss ideas that will ripple into yet
more business sectors as the years
go by. c
MEG MCGINITY SHANNON
( megshan98@yahoo.com) is a technology
writer based on Long Island, NY.