and views, typically of a nontechnical nature. Feature
columns from respected voices
in computing have always been a
very popular element in CACM.
The plan is to maintain the most
popular columns, as well as add
new dynamic ones. In addition,
the editorial board will continually solicit opinion pieces on
topics of broad interest to the
computing community. Controversial issues will not be avoided,
but be dealt with fairly, by representing both sides of the issue.
To maintain the freshness of this
section, the editorial board will
seek, on an ongoing basis, new
material in areas such as global
issues, ethics, history, education,
policy, interviews with luminaries, and the like.
“Healthy soul in a healthy
body,” said the ancient Greeks.
To that end, CACM will
embark on a complete graphic
overhaul; from cover logo to
career opportunities and everything in between. All these very
different elements must have a
cohesive, professional, high-tech
look and feel. There is also a
need for a complete redesign of
CACM’s Web site, with the goal
of creating a dynamic, rich Web
site that is much more than an
online store of the magazine’s
content. The aim is to think of
CACM as consisting of a print
publication, a rich Web site, and
email channel to readers.
The reader who compares the
content model proposed here
with the content model
described in Denning’s essay
would be struck by the similarity.
A natural question is whether
this model would be successful
now, when it has not been so
successful in the past. In my
opinion, previous redesigns of
CACM tended to put more
attention on the content and
look and feel, but less attention
to developing the organizational
structure that can support the
production of a high-quality
monthly publication. By way of
comparison, CACM is produced
by a staff of five professionals,
while Science is produced by a
staff of 100 professionals! By harnessing the current staffs of
CACM and Queue, and by hiring additional professionals with
critical skills, we will have the
professional staff that ACM’s
flagship publication deserves.
For CACM to stay attuned to
the interests of the computing
community, it needs an active
and authoritative editorial
board. One must be mindful
that editorial board members are
volunteers, who typically shoulder the commitments of a full-time job. While it is tempting to
conceive of a small cohesive
board, the burden of producing
a monthly publication would
overwhelm a small volunteer
board. The solution is to constitute the board as a collection of
semi-autonomous sub-boards,
corresponding to the various sections of the publication. The full
editorial board is expected to
have around 50 members.
This plan for a revitalized
CACM was presented to and
approved by ACM Publications
Board in May 2007 and ACM
Council in June 2007. Staffing
and recruiting for the editorial
board are currently under way.
We have recruited an impressive
panel of sub-board chairs to date:
Breakthrough Research—David
Patterson and Stuart Russell;
Refereed Articles—Al Aho and
George Gottlob; Opinions and
Views—William Aspray and
Nigel Shadbolt; News—Marc
Najork and Prabhakar Ragha-van; and for the CACM Web
site—Marti Hearst and James
Landay. The launch of the
redesigned CACM is planned for
later this year. Watch for an
announcement soon!
In conclusion, I’d like to add
one final point. We live in a consumer society, so it is easy to
evaluate products from a consumer perspective: “Is CACM a
satisfactory product?” “Am I getting my money’s worth for my
ACM membership?” ACM,
however, is not a consumer-product vendor, it is a professional society. We are not ACM
customers, we are ACM members. CACM is not a product, it
is a project. For this project to
succeed, the membership of
ACM must collectively undertake it. Let us—together—make
CACM the exciting publication
it should be. Please write to me
at cacm-eic@acm.org. c
MOSHE Y. VARDI ( cacm-eic@acm.org)
is Karen Ostrum George Professor in
Computational Engineering and Director
of the Computer and Information
Technology Institute at Rice University,
Houston, TX.
© 2008 ACM 0001-0782/08/0100 $5.00
The Research Preview
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