DOI: 10.1145/1378704.1378705
Stuart I. Feldman
a new Beginning,
a fond farewell
I am writing this column in my last month as
President of ACM. It’s been a great opportunity to
support the Association’s many successful programs
and to expand and firmly establish new directions.
Much has been accomplished, much remains to be done.
At this moment, you hold in your
hands one of the biggest improve-
ments—the newly renovated Commu-
nications of the ACM. From the outset
of this ambitious project, our goal has
been to make this a vibrant publica-
tion, a must-read and can’t-wait-to-
read for people everywhere who are
excited by and depend on progress
in computing. Readers need to know
what is best and new in research, what
is ripe enough to influence practice in
a year or two, and what is happening
in industry, government, and universi-
ties that affects the way we work.
The goal of the new Communica-
tions is to present a diverse collection
of articles about the most interesting
research in the field, as well as perspec-
tives and reviews of hot topics, all writ-
ten for knowledgeable and engaged
computer scientists. It also brings ar-
ticles about technology directions and
problems that will interest practitio-
ners and their managers. A new Prac-
tice section, aimed at computing pro-
fessionals who develop, deploy, and
enhance real systems, will leverage the
success of the Association’s respected
ACM Queue magazine by having its edi-
torial board serve as Communications’
Practice board. In addition, you can
now find news and analysis articles
about people, organizations, funding,
and directions in computing world-
wide. Indeed, each section of the new
Communications has an editorial team
assigned to select and shape its con-
tent. These teams unite leading voices
from across the global computing field.
I am eager to read upcoming issues.
ACM is striving to reach out to com-
puter experts everywhere. Much of
computing science, technology, and
applications is location-independent,
but the way people work is affected by
where they live. Numerous activities
are under way to make ACM more rel-
evant to members outside the U.S. as
well as to Americans with an increas-
ingly global viewpoint: A growing
number of ACM leaders—including
elected officers, members of Coun-
cil, as well as members of many ACM
Boards and SIGs—are from outside
the U.S. We have opened an office in
Beijing to enable us to participate
more fully in China. We also have ad-
visory groups in China, India, and
Europe to help ACM do more for our
members and potential members in
those areas.
In addition, we are working to ad-
dress problems and concerns relating
to our field. In many countries, uni-
versity enrollment in the computing
disciplines has been falling for years.
Despite the centrality of information
technologies to the economy and soci-
ety, too many people think the bloom
is off the rose. Yet new technological
marvels arrive regularly because of the
fantastic work by computer scientists
and engineers like you. In an effort
to call more widespread attention to
such marvels, ACM has undertaken a
number of initiatives to address the
image of the profession, including ex-
amining the role of policy, education,
and diversity. We have planted the
seeds; look for visible signs of growth
in the coming years.
One way to increase visibility of
the field, both within academia and
in public, is through professional
awards and press coverage. We have
raised the financial levels of a number
of ACM awards and instituted a new
major prize—the ACM-Infosys Foun-
dation Award—to recognize and hon-
or great work in computer science. We
have increased efforts to garner atten-
tion from the media and policy mak-
ers with our timely reports, boards,
awards, and contributions from our
excellent members.
As I noted in my opening remarks,
much has been accomplished and
much remains to be done. Thank you
for allowing me this chance to serve the
community and ACM.
Stuart I. Feldman is vice president of engineering for
Google, Inc., New York City.
