cacm online
ACM
Member
News
DOI:10.1145/1409360.1409364
David Roman
Previewing the new
cacm Web site
Searching and Browsing
Readers use Communications’ content—both print and digital—in different
ways. Some take their time and leisurely read through articles from top to bottom, while others take a hurried approach, often in search of their personal buzz-words. Studies show that 79% of Web site users skip past carefully constructed
prose to scan pages for a specific word, phrase, or image (Jakob Nielsen, Alertbox,
Oct. 1, 1997). If they don’t quickly find what they are looking for, they will do a
formal search. These habits have significantly impacted the design of the soon-to-be-launched Communications Web site, where we plan to facilitate both types
of usage patterns. For those interested primarily in browsing the site for content
relevant to their specific technical interests, we are building a robust “Browse by
Subject” capability that will
enable the site to serve up content on specific topics in computing. For those interested
in quickly identifying specific
objects, both regular and advanced search options will be
available utilizing the Endeca
and Google search engines.
“Browse by Subject” navigation was refined by early
usability tests of
Communications’ site. The tests showed
some purposeful readers jumping past headlines to find specific articles. “Browse
by Subject” topics do the jumping for them. They give readers a way to figuratively
bypass rows of bookshelves to land squarely in front of titles devoted to software,
or education, and so forth. (The
placeholder topics shown on
this screenshot will give way to
topics defined through the collaborative effort of IT practitioners, academics, CACM staff,
and volunteers.) They provide
a way to locate articles before
turning to traditional search.
The topics will also help
scan recent ACM Digital Library articles, as shown in the
purple-bannered Portal widget shown here. “Browse by
Subject” navigation will be so
simple in practice as to require
little or no explanation.
souvaine
aPPointeD to nationaL
science BoaRD
Diane l. souvaine,
chair of the department of computer
science at Tufts
university, has been
appointed to the National science
board. souvaine was nominated
by president george W. bush in
september and confirmed by the
u.s. senate in early october. as
one of eight board newcomers,
souvaine will serve a six-year term.
The 24-member National
science board acts as an
independent advisor to the
president and congress on
national policy issues involving
science and engineering
research and education. The
board is also the oversight and
policy-making agency for the
National science Foundation.
souvaine’s specialty is
computational geometry,
which focuses on the design
and analysis of algorithms for
solving geometric problems.
siGmm a WaRD
ralf steinmetz, head of the
Multimedia communications lab
at the Department of electrical
engineering and information
Technology at Technical
university Darmstadt in germany,
is the 2008 winner of the sigMM
award for outstanding Technical
contributions to Multimedia
computing, communications,
and applications. steinmetz was
recognized for “pioneering work
in multimedia communications
and the fundamentals of
multimedia synchronization.”
acm GeRman chaPteR
The german chapter of acM
celebrated its 40th anniversary
with a symposium on “i T in
abundance” at the ibM lab in
boeblingen. The chapter includes more than 400 members
and has local groups, which
meet monthly, in 35 locations
across germany. The chapter
wants to better communicate
with other acM chapters,
especially european ones, and
increase its membership. For
more information, visit www.
informatik.org or contact
gerhard schimpf at gerhard.
schimpf@smfteam.de.