Communications - March 2009

publisher’s corner
DOI: 10.1145/1467247.1467249 Scott E. Delman
the site will
extend beyond
Communications’
current reach
and help bring us
closer to fulfilling
the flagship’s
original promise
as the primary
“communication”
tool in the field
of computing.
Communications’ Web
site to Launch in march
2008 was a year of significant change for
Communications. The same will be the case in
2009. After a successful relaunch of the print
magazine last year, ACM is getting ready to

launch a new Communications’ Web site,

which will go live this month. The new

site will complement the magazine by

providing an easy access point to all the

content found in the magazine’s print

pages, but perhaps more importantly the

site will extend beyond Communications’

current reach and help bring us closer to

fulfilling the flagship’s original promise

as the primary “communication” tool in

the field of computing.

Let me say a few words about the

new site. Many in the community are

now used to downloading Communica-

tions’ articles from the ACM Digital Li-

brary, reading the print publication on

the train or plane, or scanning through

the pages of the Digital Edition on your

desktop or mobile device (as an aside,

the iPhone version is worth trying). For

those of you who have your preferred

way of digesting and archiving the ar-

ticles published each month, nothing

should change and we will do our best

to continue to improve the experience

for you. The new site, however, offers

you for the first time a robust gateway or

digital storefront from which to not only

read and download articles, but to com-

ment, share, and interact with the com-

puting community in a meaningful way

and in real time without the limitations

of page budgets and print schedules.

The new site will be content- and

feature-rich with an emphasis on high-

quality editorial. Everything found in

the print publication will be available

via the Web site, but the site will also

contain additional news content up-

dated more frequently than is possible in print. A variety of user-generated content, such as the new Expert Blog aptly named the Blog@CACM, will be contributed to by a growing list of distinguished practitioners and researchers. Periodically, the best of those entries and comments will make their way into the print magazine and the result will be a cross-fertilization of content between the print and online Communications. So, for those of you who still prefer to see your name appear in print there is another incentive to go online. The new site will also serve as a gateway to some of the most interesting and relevant existing blogs (see Blog Roll) in the computing community and provide links to related content, books, courses, conferences, SIGs, and other resources. The site will also be heavily integrated with the ACM Digital Library, so as to provide a single entry point for searching both Communications articles and other articles published by ACM.

It is important to say that the site will not be all things to all people. That is not the intention. But, if you are a regular reader of Communications and you are looking for a way to find more high-quality information on advanced computing topics (for practitioners and researchers), we believe this new site will be a great place to start and over time will find its way into your favorites folder and become a highly respected and valuable resource. At least, that is our ultimate goal.