Communications - August 2009

DOI: 10.1145/1536616.1536617
Steve Bourne and Bryan Cantrill
A year ago, this publication was stripped
to the studs and rebuilt, with everything
from the content to the cover art revisited,
rethought, and revitalized. Among the
Communications
and the Practitioner

many additions has been a new sec-

tion, “Practice.” While readers may

have not recognized this section per se,

they have likely noticed its practitioner-

oriented content, with articles on ev-

erything from the innards of GPUs and

the mechanics of hard-drive failure to

debugging AJAX and avoiding the con-

tagious virulence of XML fever—and

much in between.

The story behind the Practice sec-

tion merits some explanation, for it

traces the history of the practitioner

within ACM. There was a time in the

not-too-distant past when practitio-

ners felt largely indifferent about ACM:

while practitioners grappled with

thorny problems posing non-negotia-

ble obstacles to shipping a product or

deploying a system, ACM (and, dare

we say, its flagship publication) could

seem to be comfortably insulated in

dreamy abstraction. Not that the prac-

titioner was better served by anyone

else: much content for the professional

software engineer seemed to be either

explicitly “for dummies” or shameless-

ly capitalizing on the latest fad—and

often both.

Several at ACM saw these two

problems—ACM’s lack of focus on

the practitioner and the opportunity

posed by the paucity of high-caliber

practitioner content—and set out to

address them with a new magazine.

The result of this effort, ACM Queue,

launched in March 2003 and was tar-

geted toward the practitioner, but

with an eye toward tomorrow’s prob-

lems instead of today’s solutions. In

its first issue, Queue introduced itself

as “a tonic for the hype weary, with a

commitment to methodically dissect

upcoming challenges while posing the

same hard questions software devel-

opers ask themselves.” Over the years,

Queue stayed true to this vision by hav-

ing editorial content conceived of and

written by software engineers them-

selves. This afforded the magazine a

problem focus, but one that held fast

to the reality of production systems.

Striking this delicate balance required

constant vigilance, but it made Queue

With everything about

Communications

being reconsidered,

the time was perfect

to rethink not just

the relationship

between Queue and

Communications,

but also the role

of the practitioner

within Acm itself.

a must-read for leading practitioners.

The growing success of Queue co-

incided with another change at ACM:

the remaking of Communications.

There had long been a desire among

ACM’s leadership to refresh the ven-

erable publication, and with every-

thing about Communications being

reconsidered, the time was perfect to

rethink not just the relationship be-

tween Queue and Communications,

but also the role of the practitioner

within ACM itself. From this delib-

eration, the new Practice section was

born: Queue retained its identity and

its Web site, but also became an inte-

gral part of the new Communications,

with Queue leading the development

of articles in the Practice section as

well as of columns such as Kode Vi-

cious. Bringing Queue content to Com-

munications has reunited the prac-

titioner and the researcher under a

single masthead, reinvigorating both

communities. Indeed, laying the best

work of the practitioner and research-

er communities side-by-side has been

a refreshing reminder of what brings

us together: we of ACM are united by

our common passion for making com-

puters do nifty and useful things.

So to longtime ACM members and

Communications readers, we hope you

have found the new Practice section to

be thought-provoking. And to practitio-

ners (especially, those who may be new

ACM members!), we hope you will not

restrict yourselves to the Practice sec-

tion, but will also take the time to read

the latest work from the larger ACM

community. To everyone, welcome to

the new Communications and the new

broader ACM!

Steve Bourne is Chief technology officer, eldorado Ventures, editor-in-chief of ACM Queue, chair of aCM’s Professions board, and chair of Communications’ Practice board.