communications of the acm
Departments

5 Editor’s Letter Solving the Unsolvable By Moshe Y. Vardi

6 Letters To The Editor Practical Research Yields Fundamental Insight, Too

23 Technology Strategy and Management Driving Power in Global Supply Chains

How global and local influences affect product manufacturers. By Mari Sako

9 In the Virtual Extension

10 BLOG@CACM

Reviewing Peer Review

Jeannette M. Wing discusses peer review and its importance in terms of public trust. Ed H. Chi writes about alternatives, such as open peer commentary.

News Viewpoints

26 Computing Ethics

Values in Design

Focusing on socio-technical design with values as a critical component in the design process.

By Cory Knobel and Geoffrey C. Bowker

12 CACM Online

ACM Aggregates Publication Statistics in the ACM Digital Library By Scott E. Delman

31 Calendar

13 Weighing Watson’s Impact

Does IBM’s Watson represent a distinct breakthrough in machine learning and natural language processing or is the 2,880-core wunderkind merely a solid feat of engineering?

By Kirk L. Kroeker

29 Legally Speaking

Too Many Copyrights? Reinstituting formalities— notice of copyright claims and registration requirements—could help address problems related to too many copyrights that last for too many years.

By Pamela Samuelson

117 Careers

Last Byte

120 Future Tense

My Office Mate

I became a biocomputational zombie for science…and for love. By Rudy Rucker

16 Automotive Autonomy Self-driving cars are inching closer to the assembly line, thanks to promising new projects from Google and the European Union. By Alex Wright

19 Brave, New Social World

How three different individuals in three different countries—Brazil, Egypt, and Japan—use Facebook, Twitter, and other social-media tools. By Dennis McCafferty

22 ACM Award Recipients

Craig Gentry, Kurt Mehlhorn, and other computer scientists are honored for their research and service.

32 Broadening Participation The Status of Women of Color in Computer Science Addressing the challenges of increasing the number of women of color in computing and ensuring their success. By Maria (Mia) Ong

35 Viewpoint

Non-Myths About Programming Viewing computer science in a broader context to dispel common misperceptions about studying computer science.

By Mordechai (Moti) Ben-Ari

Association for Computing Machinery Advancing Computing as a Science & Profession

PhotograPh courtesy of IBM