ACM MemberNet - April 25, 2013

Welcome to the April 2013 edition of ACM MemberNet, bringing you the world of ACM and beyond. Explore the many facets of ACM with our newsletter of member activities and events. Read current and past issues of MemberNet online at http://membernet.acm.org. Is there a person, event, or issue you'd like to see covered? Please email mn-editor at acm.org.

April 25, 2013

TOP STORIES

ACM Honors Computing Innovators for Breakthroughs in Network Efficiency, Data Mining, Education, Game Theory, Programming, and Community Problem-Solving

ACM has announced the winners of six prestigious awards for their innovations in computing technology. These innovators have made significant contributions that enable computer science to solve real-world challenges. The awards reflect achievements in computer networks, information retrieval, computer science education, multi-agent systems, versatile compiler technologies, and computer-human interactive technologies. The 2012 ACM award winners, from internationally known research and academic institutions, include prominent computer scientists, educators, and entrepreneurs:

ACM will present these and other awards at the ACM Awards Banquet on June 15 in San Francisco.
Read the ACM press release.

ACM Names International Computing Visionaries for Advances in Research and Education

ACM has honored the achievements of computer scientists who have elevated the vital role of computing in driving technological innovation around the world. These leaders set the stage for advances in computing that have influenced the practitioners, researchers, educators and policymakers across international boundaries who create and implement technology for the digital age.

  • Mateo Valero of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center will receive the Distinguished Service Award for steering initiatives in Europe that advanced high-performance computing.
  • Zvi Kedem of New York University will receive the Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award for leading the transformation of ACM's search index infrastructure that supports the world's computing research community.

ACM Presidential Awards recognize three leaders who are extending ACM's profile and promoting its role in advancing computing as a science and a profession around the globe:

  • Fabrizio Gagliardi of Microsoft Research, who helped ACM build relationships with Europe's computing institutions to raise global awareness of its resources.
  • Yunhao Liu of Tsinghua University in China, who guided efforts to bring ACM's professional and educational resources to China's massive computing community.
  • PJ Narayanan of the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad, who aided ACM in improving the quality of computing education and research in India.

The awards will be presented at the ACM Awards Banquet on June 15 in San Francisco.
Read the ACM press release.

Software Engineering Pioneer David Notkin Dies

David Notkin, a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington Seattle, passed away on April 22. He was 58. Notkin was editor-in-chief of ACM's Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, past chair of ACM SIGSOFT, general chair and past program chair of the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), and the founding program chair of ACM's Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering. He was named an ACM Fellow in 1998. He also served on the boards of the Computing Research Association (CRA) and National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), and received the 2013 A. Nico Habermann Award from CRA for his deep commitment to increasing the participation of women and underrepresented groups in computing. "The loss of David is a major loss for us in ACM," said Eugene Spafford, Chair of ACM's US Public Policy Council.
Read more about David on University of Washington's web site.
Special tribute day honoring David Notkin held recently at UW

MEMBER RECOGNITION

Call for ACM Senior Member Nominations

The Senior Member advanced grade of membership recognizes ACM members with at least 10 years of professional experience and 5 years of continuous ACM Professional membership who have demonstrated performance and accomplishment that set them apart from their peers. Nominations are accepted on a quarterly basis. The deadline for nominations is June 1.

SIG AWARDS

ACM SIG Awards Recognize Achievements in Diverse Fields

ACM's Special Interest Groups (SIGs) regularly cite outstanding individuals for their contributions in more than 35 distinct technological fields. Some awards presented (or to be presented) at recent conferences:

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

CHI 2013: April 27 to May 2, Paris, France

The ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems is the premier international conference on human-computer interaction. CHI 2013 is about changing perspectives, offering new visions of people interacting with technology. The conference is multidisciplinary, drawing from science, engineering and design, with contributions from research and industry in 15 different venues. CHI brings together students and experts from over 60 countries, representing different cultures and different application areas, whose diverse perspectives influence each other. This year's CHI is being held in collaboration with the First ACM European Computing Research Congress (ECRC, see next item). Keynote speakers are Paola Antonelli (Museum of Modern Art, New York), Bruno Latour (professor, Science Po Paris and director of the Sciences Po Medialab) and ACM President Vint Cerf, who will deliver the joint CHI/ECRC keynote address May 2.

ECRC: First ACM European Computing Research Congress, May 2 to 4, Paris, France

ECRC 2013 will be held May 2 to 4 in Paris, in collaboration with the CHI'13 Changing Perspectives conference. CHI'13 begins April 27 and runs through May 2. Organized by ACM Europe, this event is co-locating multiple research conferences, workshops and meetings for the first time to create a significant gathering of European computing researchers.
ACM President Vint Cerf will deliver a joint CHI/ECRC keynote address May 2.

The co-located conferences are:

In addition, INRIA CEO Michel Cosnard will lead a panel on "Computing Research 2020 and Beyond."

ICSE 2013, May 18 to 26, San Francisco, California

The International Conference on Software Engineering provides programs where researchers, practitioners, and educators present, discuss, and debate the most recent innovations, trends, experiences, and challenges in the field of software engineering. Opportunities for professional engagement include workshops, tutorials, demonstrations, posters, exhibits, paper tracks on research, education and software engineering in practice, as well as a set of co-located events. Scheduled keynote speakers are Pamela Samuelson (University of California, Berkeley) on "Are Software Patents Bad?"; Tony DeRose (Pixar Research Group) on "The Connection between Movie Making and Software Development"; and Linda Northrop (Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University) on "Does Scale Really Matter? Ultra-Large-Scale Systems Seven Years after the Study."

DAC 2013, June 2 to 6, Austin, Texas

The Design Automation Conference is celebrating its 50th year as the premier conference devoted to the design and automation of electronic systems, embedded systems and software, and intellectual property. In addition to the papers, panels, workshops, designer track, and tutorials, there are special 50th anniversary events planned, including receptions, a party and banquet, and a "my DAC moment" page in which attendees share memorable experiences at past events. Scheduled keynote speakers include Gregg Lowe, President and CEO of Freescale Semiconductor; NamSung (Stephen) Woo, a president of Samsung Electronics and GM of the System LSI business; James Truchard, co-founder and current president and CEO of National Instruments; J. Scott Runner, Vice President of Advanced Methdologies and Low Power Design at Qualcomm Technologies; and Sanjive Agarwala, TI Fellow and Director of WW Silicon Development in Processor Business at Texas Instruments. Advance registration is available through May 7.

SIGMOD/PODS 2013, June 22 to 27, New York, New York

The SIGMOD/PODS Conference is a leading international forum for database researchers, practitioners, developers, and users to explore cutting-edge ideas and results, and to exchange techniques, tools, and experiences. Demos, tutorials, and research and industry papers address topics such as multicore systems, crowdsourcing, information retrieval, data mining, and SQL, and there will be a PODS Colloquium on Theory Challenges in Big Data.

CFP 2013, June 25 to 26, Washington, DC

The Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference draws advocates, academics, technologists, policymakers, and others to discuss and debate the issues impacting technology, freedom, and privacy in the digital world. The theme of the conference is "Our Computers, Our Freedom: Can You Trust Anyone in the Digital Age?" Scheduled keynote speakers are Jan Philipp Albrecht, a member of the European Union Parliament; Matt Blaze, director of the Distributed Systems Lab at the University of Pennsylvania; Julie Brill, Commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission; and Cory Doctorow, a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger. The venue for CFP will be the Newseum, adding to the the fun and intellectual excitement CFP always generates. Early registration is available up to May 25.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2013, November 19 to 22, Hong Kong

SIGGRAPH Asia 2013 invites you to submit your latest achievements and groundbreaking ideas, solutions as well as technical and creative skills. Meet with industry studio executives, students, researchers, artists and more this November when Asia's leading computer graphics and interactive techniques conference returns to Hong Kong once again. Seize the opportunity to present your best work to the most creative people from the industry and academia. Submission deadlines are in May, June and July.

PUBLIC POLICY

USACM Issues Statement on Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)

Earlier this month, USACM issued a statement on the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) regarding information sharing and privacy issues, emphasizing that the bill should contain explicit limits on what may be shared outside existing legal frameworks intended to protect private citizens (e.g., via warrants, subpoenas, etc.), and that it should include specific oversight mechanisms. Read the full letter and the USACM Public Policy blog post. USACM is ACM's US Public Policy Council.

MEMBER PROGRAMS

Become an Ambassador for ACM—You Could Be a Grand Prize Winner!

The Ambassadors for ACM program rewards ACM members like you for encouraging new members to join. Your first-hand experience with ACM's valuable career development and continuous learning programs makes you a perfect envoy to share your ACM experiences with prospective members. Please consider becoming an Ambassador for ACM. The top ACM Ambassador for March was Nabendu Chaki. The 2012–2013 Ambassadors for ACM program offers opportunities for you to earn new prizes, rewards and bonus gifts with each referral.

Submit the ACM Referral Form, and your referrals can join ACM at a special discount rate. Our members are our greatest asset. Your support of ACM is critical to our continuing efforts to advance computing as a science and a profession.

MentorNet Matches ACM Students, Professionals for One-on-One Mentoring

ACM partners with MentorNet to promote e-mentoring relationships between students (protégés) and professionals (mentors). MentorNet, founded in 1997, now boasts 30,000 mentor/protégé relationships that encourage and inspire students considering careers in science, technology, engineering and math. Professionals also benefit from the program, practicing skills and gaining insights into their own careers. Above all, they gain satisfaction from knowing that they're helping to diversify the global workforce in these fields. ACM members can participate in this program as protégés if they are undergraduates, graduates, post-doctoral students, or untenured faculty. ACM Professional Members with a college degree and at least two years of professional work experience in engineering, science, technology, mathematics, medicine or related disciplines can qualify as mentors. To learn more, visit MentorNet's site and the introductory ACM MentorNet page. Also check out the short videos for protégés and mentors that will walk you through the steps of creating a profile and connecting with others in the MentorNet community.

Insurance Programs for ACM Members

ACM members are able to take advantage of a variety of comprehensive and affordable insurance programs including Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance, Group Dental Insurance, Group Disability Insurance, Health Insurance, Group Term Life Insurance and Long-Term Care Insurance. Through a partnership between ACM and Marsh U.S. Consumer, a service of Seabury & Smith, Inc., these programs are offered exclusively to ACM members at competitive, group-negotiated rates. To learn more about these and other ACM-sponsored insurance plans, visit the website or call 1-800-503-9230 for more information.

Attention Faculty: Order Complimentary Materials for Your Students

ACM offers the opportunity for faculty members to order complimentary materials for distribution to their students who are interested in the field of computing. Available items include ACM student membership brochures and posters, as well as flyers featuring ACM's Digital Library, Code of Ethics, and student chapters, among others. Place your order using our easy online form and your request will be fulfilled promptly!

LEARNING CENTER

ACM Webcast with Dave Patterson, May 8—Register Now!

The next free webcast in ACM's Learning Webinar series, "Engineering Software as a Service" will be presented on May 8 at at 2 PM ET (1 pm CT/12 MT/11 AM PT/6 PM GMT). Join David Patterson, Director of the Parallel Computing Lab (ParLab) at UC-Berkeley (and a former ACM president) in special virtual event moderated by his ParLab colleague Armando Fox. The talk will be followed by a live question and answer session. Register now. ACM Learning Webinars are free with registration, available for streaming on all major mobile devices, and are recorded for on-demand viewing.

View April 23 Vint Cerf Webcast on Demand

On April 23, ACM President and Google's VP and Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf spoke about the future of the Internet and its technological, economic, and social implications in a special ACM Learning Webinar titled "Internet's Future Social Implications: Upheaval or 'Trek's' Promise?" The virtual event, moderated by Stu Feldman (VP of Engineering at Google and former president of the ACM), is now available on demand. Please note that a simple registration is required for on-demand viewing.

CAREER & JOB CENTER

Import Your LinkedIn Profile in ACM's Career & Job Center

Be sure to visit ACM's Career & Job Center to update your résumé or create a new one in the Résumé Bank. ACM members' résumés include an ACM logo on their entry, highlighting their ACM membership to employers.

Now available when posting a résumé in the Résumé Bank: import your LinkedIn profile. You will be required to sign in to your LinkedIn account. Please note that LinkedIn does not have exactly the same fields as ACM, so you will have to review the imported information and update where necessary. Once you have a résumé created and saved in our system, you can publish it to the Résumé Bank so that employers find you! Or keep it private and use it when applying online for jobs. Log in to ACM's Job Board and post your résumé today. You can also upgrade to a Preferred Résumé to keep it at the top of the Résumé Bank, highlighted with a star next to it for increased visibility ($25 for 90 days).

In addition, ACM offers CareerNews, which provides summaries of articles on career-related topics of interest to students and professionals in the computing field, in a bi-weekly email alert to ACM members. ACM members can subscribe to the CareerNews email alert service.

For more information about the Career & Job Center please contact Jennifer Ruzicka.

EDUCATION

CSTA Documents Demonstrate Alignment of K-12 Standards

The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) has just released a series of documents that show the alignment between the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards and other existing national standards: the Common Core State Standards, the STEM Cluster Topics, and the Partnership for 21st Century Essential Skills. The CSTA created these documents to demonstrate the extent to which computer science courses and content align with a wide variety of national standards. They can help K-12 educators using CSTA standards demonstrate how their computer science courses, resources, or grant proposals contribute to the teaching of other national standards.

According to CSTA Curriculum Committee Chair Deborah Seehorn, "It is no secret that K-12 education is now completely standards-focused, and our efforts to improve and expand computer science education in K-12 require us to show that we not only have rigorous standards, but that our standards intersect well with the key national standards from other organizations." The downloadable documents are available on the Curriculum web page of the CSTA website.

STUDENT NEWS

George Michael Fellowship for Doctoral Students in High Performance Computing - Apply by May 1

Are you a PhD student in high performance computing? Or a faculty member who is mentoring one of these students? Then consider applying for (or recommending a student for) an ACM/IEEE-CS George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship. These fellowships honor exceptional PhD students throughout the world whose research focus areas are in high performance computing, networking, storage, and large-scale data analysis. ACM, the IEEE Computer Society, and the SC International Conference support this award, which was endowed in memory of George Michael, one of the founders of the SC Conference series.

Fellowship winners are selected each year based on overall potential for research excellence, the degree to which technical interests align with those of the HPC community, academic progress to date, recommendations by their advisor and others, and a demonstration of current and anticipated use of HPC resources. The Fellowship includes a $5,000 honorarium, plus travel and registration to receive the award at the annual SC conference. Visit the George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship page for application criteria and instructions. Submissions for this year's award close on May 1.

Upcoming ACM Student Research Competitions

ACM Student Research Competitions (SRCs), sponsored by Microsoft Research, offer a unique forum for undergraduate and graduate students to present their original research at well-known ACM sponsored and co-sponsored conferences before a panel of judges and attendees. The most recent SRC winners presented at AOSD 2013. The next conferences accepting submissions are:

Learn about more competitions on the SRC submissions page.

ACM-W Student Scholarships for Attendance at Research Conferences

The ACM Women's Council (ACM-W), with funding from Wipro Technologies, provides support for women undergraduate or graduate students in computer science and related programs who wish to attend research conferences. The student does not have to present a paper at the conference she attends. High school students will also be considered for conference support. Twenty ACM-W/Wipro scholarships are funded annually: 10 scholarships of up to $600 will be awarded for intra-continental conference travel, and 10 scholarships of up to $1,200 will be awarded for intercontinental conference travel. ACM-W encourages the student's home department to match the scholarship award and recognize the student's achievement locally within her department. In addition, if the award is for attendance at one of several ACM Special Interest Group (SIG) conferences (SIGACCESS, SIGACT, SIGARCH, SIGCOMM, SIGCHI, SIGCSE, SIGDA, SIGECOM, SIGEVO, SIGGRAPH, SIGIR, SIGITE, SIGMM, SIGMOBILE, SIGOPS, SIGPLAN, and SIGSOFT), the SIG will provide complimentary conference registration and a mentor during the conference. Applications are evaluated in six groups each year, in order to distribute awards across a range of conferences. For application form, notification dates and more information, please visit the scholarships page.

Additional scholarship awards for women students to attend research conferences have been made possible by Microsoft Research. Microsoft has given ACM-W $20,000 to support scholarships for women of European citizenship. Under the agreement with Microsoft, these awards will cover conference registration fees and provide an additional $600 if the conference is intracontinental, or $1200 if it is involves intercontinental travel. The student does not have to be attending a European school in order to be eligible, and the amount of the award is based on where she attends school relative to where the conference is. We are delighted to have this additional support for the scholarships, in addition to the funds we already have from Wipro Ltd. In addition, 16 SIGs have thus far signed on to support the scholarships by providing complimentary conference registration to scholarship recipients.

Graduating Students Eligible for Special Transition Rate

ACM offers a special ACM Professional Membership for $49 USD (regularly $99) to help graduating students make the transition to professional careers, and take advantage of continuous learning opportunities, including free online books and courses and access to ACM's Career & Job Center. This one-year-only transition rate includes all the benefits of Professional Membership plus the option of purchasing a Digital Library subscription for $50. Recent graduates can access this special transition offer through ACM's convenient online renewal form, or by following the instructions on the paper renewal form. For more information, visit the Reasons to Transition to Professional Membership page.

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS PROGRAM

The Distinguished Speakers Program (DSP) is one of ACM's most valued outreach programs, providing universities, corporations, event and conference planners, and local ACM chapters with direct access to top technology leaders and innovators from nearly every sector of the computing industry.

This month's featured speaker is Claudia Bauzer Medeiros. Claudia is full professor of databases at the Institute of Computing, University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil. She holds a degree in Electrical Engineering (1976) and an MSc degree in Computer Science (1979) from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Brazil and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, Canada (1985). For the past 20 years, she has been working as a visiting professor at the University Paris-Dauphine, France. She has received Brazilian and international awards for research, teaching, and her work in fostering the participation of women in IT-related activities. Her research centers on the design and development of scientific databases. Her main interests lie in facing the challenges posed by large, real-world applications, which require handling distributed and heterogeneous data sources. She has coordinated large multidisciplinary projects in Brazil, involving applications in agro-environmental planning and biodiversity. She has also coordinated research projects in scientific data management, workflow systems and geographic information, in cooperation with universities and research labs in Brazil, Germany and France. Claudia has given invited tutorials and lectures in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese at many conferences and organizations. She is a member of ACM, IEEE, and the Brazilian Computer Society, and has served in the organization and/or program committees of more than 100 conferences and workshops, mostly involving data management issues. She served as the president of the Brazilian Computer Society from 2003 to 2007, and has served or serves on many permanent scientific evaluation panels in Brazil and Argentina. Claudia has received the Doctor Honoris Causa from Universidad Antenor Orrego, Peru, the Anita Borg Change Agent Award, and Commander of the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit.
For more information on Claudia, please visit her DSP speaker information page.
Claudia Bauzer Medeiros's Digital Library author page.

ACM, IEEE Computer Society Join to Share Distinguished Speakers Programs

IEEE-CS and ACM have joined to share their invited speaker programs, to further the dissemination of technical knowledge of computing fields that greatly benefit both memberships. IEEE-CS chapter volunteers can host a speaker from ACM's Distinguished Speakers Program (DSP), with access to top technology leaders and innovators from nearly every sector of the computing industry, by following the instructions on the DSP site. Make sure you identify yourself as an IEEE Computer Society Chapter.

IEEE-CS provides a popular offering of first-quality speakers serving its professional and student chapters. The Distinguished Visitors Program (DVP) owes its success to the many volunteers and staff members of the Computer Society who generously contribute their time and talent. Organizers of an ACM chapter, conference, or event can host a speaker from IEEE-CS's DVP by following the instructions instructions on the DVP site. Make sure you identify yourself as an ACM chapter or event.

CHAPTERS NEWS

Welcome New ACM Chapters

Chapters are the "local neighborhoods" of ACM. The regional ACM Professional, Student, ACM-W, and Special Interest Group (SIG) chapters around the globe involve members locally in competitions, seminars, lectures, workshops, and networking opportunities. ACM welcomes these new chapters that were chartered March 23 to April 19, 2013:

ACM Student Chapters:

  • Ahram Canadian University ACM Student Chapter, Giza, Egypt
  • Benha University ACM Student Chapter, Benha, Egypt
  • Bluegrass Community and Technical College ACM-W Student Chapter, Lexington, Kentucky
  • Clark University ACM Student Chapter, Worcester, Massachusetts
  • Cornell University ACM-W Student Chapter, Ithaca, New York
  • IIIT-Bh ACM Student Chapter, Bhubaneswar, India
  • Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto ACM Student Chapter, Porto, Portugal
  • Longwood University ACM Student Chapter, Farmville, Virginia
  • NIT Surat ACM Student Chapter, Surat, India
  • Rhodes College ACM-W Student Chapter, Memphis, Tennessee
  • Universidad Politécnica de Altamira ACM Student Chapter, Altamira, Tamaulipas, Mexico
  • UPRB ACM Student Chapter, Bayamon, Puerto Rico
  • William Mason High School ACM Student Chapter, Mason, Ohio

ACM Professional Chapter:

  • Santa Cruz ACM Chapter, Santa Cruz, Bolivia

ACM-W NEWS

Rocky Mountain Celebration of Women in Computing Increases Regional Influence

by Darlene Banta, Senior Software Engineer, Schneider Electric, Fort Collins, Colorado
The Rocky Mountain Celebration of Women in Computing (RMCWiC) began as a Colorado-based Regional Celebration conference for women in computing to provide networking opportunities, social support, encouragement, and opportunities to present research. It has been held every two years and this year the name changed to reflect the growth and regional influence of the conference. RMCWiC 2012, held November 1 to 2 in Fort Collins, Colorado, featured two keynote speakers: Mariana Vertenstein, the head of the CESM Software Engineering Group at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and Adele Howe, a professor of computer science at Colorado State University. Additionally there were panel discussions, birds of a feather sessions, technical presentations, and a poster fair. A game night the opening evening of the conference allowed attendees to interact with each other on a casual level. The variety of board games and video games encouraged participation. The birds of a feather session I co-presented with Devadatta Sadhu (Software Engineer at Telvent), titled "Women in Computing: Break Stereotypes and Be the Woman You Are," focused on why there are historically few women in computing, the consequences, the importance of diversity, and the changes we can implement. I believe the comfort level I experienced when interacting with others technically and casually is the true value of women-focused conferences.
Read Darlene's entire report in the Winter 2013 issue of the ACM-W CIS Newsletter.

The Grace Hopper Regional Consortium, a project of ACM-W, provides programming that showcases female role models, encourages mentoring and networking, supplies accurate information about computing careers and creates opportunities for women to participate in the program, often for the first time in their careers. Visit the Grace Hopper Regional Consortium site to learn more about these events.

Join ACM-W's Membership Email List

Did you know that ACM-W offers a general email distribution list for its members? This ACMW-public list is a communication channel for disseminating general information about ACM-W, bulletins and upcoming events. To join the list: http://signup.acm.org/listserv_index.cfm?ln=ACM-W-PUBLIC. And to keep more informed about the activities of ACM-W and its members, you can sign up for our quarterly CIS Newsletter notification. Be sure to read the current issue for the latest news on ACM-W activities and events on the ACM-W CIS Newsletter issues page.

PUBLICATIONS NEWS

Hot Topics Editor Needed for Computing Reviews

Computing Reviews, the post-publication review and comment journal of ACM, is seeking volunteers interested in serving as a category editor for Hot Topics.

ACM Queue Presents: Eventual Consistency Today: Limitations, Extensions, and Beyond

In their article for ACM Queue, Peter Bailis and Ali Ghodsi of UC Berkeley ask some tough questions about systems that are "eventually consistent": How eventual is eventual consistency? If the scores of system architects advocating eventual consistency are any indication, eventual consistency seems to work "well enough" in practice. How is this possible when it provides such weak guarantees? How should one program under eventual consistency? How can system architects cope with the lack of guarantees provided by eventual consistency? How do they program without strong ordering guarantees? and IS it possible to provide stronger guarantees than eventual consistency without losing its benefits?

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM

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ACM IN THE NEWS

"Google's Vint Cerf Explains How to Make SDN as Successful as the Internet"

GigaOm.com, April 16, 2013
Google chief Internet evangelist and ACM president Vint Cerf believes that software defined networking (SDN) could benefit from some of the Internet's design flaws and lessons learned in creating the Internet.

"Experimental Video Game Teaches Kids How to Program Java"

Wired, April 11, 2013
Yes, kids can learn programming in more traditional ways, but finding qualified teachers is hard. Organizations like Code.org and the Computer Science Teachers Association are trying to solve this problem, and the Mozilla Foundation has gotten into the game with extra-curricular programs such as Summer Code Party, which pair kids with volunteer coders.

"Software Uses LinkedIn Network to Guide Your Career"

New Scientist , April 6, 2013
New software provides career guidance based on the profiles of LinkedIn users. Computer scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have designed LinkedVis to analyze the information of LinkedIn users and recommend companies and the positions for which they are best qualified. The team showed off their research at the recent Intelligent User Interfaces conference.

"RAID Reaches 25"

Continuity Central, April 5, 2013
It is 25 years since the publication of "A Case for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID)," the groundbreaking paper that introduced the concept of redundancy for data protection and proposed the fundamental approach to data protection that remains the industry standard today. Authored by former ACM president David A. Patterson, Randy H. Katz and Garth Gibson, the Berkeley RAID Paper, as it has come to be known, was first published in March 1988 in the proceedings of the 1988 ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data.

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