Communications of the ACM articles from February 1998

Communications of the ACM archives from February 1998

No one is making money in educational software. (Log on Education) (Industry Trend or Event)(Column)
February 1, 1998... No one is making serious money selling educational software. The top companies in the educational technology market, such as Scholastic, Davidson, Computer Curriculum, The Learning Company, and Jostens are all noodling along, making a few...

No justice, no peace. (the Internet can bring people peace of mind) (Electronic Frontier) (Internet/Web/Online Service Information)(Column)
February 1, 1998... I write this during the holidays when I should be filled with feelings of giving, of thankfulness, of rebirth, of "Peace on Earth" and goodwill to all persons. Sadly, I am not. In the end months of 1997, I watched in numbed amazement as...

Internet comes to Morocco. (Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco, establishes an Internet connection) (On Site) (Internet/Web/Online Service Information)(Column)
February 1, 1998... Despite massive progress in telecommunications and technology, there remains a great disparity between the telecommunications services and capabilities available to different nations. Developing nations in Africa, South America, and Eastern...

Practical legal aspects of software reverse engineering. (Industry Trend or Event)
February 1, 1998... A significant amount of litigation involving computer software focuses on reverse engineering. Unfortunately, despite this litigation, reverse engineering is probably one of the least understood concepts by the courts, legal counsel, and...

Calculating the cost of year-2000 compliance. (includes related articles on the study methodology, and on 1997 data compared to that of 1996) (Industry Trend or Event)
February 1, 1998... How much will the Y2K compueter-date problem cost to fix? Almost all Y2K projects require a cost estimate before actual repairs can proceed. Most cost estimates for Y2K repairs are based on rules of thumb involving some size measure, like...

IS investment priorities in contemporary organizations. (Industry Trend or Event)
February 1, 1998... The productivity paradox, hyped in the general news media and by prominent economists just a few years ago, questioned the wisdom of corporations going high tech when little impact was observed on the bottom line. This was particularly true in...

Reengineering inspection. (software quality improvement via formal technical review) (Technology Information)
February 1, 1998... Despite many advances in automated verification and validation, human review of software artifacts is still a uniquely important method for software quality improvement. Unlike automated methods such as testing, review does not require an...

Examining data quality. (Technology Information)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... Ensuring the quality of the data resource has been a continuing concern to those in the information systems profession. Over time techniques and procedures have evolved designed to make sure the data required by traditional transaction processing...

A product perspective on total data quality management.(Examining Data Quality special section) (Technology Information)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... The field of information quality (IQ) has experienced significant advances during its relatively brief history. Today, researchers and practitioners alike have moved beyond establishing information quality as an important field to resolving IQ...

Data quality and systems theory.(Examining Data Quality special section) (Technology Information)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... In the movie War Games, set in the U.S. Strategic Air Command Center under a mountain near Colorado Springs, there is a critical scene: on a huge map of the globe are arrows indicating large numbers of nuclear missiles approaching the U.S. from...

Assessing data quality in accounting information systems.(Examining Data Quality special section) (Technology Information)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... Accounting information systems maintain and produce the data used by organizations to plan, evaluate, and diagnose the dynamics of operations and financial circumstances[1]. in addition to intraorganizational usage, the data produced by these...

The impact of poor data quality on the typical enterprise.(Examining Data Quality special section) (Industry Trend or Event)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... As practitioners know, creating awareness of a problem and its impact is a critical first step toward resolution of the problem[5]. The needed awareness of poor data quality, while growing, has not yet been achieved in many enterprises. After...

Surviving a process performance crash. (software development process implementation)(Thinking Objectively) (Technology Information)(Column)
February 1, 1998... Implementing a software development process will probably result in an initial performance reduction for the obvious reason that people will be adapting to new procedures. (Why this perennially shocks everyone is one of the mysteries of...