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Peter J. Denning, Editor in ChiefThe digitally connected world has become a large, swirling sea of information stripped of context.

We help our readers make sense of it, find meaning in it, learn what to trust, and prepare for the future that may show up. "Ubiquity and Your Future

Peter J. Denning,
Editor-in-Chief

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LATEST ARTICLES

opinion

AI for Environmental Intelligence in the Digital Economy

by Jagabondhu Hazra, Shantanu Godbole, Kommy Weldemariam, Maja Vuković

In today's digital economy, companies face climate-related damage to their assets, disruptions to supply chains and operations, and increasing pressure from consumers and regulators to their sustainability goals. Researchers need better tools to support climate research; businesses need better technologies to accelerate their sustainable digital transformation journeys. These include reimagining operations, supply chains, emissions management, or ESG and climate risk reporting with the help of emerging technologies for organizations to meet their sustainability goals. In this paper, we focus on some of the proposed approaches for helping enterprises to decarbonize their emission as they embrace their digital economy transformation. ...


opinion

Lost and Found in Translation

by Philip Yaffe

Most people write in their native language, which is why too many pay too little attention to how precisely they say what they want to say. "Well, everyone will understand." People who write or translate into other languages know this isn't true. ...



opinion

The Seven Rs of Effective Editing

by Philip Yaffe

This essay is based on an article originally published in 2012. Although aimed specifically at journalists, it contains considerable good advice for all expository (non-fiction) writers. Not the least because it twice cites advice from my book The Gettysburg Approach to Writing & Speaking like a Professional. I have edited the original text to direct it away from the fast and furious world of news reporting to adapt its very useful advice to the slower, more reflective pace of most other writers not subservient to daily deadlines. In most cases, my editing has shortened the text. ...


opinion

Electricity Consumption by ICT: Facts, trends, and measurements

by Erol Gelenbe

This paper considers key issues surrounding energy consumption by information and communication technologies (ICT), which has been steadily growing and is now attaining approximately 10% of the worldwide electricity consumption with a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The perimeter of ICT systems is discussed, and the role of the subsystems that compose ICT is considered. Data from recent years is used to understand how each of these sub-systems contribute to ICT's energy consumption. The quantitatively demonstrated positive correlation between the penetration of ICT in the world's different economies and the same economies' contributions to undesirable greenhouse gas emissions is also discussed. The paper also examines how emerging technologies such as 5G, AI, edge computing, and cryptocurrencies are contributing to the worldwide increase in electricity consumption by ICT, despite the increases in ICT efficiency, in terms of energy consumed per bit processed, stored, or transmitted. The measurement of specific ICT systems' electricity consumption is also addressed, and the manner in which this consumption can be minimized in a specific edge computing context is discussed.

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