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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

Interview

A Conversation with Shaimaa Lazem: toward inclusive design methodologies for technology

Interviewed by Bushra Anjum

Ubiquity's senior editor Dr. Bushra Anjum chats with Dr. Shaimaa Lazem, an associate research professor at SRTA-City Egypt. They discuss how computer science curricula should aim at increasing students' sensibilities and appreciation of the differences in the worldviews, skills, and abilities of technology users; as well as teach students how to harness and embrace these differences in technology design.

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opinion

Different words, same message

by Philip Yaffe

Each "Communication Corner" essay is self-contained; however, they build on each other. For best results, before reading this essay and doing the exercise, go to the first essay "How an Ugly Duckling Became a Swan," then read each succeeding essay.

All good writers (and by extension public speakers) who stop to reflect on what makes them so good generally come to the same conclusions. However, the way they express these common conclusions can be quite different. One formulation of a key idea may strike a responsive chord with one reader but not with another. To improve one's writing and speaking skills, it is therefore useful, in fact imperative, to seek out and evaluate the advice of at least two or more professionals.

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opinion

Workings of science: How software engineering research became empirical

by Walter Tichy

Software engineering was recognized as its own type of engineering in the 1960s. At first, the tools and guidelines developed for it were mostly based on common sense, intuition, and personal experience, but not empirical evidence. It took until the late 1990s for researchers in the area to embrace empirical methods. This article is a personal story of how I experienced the maturing of Software Engineering research into an evidence-based science. I will interpret this development using two competing philosophical concepts, rationalism and empiricism, and describe how pragmatism reconciles them.

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opinion

Why is expository writing so undervalued---and what to do about it

by Philip Yaffe

Expository (non-fiction) writing is the kind of writing most people do in their jobs and elsewhere. Yet the importance of good expository writing is generally underrated, often severely so. This Communication Corner essay explores why undervaluing expository writing is so costly and detrimental, and what might be done about it. ...