The Future is Digital: So What’s the Problem?  

A Creative Exploration—and Competition—about the Future of Computing

Christoph Becker’s Insolvent: How to Reorient Computing for Just Sustainability argues that meeting today’s ecological and social crises requires more than technical innovation: it demands a transformation in the professional practices, values, and narratives that organize computing work. 

With this in mind, what are the most urgent issues for you? How might the computing field respond?  What is the nature of these crises, and how do computing systems and practices play roles now and in the future?

As a part of its standing as a Special Interest Group within an established professional society, SIGCAS has the specific obligation to consider the direct and indirect effects of computing, both positive and negative, in a very broad way, including marginalized populations, the natural world, and the public sphere in which we share information and participate in self-governance.

Our goal with this exploration/competition is to encourage critical thinking of all kinds and across diverse communities about the opportunities and challenges of computing in today’s world, and to help cultivate future discussions and actions that build on this thinking.

To this end, we encourage a wide range of submission formats, including, but not limited to, standard research papers. These may involve fiction and other speculative approaches, such as envisioning exercises or role-playing games. It could take the form of journal entries, a manifesto, a philosophical, psychological, or personal exploration, a ritual, or a set of questions. 

This competition is open to all participants. Participants can enter in the Professional category or the Student category.  ACM members and ACM student members are encouraged to take part. ACM or SIGCAS membership is encouraged, but not required to submit. Submissions may have a single author or multiple authors. 

Each submission should address these questions:

What topic do you see as the Big Issue (or challenge) facing society and our use of computing? 

• Identify what the challenge is and WHY it should be considered important? 
• What explanation or justification supports the importance or impact of this issue?  

Format and length 

Submissions should be no longer than 4 pages.  The format of those pages can be a standard paper format or for a zine or other format. In this call for Big Issues, we encourage speculative works, auto-enthnographic reflections, zines, photographic essays and so on.  Submissions should be submitted in Word or Google Doc format with IEEE Style references.   

Award-winning submissions should be compelling as a whole, with a strong central issue, a persuasive explanation of its importance, and a clear contribution to conversations about computing and society.

When are they due?

Submissions must be received by the October 15 (AoE) deadline. All submissions should be sent to  sigcas-competition@acm.org 

Judging to follow and selected papers will be published in a special issue of ACM SIGCAS Computer and Society CAS. Selected submissions will appear in a special issue of CAS. Selected papers will be referred to the ACM Journal on Responsible Computing.

Awards

Three awards will be given in each category – professional submissions and student submissions. The awards in each category will be a Best Paper Award of $500 USD and two Honorable mentions of $250 USD each.

We encourage joint submissions from multiple authors. To be eligible for the Student category, the first author must be a student who is the primary originator of the submission. 

Authorship Policy

We draw your attention to the ACM Policy on Authorship. Use of AI is permitted within the responsibility and accountability framework. You remain responsible as the author of the work. Submissions that include fabricated references, hallucinated sources, plagiarism, misrepresentation, or other integrity problems may be removed from consideration.  Also, as part of ACM’s efforts to combat exclusion in the computing profession, we also wish to make you aware of ACM’s Words Matter initiative as well as ACM’s Inappropriate Content Policy.

Judges Needed

 If you are interested in serving as a judge for this competition, please contact sigcas-competition@acm.org by October 15 with your contact information (organization, email and phone) as well as topics you are comfortable reviewing for.

Judging criteria

Submissions will be judged in the Professional and Student categories. Judges will recognise strong, original, well-supported, and clearly communicated arguments about a major issue at the intersection of computing and society. Submissions may take the form of a standard short paper, zine, or other document-based format. The form chosen should strengthen the submission’s argument and accessibility.

Each submission will be assessed using the following criteria:

 1. Significance of the issue

The submission identifies a Big Issue in society and computing that is important, timely, and consequential. Strong submissions will explain who is affected (inclusive of the diverse make-up of our computing community and society at large), what is at stake, and why the issue deserves attention from the SIGCAS community.

2. Clarity of argument

The submission presents a clear and coherent position. It explains the challenge, develops the reasoning behind the claim, and helps the reader understand why the issue matters. Strong submissions will move beyond simply naming a problem and will show how the issue works, where its impacts are felt, and why it is difficult or urgent.

 3. Computing and society connection

The submission demonstrates a meaningful connection between computing and wider social, ethical, political, cultural, environmental, educational, or professional concerns. Strong submissions will show how computing is implicated in the issue, rather than treating technology as a neutral background factor.

4. Originality and insight

The submission offers a fresh perspective, reframing, synthesis, critique, case, question, or way of seeing the issue. Strong submissions will help readers think differently about a familiar issue or recognise the importance of an emerging one.

5. Quality of communication

The submission is well organised, readable, and appropriate for its chosen format. Strong submissions will make effective use of language, structure, visuals, design, or other communicative choices to support the argument. Zines and alternative formats will be judged on how well the form contributes to clarity, engagement, and intellectual substance.

6. Responsibility, integrity, and care

The submission demonstrates responsible scholarship and ethical communication. Claims should be accurate, sources should be real and relevant, and communities, people, and examples should be represented with care. Submissions containing fabricated references, misleading evidence, plagiarism, or misrepresentation may be removed from consideration.

 7. Evidence and justification

The submission supports its claims with appropriate evidence, examples, reasoning, references, lived or professional insight, or critical analysis. Strong submissions will use evidence carefully and ethically, with IEEE Style references where scholarly, technical, policy, or public sources are used.