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Vol.26 No.4, October 1994
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Vol.26 No.4, October 1994 |
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Why do people go to a local SIG meeting? To meet their friends, hear the local gossip, pick up a few tips or have a night out? It could be any number of things. Ultimately, what draws people to a local SIG meeting is the quality of the speakers and topics. In this issue, we look at some of the work that goes on behind the scenes to create a technical program that is stimulating and retains local color and interest.
The featured local SIG is BayCHI, which serves the greater Silicon Valley and San Francisco area in northern California. BayCHI is one of the older SIGs, dating back to 1987. It is particularly notable for its successful technical program which regularly draws an audience of 200 people or more.
The technical program is the heart of a local SIG. At BayCHI, Richard Anderson has been the energetic program chair for the past 3 1/2 years. He has organized meetings on topics that extend across a broad spectrum including workflow, usability metrics, future visions, intelligent interfaces, digital libraries, use of scenarios, media spaces, product reviews and many others. Here is what he writes about running the technical program:
"Exposing people to and facilitating their understanding and application of relevant aspects of others' views/domains/practice/... are goals that guide much of what I do as BayCHI Program Chair.
Most meetings have featured only one presentation (with one or more speakers), but I have scheduled up to three presentations for one evening. Multiple presentations in one evening are usually related but are not coordinated to the extent that they would be considered to be a "panel"; only three, "true" panels have been featured to date. Videos and demos have been a part of many presentations, but they have never been a presentation; the only video that received "title billing" was SUN's Starfire video, but I wouldn't have featured it without an accompanying speaker (Bruce Tognazzini); a few products have also received "title billing", but all "demos" of products are embedded within far more meaningful presentations -- presentations usually about the specific process and issues of the product's design.
Most speakers have been from the Bay Area. All speakers are offered free dinner the evening of his or her presentation; no speaker is ever "paid" beyond this.
I extend invitations to speak at varying amounts of time in advance. A month; two months; three months; ...; a couple of people -- both outside of the Bay Area -- whom I've not yet been able to schedule accepted my invitation to speak more than 2 years ago! I rarely schedule a speaker at the same time that I extend an invitation to speak; in fact, I rarely schedule speakers more than a month and a half in advance. This might seem a bit risky, but I prefer the flexibility. I try to maintain a pool of accepted invitations to diminish the risk.
BayCHI has a special "character"... It is an atmosphere that is lively and fun and inviting -- an atmosphere in which people feel at ease -- an atmosphere that facilitates a terrific relationship between speakers and the audience -- an atmosphere in which speakers go ahead and say the controversial thing, and in which audience members go ahead and ask the tough/controversial question."
Many local groups are now expanding their technical program to include professional development seminars. Greater Boston has been running a series of such seminars in conjunction with the Greater Boston chapter of ACM for several years. Northern Utah (NUCHI) are planning seminars for the fall and winter. And BayCHI ran their first seminar at the end of June. There is also an effort within the SIGCHI executive committee to provide some help and expertise to local groups. This initiative known as "tutorials to go" was reported on in the previous Bulletin (July 1994).
BayCHI has the distinction of being the largest local group in SIGCHI, with over 470 members.
This local group was started largely by people who knew each other through SIGCHI and wanted to provide a local base for a future CHI conference and create a local technical community of CHIers.
Don Patterson, a familiar figure in SIGCHI, was one of those behind the formation of BayCHI. As he describes the history:
"At CHI+GI 1987, Kate Ehrlich sparked Sue Koopman's imagination with her stories about the great things happening at the local Boston SIGCHI. With all the computer-related activity in the SF Bay Area, Sue figured we should be able to establish a vital local CHI community as Kate and others had done in Boston."
Sue was soon joined by Don and others who foresaw the potential support of a Bay Area group for the future CHI '92 conference. The first meeting was held in February, 1988 attended by 12 people.
The next phase happened in May at CHI '88 in Washington where two dozen people met in a Birds of a Feather session to plan the group.
"In the summer of '89, Kathy Hemenway picked up the ball and, with the help of Don Patterson organized BayCHI as we know it today. Having missed every SIGCHI conference since 1983, Kathy was eager to start up a local series of technical presentations. She figured that with the computer industry so heavily concentrated in Silicon Valley, a person really shouldn't have to rely on the SIGCHI conference for CHI-related intellectual stimulation."
And thus began BayCHI. The focus on the technical program was greatly helped by an offer from Jock Mackinlay of Xerox PARC to sponsor the monthly meetings at the PARC auditorium. BayCHI draws from a very wide geographic area and it was important for the founders that people in the area knew to set aside the second Tuesday of the month at PARC for a BayCHI meeting.
Ellen Francik is the current chair of BayCHI. I caught up with her on a recent trip to Palo Alto and got some insight into the group.
BayCHI is run by a group of very hard-working, dedicated volunteers. Positions in BayCHI include: Chair, Vice-chair, Treasurer/Membership, Program Chair and Founding chair. In addition, volunteers are acknowledged for helping with such functions as Xerox PARC host, maintaining the membership database, newsletter editor, dinner coordinator, publicity/HFS liaison, compiling a job bank, keeping a consultant's directory, chairing the elections sub-committee, distributing newsletters and one "at large" volunteer. This executive body meets once a month to coordinate activities.
BayCHI has a newsletter which it distributes by email. Approximately 200 (of the 470 members) also receive printed copies.
There has been some push within BayCHI to form Birds of a Feather (BOF) groups. A few groups did form (e.g. one on OSF/Motif), but in general BOFs, like other volunteer activities, requires someone to keep the group going.
I was also interested to hear from Ellen that they made BayCHI T-shirts available for sale at a nominal price and used as an incentive for various activities. I can envision the day when we have local SIGs all around the world each of whom has created its own distinctive T-shirt. What a picture that would make at a future CHI conference.
I was delighted to meet some of the chairs and members of local SIGs at the CHI '94 conference in Boston.
Through the generosity of SIGCHI, we were able to give copies of the full set of CHI '94 tutorial notes to several local SIGs to be used by their members. If you are a member of a local SIG and interested in borrowing one of the notes, you should contact your local chair. As a volunteer organization, local SIGs face the dilemma of storing these notes in a way that keeps them safe yet accessible to the members. GBSIGCHI's (Greater Boston) solution was to create the role of librarian to handle these and other shared publications.
CHI '94 included the latest skirmish in the continuing series of BayCHI vs. TorCHI (Toronto) challenges. It all started in '92 with a competition to see who could stay longest in the frigid Pacific waters near the site of the CHI '92 conference. Rhona Carron of TorCHI writes:
"The TorCHI and BayCHI challenge of 1994 was a huge success. Seven members from each chapter participated in an early Thursday morning simulation of crossing the Boston's Charles River in mocked up swan boats (Ed: these are famous tourist boats in Boston Common). We all had fun and got slightly damp thanks to some unavoidable squirt guns in the hands of the two masterminds of this well organized CHI event, Marilyn Mantei and Richard Anderson.
Both teams fought hard with the end result that both teams were judged as performing equally."
It should be noted that as with all competitions, views on this event and its outcome may differ amongst the various participants.
I am always on the lookout for material about any of our local groups, especially the newer ones. In that regard I would like to draw your attention to the Northern Utah group (NUCHI) chaired by Bill Loggins, and the Dallas group (called LoneStar CHI) chaired by Mark Shurtleff. Both have a strong technical program and an active volunteer organization. At a recent meeting of their executive council, NUCHI discussed topics ranging from membership options to organization of volunteer positions to the formation of a new tutorial program. Mark Shurtleff writes about the Dallas chapter:
"The Dallas Chapter of SIGCHI was formed in December 1992. The chapter meets once a month at Collin County Community College in Plano, Texas. This year we have had presentations from Mike Schwartz of EDS on multimedia development, Craig Rispin of Big Hand productions on CDI, interactive kiosks, and interactive TV, and a presentation by Bob Torres from IBM on GUI application development.
The chapter has about 30 active members from various companies, universities, and consulting firms including Texas Instruments, Ameritech Health Computing, Sprint, EDS, American Airlines, University of Texas at Dallas and Collin County Community College."
New members are always welcome at any local SIG. For more information about a local SIG in your area, there is a list of all official and forming local SIGs complete with contact name and number in the back of this bulletin. If there is not a local SIG in your area, get together with some friends and colleagues and start one. And if you want more information about joining, volunteering or starting a local SIG, contact me at the address below.
Kate Ehrlich, Local SIGs Chair, ehrlich.chi@xerox.com.
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