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Vol.28 No.3, July 1996
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Time is flying fast. It has been over one year since we started our jobs as SIGCHI's co-chairs. It has been an intellectually rewarding and enjoyable year for us and, we hope, for you, as well. In this column, we would like to answer some of the questions that we have been asked over the past year. We also want to invite more questions and a continued interaction with you and will initiate this dialogue by posing some questions that we would like you to answer.
There are many ways to evaluate the success of a conference and CHI 96. in our view, wins in all accounts! Over 2400 people from over 30 countries attended this conference. As we write this column, the conference evaluation forms are still being evaluated, but our impressions and those of many people that we talked to at the conference are that this conference was a technical success. People came to interact with their colleagues, learn more about human-computer interaction (HCI), and share their experiences with their colleagues. These goals were well met!
We thank Michael Tauber and Kevin Schofield, the general co-chairs of CHI 96, and all the volunteers who supported them, for a successful conference. We also thank Gene Lynch, SIGCHI's Vice-Chair for Conferences, and the Conference Management Committee (Diane Darrow, Scooter Morris, Steve Poltrock, Terry Roberts, Thea Turner, and Gerrit van der Veer) for guiding and supporting all SIGCHI-sponsored conferences.
Many people have commented that we use global to refer to SIGCHI instead of international. While many may see these terms as interchangeable, there is an important difference for SIGCHI. International organizations involve people from many countries, each representing their country's interest. For example, many standards efforts are international; people gather together to represent their own country's interests. Events such as CHI 96 are global; people from many countries attend but their common focus is on the field of HCI, not on national interests.
There are several factors involved in answering this question. First, our membership spans 61 countries across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. We have members in six of seven continents and welcome involvement of our colleagues in Antarctica!.
Second, local SIGCHI chapters exist or are forming in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Moscow, Research Triangle Park, NC, Utah, Ottawa, Portland, Puget Sound, Raleigh/Durham, San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto, Amsterdam, Baltimore/Washington DC, Chicago, Columbus Ohio, Denver, Hartford Connecticut, Houston, Kansas City, Knoxville, Paris, Vancouver, and Italy. (You can find information on local SIGCHI chapters inside the back cover on the Bulletin.) And we have cooperating society arrangements with many HCI-related groups throughout the world. We invite more local chapters!
Third, we include people from many countries on the ballots for elective office and we invite volunteers for elective positions! Executive Committee meetings are scheduled for global locations, approximately in proportion to the makeup of our Executive Committee (the last two meetings were in the U.S., the next is in France). Our Extended Executive Committee, the elected positions plus appointed positions, covers the globe from France and the Netherlands to Australia. We could accurately claim, if we wished, that the sun never sets on the SIGCHI Extended Executive Committee!
Fourth, conference sites rotate around the globe. CHI conferences have been held twice in Canada, once in the Netherlands, and 10 times in the U.S. Current plans for the next several years are for conferences in the U.S., Europe, and the Pacific Rim.
The interactions magazine was started as a partnership between ACM and SIGCHI with the goal of providing a publication for HCI practitioners. Although this is formally an ACM publication, it is clearly targeted to SIGCHI's members, 80% of whom identify themselves as practitioners. interactions is doing very well and just increased from four to six issues per year.
The relationship between SIGCHI and interactions is still a good question; one that we have considered ourselves; and one we would like your input on. The interactions design awards (see the May+June issue of interactions), for example, might benefit from more support from SIGCHI members and from move visibility within SIGCHI.
Many of us occasionally bring family members and friends along on conference trips. For some, this offers an opportunity to introduce friends and family to the work that we do, but for others, this is a necessity. At CHI 96, the CHIkids program provided many children and parents not with traditional child care but with a unique opportunity to explore computers and HCI (and many thanks to Allison Druin and her volunteers for leading this program!) This program will continue at CHI 97. What would you like to see for adult friends and family members who accompany you to SIGCHI's conferences? Accompanying persons programs have been trialed over the past few years. What did you like about these programs; what would you change? What conference activities would you like to have accompanying persons join you for?
Late this summer, we will appoint a nominations committee to identify candidates to stand for election early next year and to take office in July 1997. We solicit your input on candidates.
We have heard several people mention membership directories, a job bank, a consultant's directory, and an HCI resource directory, in addition to more presence on the World Wide Web. With your help as a volunteer, SIGCHI can support some of these programs. Which ones would you like to see? Which ones will you volunteer to work on?
The list above is not intended to be an exhaustive list. We invite your questions and comments on any topic you choose.
Mike Atwood and Guy Boy
atwood.chi@xerox.com
guy_boy.chi@xerox.com
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