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Vol.28 No.4, October 1996
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Vol.28 No.4, October 1996 |
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Mike Atwood, Chair (non-voting)
Guy Boy, Co-Chair
Clare-Marie Karat, Vice Chair for Finances
Gene Lynch, Vice Chair for Conference Management
Barbee Teasley, Vice Chair for Communications (minutes)
Marian Williams, Vice Chair for Operations
Jim Miller, Past Chair
Gary Perlman, Vice Chair for Publications
Robin Jeffries, Member, Advisory Board
John Karat, Member, Advisory Board
Richard Anderson, Adj. Chair for Local SIGs
Harry Blanchard, Adj. Chair for Standards
Rhona Charron, Adj. Chair for Membership
Diane Darrow, ACM
Rodney Fuller, Adj. Co-chair for Volunteers
Raj Mohar, ACM Staff
Don Patterson
Steven Pemberton, Editor-in-Chief, SIGCHI Bulletin
Jenny Preece, Adj. Chair for Education
Kevin Schofield, CHI 96 Co-Chair
Rosemary Wick Stevens, Adj. Chair for Publicity
Michael Tauber, CHI 96 Co-Chair
Susan Wolf, Adj. Co-chair for International Relations
Kevin Schofield and Michael Tauber, CHI 96 co-chairs, gave a summary report on the very-recently-ended conference. Their primary goals were to strike a balance between diversity and integration of researchers and practitioners; to work on aspects of the technical program; to make the theme permeate the conference and be more perceptible; and to enhance accessibility and partnership for non-North American members.
Attendance totaled 2436, with 31 countries represented. Seventeen hundred attendees were from the US, and 300 from Canada. Early registration was up, consisting of 83% of registrants.
Playing from the theme of "Common Ground", the Commons area of the conference meeting halls served as a meeting place for all attendees. In addition to food services and bulletin boards, the commons also included exhibits and posters.
The technical program featured fewer simultaneous events (one less track) than prior conferences. CHIkids was a very visible and successful addition to the conference. The plenary addresses were given by noted speakers from outside the direct SIGCHI community. Submissions in all categories were up. Long paper submissions were up by 25%. Short paper submissions increased by 50%; 30% of short papers were non-US submissions. Mentoring was provided for those submitting papers who so desired and will be continued next year. The tutorial program was the largest and most successful to date.
The conference had the largest number of cooperating societies ever, including non-North American representation. The first-ever Japanese corporate sponsor was obtained.
The meeting of Assets occurred in Vancouver immediately prior to the CHI conference. This gave an opportunity for attendees of that conference to provide a retrospective on the Assets meeting to CHI attendees.
The organizers felt they had a good working partnership with committees, staff, speakers, vendors, and facilities. A demonstration of the Internet and Web browsing was given to the staff of the facilities and to personnel from the Vancouver tourism board as a gesture of thanks.
The main challenge for future CHI conferences is managing the success of the prior conferences: increased submissions in all categories; the difficulty of finding volunteers who have the time to take on some of the most complex tasks; technical/cultural challenges such as providing Internet access in the commons; handling internal communications; dealing with hot topics and growing the exhibits portion of the conference.
Due to the success of the conference and the great efforts that have gone in to overseeing and controlling the conference budget, the conference co-chairs are predicting an excess surplus of about $159,000 (US).
The chairs recommended that some of these funds go toward increasing ACM staffing, endowments for attendees from countries with soft currencies, permanent support of Web presence, and wider distribution of the conference video. Miller moved that the EC thank Schofield, Tauber and the entire CHI 96 conference team for a highly successful conference. The motion was approved by acclamation.
Perlman moved and Jeffries seconded approval of the minutes of the March 27, 1996 EC meeting. Approval was unanimous. Perlman moved and Jeffries seconded approval of the minutes of the January 31, 1996 EC meeting. Approval was unanimous. Perlman moved and Jeffries seconded approval of the minutes of the February 28, 1996 EC meeting. Approval was unanimous.
Perlman announced that email service will soon be moving from its current location at Xerox to ACM headquarters when the new list server is installed and tested. The new server will add additional features. The committee expressed concern that current services and access (e.g., the .chi aliases) not be decreased. Perlman will provide a transition plan before a change is made, so that notice can be given to those who utilize the service.
The SIGCHI Web home page contains pointers to related topics and additional details. Perlman has been adding materials and getting individuals involved in maintaining portions of the site. One goal is to create pointers to existing HCI indexes, with the eventual goal of a centralized index.
Perlman has maintained an HCI bibliography at Ohio State University for six years. The time has come to move it to a more central location, such as acm.org. This would facilitate maintenance, and allow the addition of services such as a search engine. The next step will be to present the plan to the ACM Publications board. Perlman will circulate a revised draft of the proposal before it is submitted to the Publications board.
Miller has been exploring the idea of a centralized Web site, backed by SIGCHI, for HCI in general. The site would serve as a first contact for anyone wanting information on HCI. It would include bibliographies, software, chats and electronic publications. Due to the complexity, it could not be run solely by volunteers and would probably require an editor. Discussion lists could be handled by software that is currently available.
Pemberton noted that it is important for SIGCHI to have a presence in Web consortia and groups, in order to promote HCI concerns. One avenue for influence might be by becoming an affiliate of W3C (WWW Consortium). This organization has two scheduled meetings and one conference per year, and other meetings as needed. It also has a standards committee, which is probably the entity with the most influence. Questions raised by the EC included the suitability of SIGCHI having a representative; the need to avoid potential conflict of interests; the amount of influence a representative might have; and whether other societies have already joined. Pemberton is already a member of the organization in a work-related capacity, and agreed to report to the EC on activities of the group. Blanchard will contact Pemberton and Fuller and bring back a written proposal.
Henderson proposed establishing a Web discussion site on the interactions design award nominees and criteria. Tasks include finding a chair to oversee discussion, although a moderator is not needed. Other requirements are appropriate software, and channeling back to the appropriate responsible parties. Miller, Henderson and Robertson will bring back a clarified proposal.
J. Karat presented the information he has gathered so far on the feasibility of producing a membership directory. The directory published by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society offers a close parallel. It contains information on about 5000 members plus other information. It is about 500 pages long. The estimate is that it would take a half-year of staff effort to start up. It cannot be a volunteer effort. One hurdle is collecting the information initially. The information collected now by ACM is not sufficient. Cost is estimated at $50,000 (US), including labor, production costs and mailing. One avenue to explore is companies which publish the directory for free, and then sell the directories directly to members. Open issues concern the value to members, the possibility of an electronic version, and ties into the HCI Central project. J. Karat will work with Darrow and produce a more specific proposal by the summer EC meeting.
Atwood reminded the committee that any ACM member can nominate any other member for ACM awards for service to the organization and/or the field. He pointed out that it would increase our group's visibility if our members received some of these awards. The nomination process involves submitting 500-word letters from the nominator and others. Atwood will elicit and collect nominations for ACM awards and pass them along to the appropriate group. There is a July deadline for the distinguished service award. Atwood and Teasley will set up a mechanism for regular reminders of upcoming award deadlines. An ancillary issue is the establishment of a regular SIGCHI awards program.
A nominations committee for the spring, 1997 election of EC members needs to be formed by September 15. Atwood will form the committee. Each EC member is responsible for drawing up a job description of their position by the summer EC meeting that can be published to inform SIG members about the positions. A concern is that there are not enough ways for members to get to know the candidates. Printed space for platforms is currently limited. An opportunity for discussion would be appropriate, e.g., Web-based exchanges. Global representation on the EC is important. The nominating committee will make recommendations to the ACM regarding the SIGCHI elections and the dissemination of information in the election process.
Three focus groups sessions have been conducted. Each was composed of different categories of members and nonmembers. One group was people who had once belonged to SIGCHI, but do not now. A second group was people who had never been members, but have a similar profile to our members. The third group was current members who were attending the CHI conference. Data from the conference questionnaire will also be included in a final report. In addition, a mail survey will go out worldwide. A preliminary report on the findings will be circulated prior to the summer EC meeting for discussion at the meeting. The goal is to have a good understanding of the results in time for the December EC meeting, where the results can influence budgeting.
Williams followed up an inquiry from a potential corporate underwriter of BT Laboratories (UK) on the feasibility of inviting some of the CHI Tutorial presenters to give the same tutorials in the United Kingdom. Williams has also opened discussions with a representative of the British HCI Group. She will be presenting a written proposal at the Summer EC meeting.
Lynch reported that Los Angeles is currently the number one choice for the site of CHI 98. Denver is a back-up. Final reports on the CHI 96 conference will be made at the summer EC meeting, and will provide information to the CHI 97 conference committee. The hand-off from current to new conference committees was done in a distributed fashion this year, rather than at a large group meeting. This was done to facilitate a more effective hand-off. Potential chairs for the CHI 99 conference have been determined. However, there are no current designees for CHI 98.
The EC will formulate a policy regarding privacy of information collected related to the submission of papers for CHI conferences. Implementation and process will be determined by the CHI conference committee, via Lynch. There is also an issue regarding the feedback data from conference tutorials. Currently, the data are used only by instructors for feedback and areas for improvement, and by the following year's co-chairs for building the tutorial program. The data are often requested by representatives of local SIGs and other societies. A policy is needed to determine whether and to what extent these data are shared. Jeffries, Boy (supported by Darrow) will distribute a draft policy before the Summer EC meeting for discussion at the meeting.
Lynch reported that he received a request from IFIP for co-sponsorship of the DIS 97 conference. He suggested that an "in cooperation" relationship be form instead of co-sponsorship, because they do not have sponsorship mechanisms in place. Charron will develop a membership appreciation letter to be sent to new members of SIGCHI and to those who choose not to renew. The letter will also appear on the SIGCHI Web site. Charron will work with Darrow.
Perlman has put information on the SIGCHI Development Fund on the Web. Stevens will develop ads for publication in the Bulletin in one page, half page and quarter page size. The ads will point to the Web site for additional information.
Atwood reported that development of a SIGCHI logo is currently on hold.
The current issue of the Bulletin is published on the SIGCHI Web site, but access is restricted to members. After three months, the issues will become publicly available. There is an October 1, 1996, deadline for submissions to the special 50th anniversary of ACM issue of the Bulletin.
C. M. Karat will look into the feasibility and possible implications of having SIGCHI invite Betty Edwards to offer her classes on drawing using the right side of the brain. As part of a non-profit organization, she must be invited by non-profit organizations to give classes. This activity will be a follow-on from Edward's plenary address at CHI 96. Karat will report no later than the Summer EC meeting.
Teasley will update the SIGCHI email lists to reflect recent changes.
The July meeting of the EC will be held in Toulouse, France. The December EC meeting will be held at ACM headquarters on Dec. 7-9. These dates span Saturday through Monday. The traditional post-CHI conference EC meeting, cannot be held the weekend after CHI 97 due to a conflict with the Easter holiday. Consensus was that just prior to CHI would not work, either. The issue was left open. Conference call meetings will take place on the last Wednesday of each month (except April, 1996). The time will be 11:30am EST (16:30 GMT).
Mike Atwood, Chair (non-voting)
Guy Boy, Co-Chair
Clare-Marie Karat, Vice Chair for Finances
Gene Lynch, Vice Chair for Conference Management
Barbee Teasley, Vice Chair for Communications (minutes)
Marian Williams, Vice Chair for Operations
Gary Perlman, Vice Chair for Publications
Robin Jeffries, Member, Advisory Board
Diane Darrow
Steven Pemberton, Editor-in-Chief, SIGCHI Bulletin
Rosemary Wick Stevens
(These minutes were created on 6/24/96, modified on 7/24/96 and approved by a vote of 6-0-0 on 8/19/96.)
Minutes
Comments on the minutes of the Extended Executive Committee meeting on April 19-20 were solicited. The revised minutes will be circulated electronically and voted on.
Lynch outlined some of the issues and goals concerning organization of the CHI Conference management, as stated in a draft document circulated to the EC. A primary objective is to move volunteer efforts mainly into areas of technical content, where their expertise is most valuable. Other efforts will be handed off to professionals and staff. In the past, co-chairs and others have taken on time-consuming tasks rather than focusing on policy and logistics. This is not the best use of their time. Additional goals are to support in-house, institutional memory of past activities; to create a more stable structure, and to reduce the difficulty and complexity of the conference efforts. Reorganization should be in place for the CHI 98 Conference. Lynch solicited comments and will be circulating a revised version in three weeks.
Williams has made additional progress on setting up the CHI 96 Tutorials On Tour program.The current plan calls for the tour to be sponsored by the Britsh HCI Group, in cooperation with ACM SIGCHI, and to be supported by a corporate underwriter. A portion of the profits, if any, will go into the SIGCHI Development Fund. The Committee recommended that the tour be evaluated from the perspectives of attendees, the instructors, and the organizers, and that a report be submitted to the EC following the event.
The next conference call meeting of the EC will be June 26, 11:30 EST, 16:30 GMT.
Mike Atwood, Chair (non-voting)
Guy Boy, Co-Chair
Jim Miller, Past Chair
Barbee Teasley, Vice Chair for Communications (minutes)
Gary Perlman, Vice Chair for Publications
John Karat, Member, Advisory Board
Robin Jeffries, Member, Advisory Board
Diane Darrow
Steven Pemberton, Editor-in-Chief, SIGCHI Bulletin
(These minutes were created on 7/24/96, modified on 8/17/96 and approved by a vote of 6-0-0 on 8/19/96.)
Minutes
Comments on the minutes of the May 29 Executive Committee (EC) meeting were solicited. The revised minutes will be circulated and voted on electronically. In the future, the minutes will use both Eastern Standard Time and the Universal Time Code (UTC) to express clock times. This should reduce potential confusion resulting from daylight savings time adjustments. A web site that displays the current time in UTC is http:// tycho.usno.navy.mil/what.html
Perlman noted that SIGGRAPH is no longer promoting the sale of the CHI videos formerly sold by ACM through them. Perlman made a motion that: SIGCHI will obtain the master prints of the CHI videos currently held by SIGGRAPH, and will begin channeling sales of these videos directly through SIGCHI. Jeffries seconded. The motion passed by unanimous vote, 5-0-0.
Perlman has been overseeing revisions to the SIGCHI Web pages. Feedback has been solicited via email to the EC members.
The committee were reminded that a significant amount of preparation and reading will be required in order to make the next EC meeting as productive as possible. Darrow will send a packet of materials to each member prior to the meeting. The meeting will be held Friday, July 26 through Sunday, July 28 in Toulouse, France.
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Vol.28 No.4, October 1996 |
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