Issue
Article
Vol.30 No.4, October 1998
Article
Issue
Issue |
Article |
Vol.30 No.4, October 1998 |
Article |
Issue |
As described by Stefano Levialdi, the conference General Chair, the objectives of AVI'98 were to embrace both formal methods and concrete applications pertaining to information visualization, graphical and pictorial communication tools, virtual reality, multimedia, the Web, visual languages, adaptive interfaces, and metaphors. All this, and more, was brought together under a common interest in the design, evaluation, and management of visual interfaces at AVI'98.
As usual for AVI, the heroes were Stefano Levialdi, M. Francesca Costabile, Laura Tarantino, Tiziana Catarci, and Giuseppe Santucci, the conference organizers. Their teamwork was impressive. This hard-working crew impeccably orchestrated the program and all the special arrangements -- the program schedule, the proceedings, accommodations, transportation, entertainment, tour buses, meals, and, of course, the good wine.
They built the entire conference, from the technical program to the social agenda, on their formula of success established via previous AVI conferences. I don't know how they do it without spending most of their time between conferences setting up the next.
The medieval town of L'Aquila (the Eagle) lies in the south-central Italian region of Abruzzo, halfway between Rome to the west and the Adriatic coast to the east. L'Aquila is a prototypical middle-Italian medieval town where ancient architecture, statuary, and fountains are more commonplace than fast food service here in the States. Abruzzo, once known for witches, wizards, and snake charmers, was apropos as a backdrop for appreciating the mystique and artistry that partner with technology in the best visual interfaces. The conference venue, an elegantly restored medieval castle called Castello Cinque Centesco, continued the courtly AVI tradition of a cloistered environment.
As we rush forward, helping to create future shock through technology that is here today and on to something newer tomorrow, the contrast with the steadfast permanence of our surroundings in L'Aquila was obvious. As Stefano Levialdi pointed out in his opening remarks, the Università dell'Aquila was founded before Columbus set out on his adventure.
Yet, the people living and working in that same setting of medieval architecture lent a reminder that, although we were working hard in the conference to propel the state-of-the-art forward toward the 21st century, some things don't really change -- the enjoyment of interaction with friends and colleagues, the exchange of ideas, and the pleasure of sharing good food and, of course, good wine.
There was something for everyone in the information-packed, single-stream schedule (as is the custom of AVI), starting with pre-conference tutorials, and then interleaving papers, discussion panels, and demo presentations of tools and systems. The opening session on visualizing information spaces included topics such as design methods, graphical abstraction, information density, and intelligent visualization. A session on navigating in information spaces covered information navigation and browsers for very large document spaces.
Two sessions about "working out usability" attended to task-centered evaluation and re-engineering, analysis of error characteristics, usability of visual formalisms, simple interaction added to static visualization, heuristic evaluation of hypermedia, and visualization of hypermedia links.
Presenters in the session on interaction modalities reported on multimodal communication among agents and the power of multimodal interaction. Under the heading of designing multimedia we heard about the craft of movement in interaction, video browsing, video analysis for temporal trends, and multimedia semantic templates. The following session on enhancing visual interaction covered group interactions, concept maps, visual figure captions, and visual query languages. I was particularly pleased with the eclectic nature of topics, including a compelling panel discussion on the legal, ethical, and cultural aspects of gathering masses of multimedia subject material from the museums, galleries, and cities of the world.
The demo presentations were too numerous and broad in coverage to list here. Subject areas included Web applications, VR, visual query tools for database systems, cultural heritage analysis tools, visual programming, agent-based environments, and virtual museums.
The conference was nicely punctuated by three invited speakers: Wendy McKay on augmented reality, this reporter on remote usability evaluation, and Moshe Zloof on end-user programming. Wendy's appropriately visual presentation stated a compelling case for augmented reality as a useful way to merge electronics into the physical world, harnessing new VR-related technology for real-world tasks. Moshe Zloof's talk was a link to segue into the Visual Database Systems (VDB4) conference, following immediately at the same location.
The size and interactive nature of AVI has been remarked upon in previous AVI trip reports (Shneiderman, Badre, & Santos, 1994; Pirolli, 1997). I must repeat the remarks, because they are so true. Small conferences have the potential for a distinct edge in collegiality and AVI'98 took full advantage. There were ample discussions after most talks, pursuing issues in depth, sharing common experiences in the are of the talk, and teasing out future work topics. My strong impression was that these discussions were beneficial to both the speakers and the audience. A few times I even perceived that rare (at conferences) feeling of "connection", in which the presenter and audience participants were moving ideas forward in a brief and extemporaneous collaboration. Satisfying.
I was also glad to see active participation by students and those who were recently students. Unlike the scenario I have witnessed on occasion at larger conferences, of the "established" researchers preaching to the "uninitiated", I perceived the discussions at AVI were egalitarian, with students and professors, researchers and practitioners, academics and industrial representatives interacting on an equal footing.
As good as were the content, presentation, and organization of the conference itself, I feel I have to give equal billing to the social aspects. At AVI they play a role in cultivating collegiality that does not generally come with larger conferences. After traveling over 24 hours without sleep, I was anxious to rest the night before the conference began, but there was a dinner for invited guests that wasn't to be refused; and that set the pace for the duration. The first day of the conference concluded with a musical recital featuring harpsichord, harp, and soprano vocalist with a repertoire from classical to jazz. The music was followed by refreshments and, of course, good wine.
The second night was a Night to Remember! First, the grottoes of Stiffe's Cave. From the entrance next to a lovely waterfall on side of rocky gorge among the majestic peaks of the Gran Sasso d'Italia, we made our watery excursion deep into karstic caves along an underground river. As we observed the harmony of the visual and sound effects of the water with the conference theme, we topped up on sandwiches and, of course, good wine.
Then it was off to a countryside café/restaurant for dinner. But not until we were entertained by a small troupe of humorous and gymnastic performers. Stu Card's daughter, Gwyneth, stole that show with her intrepid participation. What a good sport!
Dinner, at last! It seems we invented a new healing process: the laying on of food. This under-constrained and lavish multiple-course, multiple-hour gala dinner, spared little opportunity to recover between waves of broad samplings of Abruzzo cuisine, including some unfamiliar (to me) but savory sea creatures and, of course, good wine. It was an imposing feast by any standard and it was a chance to get to know the other attendees, getting updated on the activities of friends and meeting new ones.
Maybe it was a product of the fun and excitement, but to me the wine on the whole seemed younger and lighter than most Italian wine imported to the States. The ubiquitous Trebbiano D'Abruzzo is the defining example of this lightness. Not a pretentious accessory to a status-conscious social setting, it was simply a refreshing accompaniment to the food, company, and entertainment at every turn of the head.
Until AVI '00 (AVI 2000?). Ciao e arrivederci a presto!
Pirolli, P. (1997). Trip Report, AVI '96, An International Workshop. SIGCHI Bulletin, 29 (1), 23-24.
Shneiderman, B., Badre, A., & Santos, P. (1994). Trip Report, AVI '94, An International Workshop. SIGCHI Bulletin, 26 (4), 54-55.
Issue |
Article |
Vol.30 No.4, October 1998 |
Article |
Issue |