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As the CHI conference deadline for papers has passed, it is now
time to think about some of the other ways to increase
participation from an international audience in the CHI
conferences. One of our goals with the CHI99 SIG program is to
increase participation from OUTSIDE the US and Canada. There
has long been a perception that the CHI conference is "American"
and we want to change that. To make computers TRULY usable, we
need the input from people all over the world! We need the
cross-fertilization that comes of a variety of cultural and
national perspectives.
SIGs are a great way for individual researchers and practionners
to build community. This can be very important for people
outside the U.S. and Canada who may have a geographical
community but want to build, say, an intellectual, practionner,
or research community independent of geography. Because of
their informal structure, and focus on discussion, SIGs are a
great way to get to meet new people from all over the world who
are interested in or doing work in a particular topic area, and
can provide a basis for new collaborations, new friends, new
perspectives.
As people with an international perspective, you are in a unique
and wonderful position to help us get a wider representation of
folks from around the world. SIGs are a great way for people
who may not have participated before to have a chance to be part
of the program in a less formal, but no less important way.
So, I am writing, along with Garett Dworman, my co-chair. to ask
you to encourage your students, co-workers, friends, and other
people in your region to submit a SIG proposal to us. And you
might consider submitting a SIG proposal yourself. The deadline
isn't until January 8, 1999, so there still is plenty of time to
do this.
Along with "traditonal" SIGs on a specific area of interest, we
encourage you and your colleagues to think about things that
might be interesting "international" topics. Here are some
possible ideas (not to limit you, but to give you a starting
place):
-- a SIG about the challenges of getting HCI research going in
an environment (academic, industry or whatever) that doesn't yet
understand even what it IS, let alone why it matters.
-- a SIG on the current 'state' of the HCI community in your
region -- for instance, are they mostly in universities, or
where? what kinds of things are they focused on? what are some
of their main challenges in terms of infrastructure, policy,
etc.?
-- a SIG on international language issues and what folks are
trying to do to solve them
-- a SIG on intra-continent, inter-continent or international
cooperation, projects, or research, and the opportunity,
challenges, and experiences of participants in doing this
-- a SIG on an area of research which seems particularly
important in a specific region (perhaps it has particular
economic or political importance to that region, or affects a
primary industry that is based in that region) (e.g., mining,
agriculture, lumber production, etc.)
-- a SIG on HCI's relevance to developing nations
-- a SIG on HCI's potential contribution to environmental
issues, either international (such as rain forest deforestation)
or more regional (such as controlling the local impact of
concentrated feed lots)
-- a SIG about how CHI theory and assumptions change when one
does not assume an English-speaking, North American user group.
It seems to us that most HCI research is done with this audience
in mind. How much changes for audiences with different cultures
and languages. For example, how much of HCI assumes
left-to-right text? Does this assumption affect cognitive
behavior? Should the Windows "Start" button be in the lower
right for right-to-left reading cultures?
or..... give it a whirl in your mind, think about the people in
your region, discuss it with some of them, and let me know. It
is fine to encourage people to submit -- just make sure they
know that submissions will be reviewed, so don't let them think
that their SIG will automatically be accepted. HOWEVER, that
said, both Garett and I have a particular interest in increasing
international participation in CHI, so we will certainly take
the fact that a SIG is being submitted from outside the
"traditional" arena, both subject-wise and geography-wise.
There is more information about the process at:
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi99/call/sigs.html
If you or anyone in your region has a question about this,
please feel free to contact us at:
[log in to unmask]
We are also interested in talking to people who would be
interested in and willing to serve as reviewers for the SIG
proposals. We plan to ask people from the reviewer pool as
well, but want to supplement it with additional international
representatives. If this is interesting to you, let us know.
We would hope that this reviewing task would be significantly
easier than reviewing of papers, since the proposals are shorter
and the criteria are different.
Thanks for all your help!
--Susan Dray and Garett Dworman, SIGs co-chairs, CHI99
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