Awards that were given out

A very brief summary for the key issues that the membership of that SIG will have to deal with in the next 2-3 years

We introduced low student membership fees to the SIG to encourage student members. We started a diversity workshop at ES Week 2010 to help nurture a more diverse set of researchers and practitioners in the field.

SIGCAS’ 2009 award recipients were Cem Kaner, “Making A Difference”, presented at ACM’s Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conference; and Flo Appel “Outstanding Service”, presented at her

home institution of Saint Xavier University. The nomination process for the 2010 SIGCAS "Making a Difference" and "Outstanding Service" awards is in progress. Mark Perry, SIGCAS Executive Committee member, is responsible for its oversight.
2. Significant papers on new areas that were published in proceedings

3. Significant programs that provided a springboard for further technical efforts

Although SIGCAS does not sponsor our own conferences, we have been proactive in forging relationships with other organizations, and continue to find venues in which to present and publicize the good work of our membership: Our very popular Birds of a Feather (BOF) session, held at the past 3-4 SIGCSE Symposia, provides us with a formal and visible presence for a population that is interested in the work of SIGCAS. And, we continue to present SIGCAS panels, workshops and tutorials at CCSC conferences (Consortium for Computer Science in Colleges).

SIGCAS has also continued its collegial relationship with the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT), and has again published (in the December 2009 Computers & Society) a collection of INSEIT (CEPE) conference papers. The issue was guest-edited by SIGCAS-INSEIT member Herman Tavani. We will also be publishing a special issue of Computers & Society this coming September (2010) in which we highlight a collection of papers from the 2010 Ethicomp Conference, an international computer ethics biennial.

Additionally, two promising collaborations are in process:

• 
  This past year, we have been involved in discussions with the ACM’s Committee on Professional Ethics (CPE) about the possibility of collaborating on a pre-conference mini-conference at the March 2011 SIGCSE Symposium. We have been in contact with the SIGCSE Symposium leadership regarding space availability for this event. SIGCAS members Don Gotterbarn & Keith Miller are already committed to delivering a computer ethics pedagogy workshop through CPE as part of this effort.
  
• 
  We have been approached by IEEE’S Society for the Social Impact of Technology (SSIT) to collaborate with them on their 2011 ISTAS conference, currently scheduled for May 2011 in Chicago. We would like to take our relationship with SSIT to a higher level, and see this as an important opportunity. However, we understand that the ACM-IEEE relationship is a bit complex, so we will be consulting with SIG services to ensure that we proceed in accordance with ACM protocol.
  

July 2011 will signal the arrival of new SIGCAS leadership, resulting from the 2011 election. Flo Appel will be stepping down from her position of Chair and will not seek re-election, and it is unclear at this time whether the other Executive Committee members will seek re-election. Diana Burley, George Washington University, will be completing her first 3-year term as Vice-Chair; Mark Perry, University of Western Ontario, will be completing his second 3-year term as Executive Committee Member-at-large. Therefore, it is essential that new leadership continue to be nurtured and that the new officers are able to “hit the ground running.”

The challenges identified over the past years continue to exist. While we have made sustained and important inroads into collaboration at the leadership level with other organizations, we continue to struggle to mobilize our membership to become more actively involved in a sustained way in these liaisons.

We have been successful in recruiting and retaining a talented and effective editorial board, whose members work well together and continue to work on the content, format and character of the newsletter. Timely publication of the newsletter has been achieved. However, we do not have an editorial board member yet willing to step forward as editor-in-chief, and this puts an undue burden on the SIG leadership to edit and produce the newsletter every quarter. Our newsletter, online since 2002, must be stabilized from the perspective of both its editorial board and its publication. We continue to discuss plans to leverage the online character of the newsletter.

Our website requires ongoing work to become more interactive, and has proven to be a valuable resource. It has been effective in its ability to mobilize our membership. We routinely receive responses to the “Volunteer Opportunities” page, and this is gradually resulting in a more active & engaged membership.

SIGCHI FY’10 ANNUAL REPORT

July 2009 - June 2010

Submitted by Gerrit C. van der Veer, President

1. Awards

1.1 SIGCHI made the following awards in 2009-2010:

• 
  Lifetime Achievement Award: Lucy Suchman
  
• 
  Lifetime Achievement in Practice: Karen Holtzblatt
  
• 
  CHI Academy:  Susanne Bodker, Mary Czerwinski, Austin Henderson, David Kieras, Arnie Lund, Larry Tesler, Shumin Zhai
  
• 
  Social Impact: Award: Ben Bederson, Allison Druin
  
• 
  Lifetime Service Award: Mary Czerwinski    
  

• 
  "Best of CHI Awards for Papers":
  

• 
  Best of CHI Awards for Notes:
  

In order to better anticipate the possibility of SIGCHI events (including the CHI conference) in Asia, we need to have a clearer understanding of the actuality of HCI development in Asian countries. Capturing an understanding of HCI knowledge and practice that exists in Asia would be useful in formulating a strategy for using SIGCHI resources with clear targets to help Asian HCI communities mature and in building/strengthening ties with them.

Aiming at this, we are organizing a SIGCHI sponsored Workshop on HCI in Asia (a three-day event to be held in Beijing, China) which will attempt to better know about the HCI situations in Asian countries in the following aspects:

• 
  The current status of HCI development in academia, industry, education, organizations etc.
  
• 
  The problems and challenges faced in HCI development in Asian communities.
  
• 
  Where help from external bodies like SIGCHI can make a difference and how
  
• 
  How SIGCHI can better involve local HCI communities in the global SIGCHI community and help them mature in Asia - specifically what are the areas SIGCHI needs to work on with priority and what are the feasible approaches and achievable goals?
  

This is not an open conference, but a targeted workshop. We will invite representatives from Asian countries/regions (21) and from the SIGCHI committee (6), totaling 27, to attend the workshop. The following represents our current thinking about the distribution of the invited participants:

• 
  1 for each country/region, 2 for countries/regions with bigger HCI community, 5 for the host country China
  
• 
  Representing local SIGCHI chapters or HCI organizations if possible
  
• 
  Representing different disciplines: computer science, design, psychology, ergonomics etc.
  

The workshop will be held in Beijing, China, March 25-27^th, 2011. This is shortly after the ACM SIGCHI Sponsored CSCW 2011 conference in Hangzhou, and will attempt to incorporate lessons learned from that event. SIGCHI has budgeted approximately $50K for this event to cover travel and meeting expenses for the participants.

• 
  A report on the state of the HCI field in the Asian region.
  
• 
  Key areas identified to be worked on by SIGCHI towards staging future SIGCHI events in Asia and the initial action plans for such events.
  

ACM SIGCHI is the primary sponsor. Additional support is being solicited from CCF (Chinese Computer Federation), and from the local chapter SIGCHI China.

Communities are collections of people that are associated with SIGCHI who share a common interest. Communities may be geographic (many local SIGs would want to become a community) or they may be topical (UIST, CSCW, design, games, health care etc.) A community is a collection of people who, by banding together, can speak with a common voice within SIGCHI; can more effectively organize the activities that are of interest to them; and can obtain services that support their activities.

The first thing that a community provides is an identity and an organizational structure. This structure may be very lightweight but it allows the community to elect leaders who can help direct activities, rally involvement and speak for the community.

SIGCHI can provide a wide range of infrastructure services to communities that can simplify their organization and activities. Potentially these services could include mailing/membership list management, elections, dues collection, room scheduling at CHI, badge ribbons, activities into conference program, web hosting, blogs, wikis, conference organization assistance and budgetary/financial services.

Communities can also be a way of exerting influence on SIGCHI so that their voices do not get drowned out in the larger organization. A community may have a leader who can speak for that community. As communities become larger they could potentially have additional influence such as: nomination of CHI conference associate chairs, special conference venues targeted to particular interests, nominations of TOCHI editors, and adjunct chairs who serve on the SIGCHI on the executive committee.

SIGCHI would be better able to serve its increasingly diverse membership. Communities and their membership would help SIGCHI recognize, adapt too and facilitate new trends spawned from the grass-roots of our membership. Communities can also serve as a great place to groom the next generation of leadership for the larger organization.

Communities are formed by ordinary members of SIGCHI banding together around an issue, interest, or location and then inviting others to join them. As a community grows, the infrastructure and influence of that community can grow with it.

1. 
   • Web-based mechanism for groups of SIGCHI members to form new communities
   
2. 
   • 5 SIGCHI members are required to form a community with one of these designated as temporary chair
   
3. 
   • Membership is not limited to SIGCHI members, but only SIGCHI members can vote.
   
4. 
   • New communities specify a name and a one paragraph mission statement.
   
5. 
   • Final approval for new communities rests with the SIGCHI Executive Committee in negotiation with the organizers.
   

1. 
   • In general, communities are responsible for their own functions and interests; however, ultimate fiscal and procedural authority rests with the SIGCHI Executive Committee.
   
2. 
   • At minimum a community should have a chair who is elected (after a short term under the temporary chair designated at community creation). A community can then define its own officer structure including additional elected and/or appointed positions.
   
3. 
   • Elections are web-based among SIGCHI members of the community and are held every two years.
   
4. 
   • An individual can only be a voting member of at most 5 communities. However, any individual can be an affiliate member of as many communities as they want. The purpose of the voting member limit is to ensure that voting members are actively engaged in the community.
   
5. 
   • A community is dissolved when it goes for more than 12 months with fewer than 5 voting members.
   
6. 
   • Non-SIGCHI members of a community can be removed with cause by the community chair or other body of community officers.
   

1. 
   • At minimum communities are provided with web-based elections, an email list to all members (optionally moderated), and a web site for posting community-based information.
   
   1. 
      • Future services may include o Social media resources such as: wiki, blog, twitter feed . . .
      
   2. 
      o Resources for organizing conferences and workshops
      
   3. 
      o Easy surveys of members
      

4. 
   • Future services to large communities may include o Influence over CHI conference events
   
5. 
   o Influence over SIGCHI related publications such as interactions and TOCHI
   
6. 
   o Budgetary assistance from SIGCHI
   
7. 
   o Membership on the SIGCHI Executive Committee
   

1. 
   • It is hoped that the specialized conferences sponsored by SIGCHI will be each be backed by a CHI Community.
   
2. 
   • The associated community will provide the year-to-year oversight of the conference and its finances and policies. This will give SIGCHI an ongoing point of contact for conferences.
   
3. 
   • The associated community will also give its members election and discussion opportunities as part of the governance of their conference.
   
4. 
   
   

1. 
   • Local chapters can become communities but need not do so.
   
2. 
   • For many local chapters it is hoped that the communities mechanism will provide services and infrastructure that will assist in community activities.
   
3. 
   • However, local chapters that have independent organization and infrastructure may decide that the communities mechanism is not helpful to them.
   

1. 
   • CHI Conference communities have offered subgroups of attendees with opportunities to influence the conference.
   
2. 
   • The current model for CHI Conference communities provides little year-to-year organizational structure to maintain the vibrancy of their initiatives.
   
3. 
   • It is hoped that SIGCHI Communities will provide the ongoing volunteer structure behind the role currently played by CHI Conference communities.
   
4. 
   • Potentially, new CHI Conference communities will emerge from highly successful SIGCHI communities.
   

• 
  Approve short statement about CHI public policy and add to SIGCHI web site
  
• 
  Create list server for CHI Public Policy (request submitted, thanks to Fred)
  
• 
  Plan on holding 3 public policy-related events at CHI 2011
  
• 
  Started to form a committee of international representatives related to CHI policy issues
  
• 
  Responded with suggestions to the USACM request for comments on the National Academies Report
  

SIGCOMM has also recognized Ratul Mahajan with its Rising Star award; he received his award and delivered a keynote address at the CoNEXT conference held in December 2009 in Rome.

- attempting to build CoNext up to a level that it as seen as a peer conference to the Sigcomm conference

- ensuring high quality program committees and transparency in their operation, something we hope the TSC can facilitate

- fostering journal publication as an alternative to the flagship conference.