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SIGDOC Newsletter
December 2005
:: Volume 6, Number 4
Our Members
Notes from the Chair
Dear SIGDOC Member,
I'm happy to report that your executive board members and this year's
ACM SIGDOC 2006 conference chairs have been enormously busy this fall.
The energies of your volunteer professionals have produced a call for
papers for this year's 24th ACM International Conference on the Design
of Communication (http://www.sigdoc2006.org/) being held from October
18-20, 2006, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where, as program co-chair
John Stamey is fond of saying, "It is ALWAYS sunny, NEVER rains,
and the mean temperature is 73 degrees. Perhaps a stretch, but Myrtle
Beach is definitely a great place for an intellectual vacation!" Indeed,
the ACM SIGDOC 2006 general chair is Shihong Huang (Florida Atlantic
U), the program co-chairs are Rob Pierce (IBM Corp.) and John Stamey
(Coastal Carolina U), the local arrangements chair is Steve Sheel (Coastal
Carolina U), and this year's program committee boasts 28 members from
seven countries (http://www.sigdoc2006.org/pc.html).
So mark your calendars: Paper submissions are due May 26, 2006, and
workshop proposals are due June 9, 2006!
Ashley Williams, as SIGDOC information director, has done an inordinate
amount of work redesigning the SIGDOC Website and encourages all of you
for your input and ideas on how the site can be improved or added to
in order to best represent YOUR organization. During our initial brainstorming
about the Website's contents, we elected to present you with a streamlined
site and to build on that effort to better address your professional
needs and interests. In particular, I'm really excited to see the heightened
presence of invitations to contribute, serve, and volunteer with SIGDOC
-- many of us feel strongly that the organization still remains more
of a best kept secret than we'd like.
And, while I'm on the subject of service and involvement, I did my annual
pre-holiday library run last week and picked up a few books written by
some names you might recognize and colleagues I met and have had the
pleasure of working with over the years through SIGDOC, reminding me
that it's a fantastic organization in many respects. Some holiday reading
you might want to add to your list include:
- Michael Alber's (2004) Communication of complex information:
User goals and information needs for dynamic Web information (Lawrence Erlbaum).
- John
Brockmann's (2004) Twisted rails, sunken ships: The rhetoric of
nineteenth century steamboat and railroad accident investigation
reports,
1833-1879 (Baywood's Technical Communications Series).
- JoAnn Hackos'
(2002) Content management for dynamic Web delivery (Wiley).
- Johndan Johnson-Eilola & Stuart Selber's (Eds.) (2004) Central
works in technical communication (Oxford UP).
- Barbara Mirel's (2003)
Interaction design for complex problem solving (Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier).
All this reminds me of the wonderful Taoist principle of wu-wei: "To
interfere with the life of things means to harm them and oneself....
He who imposes himself has the small, manifest might; he who does not
impose himself has the great, secret might...." Looking forward
to an exciting, unimposing new year!
Happy holidays all,
Brad Mehlenbacher
Associate Professor, Training and Development (ACCE),
Adjunct/Associate Professor, Ergonomics (PSYCH),
and Affiliated Faculty, PhD in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media
NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7801
919.515.6242 (ph)
chair_sigdoc@acm.org (e-mail)
www4.ncsu.edu/~brad_m (url)
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Notes from the Information Director
I am
excited to announce that SIGDOC has a new look for its web site! The
site has several new sections, including:
- a new "About SIGDOC" section ("About"), that
details SIGDOC's mission and areas
of special interest, etc.;
- a new Members section, that posts volunteer
opportunities and member
resources, etc.;
- complete newsletter archives;
- a new "Join SIGDOC" section ("Join"), that identifies
the different types of memberships available, describes how
to join,
what incentives you have to join or to encourage a colleague or peer
to join, etc.;
- a new "SIGDOC Board" section ("Board"),
that provides links to the SIGDOC
by-laws, annual reports by SIGDOC chairs,
and minutes from board meetings.
details about how to contact SIGDOC, for various purposes; and
- a sitemap that provides quick access to all of the site's contents.
I am also excited to announce that the new SIGDOC site will benefit
from usability tests, which Brad Mehlenbacher and Susan Jones have
generously volunteered to conduct, independently. Based on
the results from usability testing, the SIGDOC site will be revised
to
ensure usability
and accessibility.
We also expect to be editing and adding to the
site over time, to ensure that it continues to be a valuable resource
for members. I welcome any comments or reactions to the new site. Please feel
free to write to me at ashleyw@acm.org.
Best wishes,
Ashley Williams,
SIGDOC Secretary/Treasurer
SIGDOC Information Director
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Our Members :: Notes from the SIGDOC 2005 General Chair
I'm very pleased to tell you that the SIGDOC 2005 conference (http://www.sigdoc.org/2005/)
was a great success. The technical program, led by the Program Chair,
Bob Newman, was superb. The technical program consisted of workshops,
paper sessions, and a special award session.
There were three workshops (http://www.sigdoc.org/2005/program/workshops/index.html):
Aspect-Oriented Documentation, Graphical Documentation, and DITA. The
workshops were 90 minutes long. Each workshop covered a unique topic
of interest to SIGDOC members, and provided a valuable venue for an
interactive discussion that is not always possible in a regular paper
presentation.
There were eight paper sessions (http://www.sigdoc.org/2005/program/papers/index.html)
covering topics such as Graphical and Visual Information; Information
Design Principles and Methods; Pervasive Documentation Systems;
Document Authoring, Production, and Management; and Usability. A total
of 24 papers were presented in these sessions.
The social events and local arrangements, managed by Elena Gaura, were
top-notch. For example, a reception at the (very authentic) "White
Friars" pub in downtown Coventry. Conference attendees were also
treated to a wonderful night out at Marlowe's in Stratford-upon-Avon,
for a dinner in Shakespeare's home town. The evening provided a nice
informal atmosphere to meet other conference participants and discuss
the events of the day.
The special award session was for the Diana Award, which is given to
an organization that has collectively made an impact on the field. For
2005, the Diana Award was presented to the British Computer Society (BCS).
Accepting on behalf of the BCS was Professor Wendy Hall of Southampton
University. Prof. Hall is the Past President of the BCS (2003-2004).
I've received many compliments from people who attended the conference,
and these comments reflect very well on the efforts of the SIGDOC 2005
organizing committee, and the SIGDOC organization as a whole. If you
were not able to attend the conference in person, the Proceedings were
published by ACM Press and are available online through the ACM Digital
Library.
There are also some photographs online at http://www.sigdoc.org/2005/photos/index.html.
These are snaps that I took during the SIGDOC 2005 conference events.
Hopefully they'll give you a hint of the value of
attending a SIGDOC conference, which should encourage you to attend
the SIGDOC 2006 conference in Myrtle Beach, SC (http://www.sigdoc.org/
2006/).
See you there!
Scott Tilley
Department of Computer Sciences
Florida Institute of Technology
General Chair, SIGDOC 2005
Immediate Past Chair, ACM SIGDOC
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