SIGDOC Newsletter
March 2008 :: Volume 9, Number 1
Our Members
Notes from the Chair
Dear SIGDOC Members,
The ACM Special Interest Group General Board (SGB) congratulated SIGDOC last month on its operational performance and found it viable to continue its status for the next 2 years. The SGB requested, however, that SIGDOC undertake an evaluation of its decrease in membership and conference participation during this time, and that our board present its conclusions as part of our Spring 2010 program review.
For those of you who couldn't be there for my presentation on February 11th, 2008 (:-), I provided the SGB with the following overview of SIGDOC. Our SIG had been found viable in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004. We had redesigned our SIG Website for the first time in many years in 2005. And we had officially changed our SIG name from Computer Documentation (1997-2003) to Design of Communication (2004-present). Those of you with impressive organizational memories will recall that our original name was Special Interest Group for Systems Documentation (1882-1996, although the SIG's start-up was in 1975).
Our "mission statement" currently reads, "Emphasizes study and publication of processes, methods, and technologies for communicating and designing artifacts such as printed and online information documentation designs and applications, multimedia and Web-based environments." Our fund balance is up 36 percent from 2004, and we have generated small surpluses on our conferences since 2004.
In terms of membership and volunteer activities, we are experiencing positive and negative trends. Volunteer growth is good in that we had a full slate for our SIG election, we added an Information Director-Webmaster and three new Members-at-Large to our board, we have great academic-industry balance on our board, and over the last several years have been joined by numerous enthusiastic European colleagues. However, our SIG membership has decreased 18 percent since 2004, from 374 members in 2002 to 233 members in 2007. Thus, in some ways, it was no surprise that the SGB recommended we evaluate our membership and conference numbers.
We are currently in the process of creating a membership development committee to work on growing the membership and to help promote and publicize the benefits available to SIGDOC members. If you are interested in helping with this important effort, please e-mail me (brad_m@unity.ncsu.edu) or our Vice-Chair, Rob Pierce (robertp@us.ibm.com). We need representatives from both academia and industry to ensure the on-going success of our SIG.
One way we're investing in our membership is by planning to re-initiate the SIG's flagship journal, previously entitled _Journal for Computer Documentation_ (we're in the process of entertaining new names that better reflect the SIG's current focus). To that end, Dr. Michael Albers (albersm@ecu.edu) is actively soliciting members to see who is interested in serving as an editorial board member of the journal. Mike has been exploring alternative names for the journal, including ACM transactions on design of communication, ... on design of information and communication, ... on information interaction and communication, ... on human-information interaction and communication, and so on.
If anyone is passionate about a potential name for the journal, please don't hesitate to write me (brad_m@unity.ncsu.edu) or Mike with suggestions!
Finally, please mark your calendars for our conference next September in Lisbon, Portugal! The ACM SIGDOC 2008 Website for our upcoming 26th International Conference on Design of Communication being held from September 22nd until September 24th, 2008, is up and ready for viewing: http://www.sigdoc2008.net. Conference planning is underway and the call for papers is currently online! *DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS IS MAY 2ND, 2008*
Lots of volunteer and service opportunities are listed above, particularly in terms of our membership and journal activities. E-mail me if you have any questions or would like to be involved and, in the meantime, hope you and yours are as excited by the upcoming Spring as I am!
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 SIGDOC '08 Chair, Carlos Costa
The 26th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication (http://sigdoc2008.net) will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, on September 22-24, 2008, at the ISCTE (http://www.iscte.pt).
Lisbon
Lisbon (Lisboa in Portuguese) is the capital city of Portugal, located in the on the western coast of the European continent. Lisbon is a very old town; it used to be a Phoenician, Lusitanian, Roman, Visigotic and Moorish town. In the XII century it was conquered by the Portuguese king and soon became the capital city of this kingdom.
It was also from here that in the XV century, the first Europeans reached South America, southern Africa, and eastern Asia.
This is the reason why Portuguese is a language that is the official language in countries spread out around the world - Europe (Portugal), South America (Brazil), Africa (Angola, Mozambique, Guine Bissau, Cabo Verde and São Tomé e Principe), Asia and Oceania (East Timor), being also still spoken in Macau and some cities in India.
But Lisbon is not only about the past; it is also the “Lisbon Strategy” and “Treaty of Lisbon”, two important milestones in the European construction. The Lisbon Strategy, also known as the Lisbon Agenda or Lisbon Process, is an action and development plan for the European Union. The “Treaty of Lisbon” is a tentative of European constitution.
SIGDOC 2008
The 26th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication is one of the most international SIGDOC conferences, not just as consequence of taking place outside the USA, but also because it involves members of the program committee representing virtually all the continents.
As long as there is a heterogeneous group of participants in nationality, background profession and research interests, the conference will be a great opportunity for raising new subjects:
- Professions in DOC
- Academic programs in DOC
- Translation and multilingual in the DOC.
The first topic, Professions in DOC, is especially important, as long as SIGDOC is increasing in size and involving more people, with almost everybody outside from the traditional technical documentation field. This topic is also related to the discussion of academic programs. In fact, SIGDOC is a group opportunity for professional association that may play an important role in the definition of academic curricula.
English is “lingua franca” in technical and academic environments. But written and spoken language is an important issue in the SIGDOC. This environment, where English is not the native language, is an adequate place to discuss the issue of translation and localization.
Following previous editions of SIGDOC conferences, in SIGDOC 2008, researchers and practitioners will exchange information in other areas relevant to the design of communication. During the three days of the conference the following topics may be subjects of discussion:
Design of communication components
- Text in the design of communication
- Graphic in the design of communication
- Hypermedia in the design of communication
- Multimedia in the design of communication
- Content management
Design of communication applications fields
- Documentation
- DOC in Software Applications
- DOC and Games
- Designing Web Apps and Web Information
- DOC and E-learning
- Hard copy information
- Designing Multimodal Information
- Managing Knowledge Online
- Seeking behaviour
Design of communication as research field
- Modelling DOC
- The Rhetoric of Science and Technology
- Information Design theory
Design of communication and development
- Genre analysis
- User-centred design and activity-centred design
- Design, development, and dissemination of online information
- Design, development, and dissemination of hardcopy information
- Information architectures
- Visualizing Work
Design of communication evaluation
- Effectiveness and efficiency evaluation
- Human computer interaction
- Ergonomics
- Usability engineering
- Usability - Theory, Methods, and Experiences
- Accessibility
- Visualizing Work
Design of communication and systems
- Author tools
- XML applications
- Intelligent Agent approaches
Design of communication and Multilanguage Environment
- Software translation
- Multi-languages applications
- Document translation
Design of communication and User and Technical Documentation
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Effectiveness of User Communication
-
Effectiveness of Technical documentation
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Document translation
- Documentation production
-
Writing and Documentation
Design of communication and profession
- Teaching and Learning DOC
- Design of communication professions
The 26th ACM SIGDOC aims to be once more a conference where practitioners and academics can communicate, despite their heterogeneous backgrounds and experiences, in a international and cosmopolitan environment.
We hope to have your presence in September!
See you soon!
Carlos
Carlos J. Costa, Ph. D.
Departamento de Ciências e Tecnologias de Informação (http://dcti.iscte.pt)
Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (http://iscte.pt)
Lisboa - Portugal
SIGDOC '08 Program Chair
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