This site should be a very beneficial opportunity to increasing the visibility of SIGDOC and as well as the membership.
Please review the topics and the content you see there and feel free to make recommendations or enhance what you see at the Web site yourself. If you want to share your opinions about this new Web site with other members, please send your feedback to me (robertp@us.ibm.com) for inclusion in the next Newsletter.
- Description – Needs content that could be based on what we currently have available on our SIGDOC Web site.
- A link to becoming a SIGDOC Member!
- History
- Links to related SIG sites (SIGCHI, SIGWEB, etc.)
- Add a section for recommended resources? Links to important books, papers and other resources?
- Links to SIGDOC member Web resources?
- Updated information about awards (student competition, etc.)
- Accurate links to information about award winners? (Such as this year's winners. See Susanne Bødker & Pelle Ehn)
- More information (and/or links to more information) on current research and areas of interest that helps demonstrate to potential members the breadth of topics that SIGDOC encompasses – such as “activity” research, HCI, usability, User-centered design, use case diagrams and modeling, retrievability, accessibility, design, graphics, usability, “learnability,” “memorability,” translation/localization/internationalization of content and of user interfaces, Web design, development, and usability, content management, and best practices in design and development of technical content and communication.
- Additional links of relevance in the Reference section.
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Getting ready for Lisbon: Notes from the SIGDOC 08 Chairs
Lisbon’s history
Lisbon (Portuguese: Lisboa) is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It was once a Phoenician town. From the 2nd century BC to 5th century AC, Romans dominated Olissipo. Germans (Suebi,Vandals,Visigothic) conquered and dominated Olisipo from the 5th century until the 8th century. In approximately 711 AC, al-Lisbunah was conquered by the Moorish. But
in 1147 was reconquered by the Christians, this time by Afonso Henriques (the first king of Portugal).
Lisboa was the most important city of Portugal since it was a rich city with a big harbour. Lisboa became virtually the capital city of Portugal since the XIII century, and was often chosen as the place of residence of the king. Lisboa played an important role during the discoveries (XV and XVI centuries). From 1580 to 1640 Spanish kings ruled Portugal.
In the XVIII century, discovery of gold in Brazil allowed the construction of important monuments (Águas Livres Aqueduct, Monastery of Mafra).
In 1755, there was an earthquake in Lisbon. It was so strong that it was reported all over the Europe. Voltaire wrote a long poem, "Poême sur le désastre de Lisbonne". It was also mentioned in "Candide".
During the beginning of the XIX century, Portugal was invaded by Napoleonic troops. Portuguese king flee to Brazil. And for the first time one American (Brazil) territory became the head of an empire that includes European territories (Portugal).
In the 1910 Portugal became a republic. It was from Lisbon town hall that republic was proclaimed.
From 1926 to 1974, Portugal was a dictatorship. The most famous dictator was Salazar. The last Portuguese colonies in India (Damão, Diu and Goa) were annexed by India during Salazar dictatorship.
In 1974 Portugal became a democracy. All African colonies became independent (Cabo-Verde, Guine Bissau, Angola, Mozambique, Sao-Tome e Principe). East Timor was annexed by Indonesia and Macau became a Chinese special region.
Interesting places to visit in Lisboa
- Roman spa under the city (not open to the public)
- Lisbon Castle (Saint George Castle)
- Cathedral (Romanic XII century)
- Jerónimos Monastery (Manuelin Style late gothic and Renaissance XVI century) (the SIGDOC08 banquet will be near at CCB)
- Belém Tower (Manuelin Style late gothic and Renaissance XVI century)
- Carmo Convent (Ruined gothic church)
- Águas Livres Aqueduct (XVIII century)
- Lisbon Oceanarium (1998)
- Discoveries Mark (1960)
- Ancian art Museu
- Tiles Museum (Madre de Deus Church)
- Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (Gulbenkian Foundation, arts, charity, education and science)
Visiting Lisbon
Around Lisbon, there are some interesting places to visit, such as Sintra (Village Castle and Pena Castle), and the Monastery of Mafra (used as inspiration to the Nobel Prize Jose Saramago, Memorial do Convento (Baltasar and Blimunda) (1982)
In the 15th century, Prince Henry the Navigator ordered his explorers to bring back to Portugal any exotic fruits, nuts, and plants from new lands. As a result, the Age of Discovery dramatically affected cooking in Portugal and around the world. Today, naturally, Portuguese food varies from region to region, but fresh fish and shellfish are found on virtually every menu. The national dish is "bacalhau," dried, salted cod. The Portuguese have been obsessed with it since the early 16th century, when their fishing boats reached Newfoundland. The sailors salted and sun-dried their catch to make it last the long journey home, and today there are said to be 365 different ways of preparing it, one for each day of the year.
You can always go to a café for a coffee (with a Pastel de Nata (custard tart)), a refreshing drink, or a light meal. In restaurants or cafés, a coffe (café) is always an expresso.
In many restaurants, you can order typical Portuguese dishes, starting with "caldo verde" (a soup with potato, shredded cabbage, and chunks of sausage), then bacalhau (cod fish), sardinhas assadas (sardines), or cozido a portuguesa (very strong meat dish). With a meat dish is recommended Alentejo red wine; with fish you can try white wine or vinho verde.
For dessert, order a variety of cheese (such as queijo da serra, ilha, serpa, or azeitao) and arroz doce (cinnamon-flavored rice pudding) or Flan, or crème caramel. In the end you may drink a bagaceira (brandy) or a sweet Porto. But you must not forget a bica (coffe expresso).
At night, going to hear Fado is always a good choice. There are many casas de fado (Fado restaurants) in Alfama and Bairro Alto. Amalia Rodrigues in the 20th century who made Fado known beyond Portugal, performing all over Europe, Japan, South America, and even in the United States, in New York's "La Vie en Rose" in the 1950s. She's been credited with defining the style of the music, and when she died in 1999, the government declared three days of national mourning and awarded her a state funeral. As a national icon, she is buried in Lisbon's National Pantheon.
If you go to SIGDOC08 website you can see some pictures of Lisboa and hear Fado.
But it is much better living the experience and coming to Lisbon.
We hope to meet you in Lisbon to SIGDOC 2008.
Manuela Aparicio
(SIGDOC 2008 General co-Chair)
Carlos Costa
(SIGDOC 2008 Program Chair)
(The 26th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication (http//sigdoc2008.net) will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, in September 22-24, 2008 in ISCTE (http://www.iscte.pt).)
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