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SIGDOC Newsletter
September 2003
:: Volume 4, Number 3
Our Members :: Notes from the Chair
Dear SIGDOC Member,
I'm not a technical writer; I'm a faculty member in a computer science
department with a research focus of software engineering in general,
and system evolution in particular. To be successful, system evolution
requires that developers first understand how the current system works,
so that they can make changes to the source code in a disciplined
manner. For the developer, internal documentation can help them
understand the functional nature and high-level design of complicated
programs. In other words, the critical role that documentation plays
in
modern computing systems is very clear to me. This is not documentation
in the traditional sense of user guides of reference manuals, but it
is
documentation nevertheless.
Unfortunately, the importance of documentation and the benefits of
SIGDOC membership are under-appreciated in most computer science and
software engineering departments. As the new Chair of SIGDOC, one of
my
priorities will be to improve the awareness of SIGDOC beyond its
traditional audience of technical writers, and to increase
participation by academics, programmers, and computer industry
professionals. I would also strive to strengthen the interchange
between SIGDOC and related groups within the ACM (such as SIGSOFT) and
within other organizations (such as the IEEE Computer Society).
Working with me in this endeavor are the other newly elected officers
of the SIGDOC Board. They are Michael Priestly of IBM Canada as
Vice-Chair, and Michael Albers of the University of Memphis as Secretary
and Treasurer. Of course, we will continue to rely on the knowledge
and experience of the outgoing SIGDOC Board members. In
particular, the ex-Chair, Kathy Haramundanis of Hewlett-Packard, who
is a wealth of
information and a very gracious person. On behalf of all SIGDOC
members, I'd like to thank her for her tremendous service to the
community as Chair from 1997-2003.
I have been very fortunate to enjoy a long relationship with SIGDOC,
dating back to my first conference in Chicago in 1991. Since then, I've
had several papers published in the SIGDOC conference proceedings, I
have served as a member of the SIGDOC Program Committee a few times,
and I was the Program Chair for the 2001 conference in Santa Fe. I
believe that my experience with SIGDOC has been extremely beneficial
for my personal growth and my professional career.
As current SIGDOC Chair, I will work with the Board and all our members
to increase our impact on the profession. But I need your help. I would
urge you to get more involved with SIGDOC activities in the coming
months and years. A great way of starting is by participating in the
upcoming SIGDOC 2003 conference from Oct. 12-15 in San Francisco. See
www.sigdoc2003.cs.uvic.ca for more information about the exciting
program that the organizing committee has prepared.
This is your organization. Please drop me a line at stilley@cs.fit.edu with your thoughts. See you in San Francisco!
Scott Tilley
SIGDOC Chair
Department of Computer Sciences
Florida Institute of Technology
Melbourne, FL 32901
stilley@cs.fit.edu
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