From the Chair's Desk
Pawan Vora, pvora@uswest.com
This is my first column as the chair of the Internet Technical Group (ITG). I'll use this space to keep you apprised of the "happenings" within the ITG.
I believe, we, the ITGians, have come a long way. As you may know, we started at the beginning of this year to form the Internet Technical Group (ITG). We started with a different model than many other technical groups within the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society:
- We offered membership for free.
- We got started before getting the "desired" interest in terms of number of members; although the rate at which our membership was growing at the beginning of this year, it seemed obvious that we would get more than sufficient interest in the ITG.
- We registered online (almost exclusively).
- We decided to provide our newsletter via the web (cheaper, more timely, and more dynamic than a hard copy newsletter).
- We didn't wait for consensus
- We focused on doing and continuously improving.
- We got volunteers based on their enthusiasm rather than a formal voting process.
- We got our Web site up and running within a few weeks of deciding to form a technical group.
Was this over-confidence and/or arrogance on our part? Not at all! We sensed a need for sharing ideas and information among the Human Factors and usability professionals working on the Internet. The credit goes to Chris Forsythe for organizing the first Human Facors and the Web conference at Sandia National Labs in March 1996 and then to Mary Czerwinski to host another conference at Microsoft just 7 months later in October 1996. This gave us the necessary momentum to get started. Now, we are preparing for the 5th Human Factors and the Web conference at the National Institute for Standards and Technology. (Check out their Web site along with the Call for Papers and Call for Reviewers for more information.)
Now we have close to 700 registered members, with the membership growing so rapidly, it is difficult for me to manage it all by myself. Fortunately, Duncan Friend has volunteered to manage the membership database and to be more responsive to the members than I have been. Welcome aboard, Duncan!
As some of you know, we are now officially recognized by the HFES as a technical group. This happened in October during the HFES Annual Meeting in Chicago. I'd like to thank Randolph Bias, the Chair of the Computer Systems Technical Group (CSTG), and Chairs of the other technical groups, for their support of ITG during the Council of Technical Group (COTG) session (where we submitted our proposal for ITG).
The ITG members also met for the first time in Chicago to plan for the 1999 HFES Annual Meeting. You may want to read the minutes of this meeting to get a feeling for what we have planned for next year's HFES Annual Meeting. But, we can't do this all by oursleves. We need your help. I'd encourage you all to select the activity of your interest, and contact the leader for that activity to volunteer yout time. We believe it's show time for ITG, and we should all pool our energies together to take HFES Annual Meetings and ITG to a new level. I'd like to thank you in advance for your time. I'll keep you updated on how we are progressing with our plans for the next year's HFES Annual Meeting via Internetworking and through our listserv.
Also, it's time to start thinking about preparing submissions to the 1999 and 2000 Human Factors & Ergonomics Society (HFES) Annual Meetings. Visit the HFES Conference site for more information. They have links to both 1999 and 2000 HFES Annual Meetings.
I'd encourage you to take note of our Preliminary Call for Proposals (thanks Gavin!). I'd encourage you all to join us next year at the HFES Annual Meeting.
Now that Gavin has assumed the responsibility of Program Manager (?), Steven Belz (nbelz@vt.edu) has stepped up to be the Student Chair for ITG. Thanks, Steve! Finally,with this issue, we have been successful in getting our newsletter, Internetworking, on a quarterly basis. I'd encourage you share your ideas and suggestions through Internetworking so that we can expand its scope. I'd like to see reviews of Web authoring tools, opinions on where the Internet and the Web are heading, preview of new technologies, and whatever else you can think of. Success of ITG depends on your participation. Don't wait for a magic moment to act on your ideas for contributing to the ITG. Make them happen and share them with all of us!
Wish you all happy holidays and a meaningful NEW YEAR!!!
© Internet Technical Group
Last update: December 13, 1998
URL: http://www.sandia.gov/itg/newsletter/dec98/from_the_chair.html
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