Purpose
The Internet Technical Group (ITG) will create a community for professionals from industry, academia and government organizations who share a common interest in Internet technologies and related behavioral phenomena. The ITG will provide value to its membership through enabling and encouraging an immediate exchange of research, ideas and technical innovations. This is considered crucial in that the activities of the ITG will supplement for traditional modes of dissemination such as professional journals and conferences whose lag times limit their ability to provide professionals with timely information, given the rapid pace of development pervading this field. Through these activities, a primary objective of the ITG will be to assure its members are constantly aware and informed with regard to relevant developments.
By providing multiple communication channels for its membership (web based newsletter, discussion group, online journal, a repository for web UI information such as pointers to relevant web sites, and guidelines for web design), the ITG will provide an avenue for collaboration and seek to advance the field by encouraging the coordinated efforts of its membership. Furthermore, the ITG will work to advance the application of Human Factors principles and methodologies to Internet technologies, as well as promote behavioral study of human-machine and human-computer interaction via the Internet.
The ITG will investigate and pursue opportunities to involve its members in the activities of standards bodies and by doing so, provide a voice for the Human Factors profession within these activities.
Finally, as the Human Factors profession, as a whole, adapts to the changing technological landscape of the Internet, the ITG will offer a resource for HFES members, regardless of ITG membership, to obtain information and maintain an awareness of Internet technologies.
Specific Areas of Interest
- user interface design of web content, web-based applications, web browsers, webtops, web-based user assistance and Internet devices
- Methodologies for research, design, and testing
- Internet and Intranet patterns of usage
- Behavioral and sociological phenomena associated with distributed network communication and related technological innovation
- Privacy, security, community, and other socio-technical issues WWW, email, USENET, chat, listserves, shared applications, push and streaming technologies, VRML, video-conferencing, Internet- based agents, visualization, navigation and manipulation of Internet-based information spaces
- Human reliability in administration and maintenance of data networks
- Human factors in electronic commerce, and on-line product data management and document management
- Guidelines and standards for interface design, for the Web and Web-based applications
- Accessibility of Web-based development