Technical Program Introduction and Overview

One of our goals is to continue to try new venues for presenting content. In order to make room for new areas, we used your feedback from the last two years to decide which program areas would benefit from a sabbatical.

Another goal is to infuse new perspectives about HCI into the program, and we will be very interested in your feedback on how well this works.

A third goal is to provide more opportunities for developing the skills that will be needed as the industries supported by our community continue to evolve.

Overall, the diversity of the program provides something for everyone. There are opportunities for learning and contributing whether you are a practitioner or a researcher, whether you are in industry or academia, whether you are just entering the field or whether you have been in it for awhile.

The major area of innovation this year is the introduction of an increased emphasis on application domains. For CHI 98, efforts were made to bring in experts in the areas of education, health care and entertainment.

You will have the opportunity to hear special speakers over lunch, take tutorials, attend panels and listen to papers in each of these areas. You will hear about the challenges faced in each of these areas that the HCI community can help to address; you will find new ways of thinking about our discipline. As a result, we hope conversations throughout the conference will be stimulating and informative.

The Tutorial Program draws on lessons and requests from the past. For example, there will be several opportunities to develop skills in Web design, and breakthrough courses in developing drawing skills. Many of the tutorials will be organized into groups and scheduled such that a set of interrelated skills can be developed over the tutorial program.

A great deal of work has gone into continuing to enrich the Demonstrations, Late-Breaking Results, Papers, Panels, Workshops and Video areas of the program.

This year, the posters program focuses on Student Posters and opportunities to talk with students about their work. The SIGs provide another wonderful opportunity for meeting with other professionals to exchange ideas about topics of common interest.

The CHIkids program is back for its third exciting year at CHI 98! The CHIkids "computer camp" is an ideal way for children and parents to share in the evolving HCI adventure! The Development Consortium will draw on the CHIkids program to provide unique opportunities for a group of teachers to participate in CHI and exchange ideas about how to introduce and work with technology in the classroom.

Students participating as part of the Doctoral Consortium and Student Volunteers at the conference will have a chance to meet speakers informally, share ideas and build upon their knowledge of the field.

CHI always offers more than can possibly be experienced in the time available. Please join us at CHI 98 and choose those program areas and events that will benefit or challenge you the most...and have fun!

Clare-Marie Karat and Arnold Lund, 
Conference and Technical Program Co-Chairs
chi98-chairs@acm.org

Technical Program Overview

Application Domains

The domain tracks consist of thematically related collections of papers, panels, tutorials, speakers and other events. The tracks provide a way to learn about and discuss the issues in education, health care and entertainment, and explore work that is underway addressing the issues of making the impossible possible.

Demonstrations

Demonstrations enable participants to view systems in action in a "lecture" style presentation. In addition, selected demonstrations provide an opportunity to gain hands-on experience with demonstrations presented in the formal technical program.

Late-Breaking Results

These are short talks that are lightly refereed and enable presenters to discuss new ideas and recent research. These sessions will be less formal than those containing material from the early submission categories.

Panels

Panels allow speakers and the audience to explore, debate and reflect upon controversial or emerging HCI issues.

Papers

Papers (including design briefings) present high quality original research, theory or case studies of the design process for solutions.

Plenaries

The attendees will hear content-rich descriptions of experts' perspectives on major trends in the HCI field. These visionaries will share their insights on future research and practice that will make the impossible possible.

Posters

Student posters provide an excellent opportunity to discuss late-breaking results and ongoing work during the presentations. Student posters remain posted throughout the conference. Presenters will be available at their posters in The Commons on Wednesday from 10:00 to 11:00 am. Any workshop-generated posters will also be available here during the conference.

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

Special Interest Groups (SIGs) enable people sharing common interests to meet informally for discussion. SIG topics can include new research areas, tools, methods, cultural diversity, industrial relations or social implications of computing. Anyone can organize a SIG and anyone can attend (you don't have to be a "member" of these groups). SIGs may still be proposed after 8 January 1998, up to and at the conference, but if accepted they will only be publicized at the conference. For information on SIG proposals, please see the Special Interest Groups Call.

Video Program

The Formal Video Program contributions come from researchers and practitioners around the world and serve as a showcase for a wide variety of innovative HCI design, tools and interaction techniques. The video program also includes video figures from some of the conference technical papers. The Formal Video Program is included with the registration materials for conference participants. The Formal Video Program will also be shown Sunday through Thursday, in most conference hotel rooms. Additional copies of the Formal Video Program can be purchased at the CHI 98 Store.