Technical Committee 13 on Human-Computer Interaction

Annelise Mark Pejtersen1 and John Karat2

1 Center of Cognitive Systems Engineering, Smorum Bygade 52, 2765 Smorum, Denmark  ampcse@mail.dk 2 IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, 19 Skyline Drive, Hawthorne, NY 10532, USA  8jkarat@us.ibm.com

Abstract

TC13 on HCI provides a global platform for internationalization and collaboration in Human-Computer Interaction research. A better understanding of how and why people interact with technology leads to innovative designs  and experimental evaluation tests leads to high quality IT products.  Two past chairs of the TC, Dr. John Karat and Professor Annelise Mark Pejtersen,  provide a view of developments and initiatives as they reflect on the Committee’s position in HCI research worldwide and on its new ways of working. www.ifip-hci.org/

Keywords: IFIP, TC13, Human Computer Interactions.

Introduction

IFIP TC13 provides a global platform for highly skilled academic collaboration and internationalization of professional networks in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Human-Computer Interaction is a multidisciplinary research field, which includes computer sciences, human sciences, social sciences, engineering and design. It aims to promote the use of knowledge, concepts, methods and techniques that enable studies of humans’ variegated interaction with technology and the complex interplay between individual, social, cultural and organizational contexts. A better understanding of how and why people interact with technology in the ways that they do, followed by experimental designs and evaluation tests, leads to high quality IT products. HCI became a crucial issue as academics, businesses and later the general public became computer users. A major reason for the establishment of our Committee 21 years ago was a strong desire to seriously have an impact on the way computer interfaces were designed. The committee was founded by Prof. Brian Shackel, who organized the first IFIP INTERACT conference in HCI in 1984, and chaired the committee from its official establishment in 1989 through 1995.  Judy Hammond, chair from 1996 through 2001,  worked closely with Brian to expand the committee and grow the work of the TC within IFIP’s structures and rules with a successful result. Dr. John Karat, USA (2002-2004) used his active position in several national HCI communities to promote TC13’s position and to bring the TC13 events into new audiences. Prof. Annelise Mark Pejtersen, Denmark (2005-2010) reorganized the Committee’s work to involve its members actively in decision making and in the development of new initiatives and products.

2   Examining TC13’s Place in the HCI World (2002–2004)

TC13 had solid growth during its first 12 years. But the growth of the HCI field was not limited to IFIP in this period. The British Computer Society held its 24th Human Computer Interaction conference, and the ACM Special Interest Group in HCI held its 28th SIGCHI conference the same year.  Both of these events serve large, diverse, international communities and have long had the involvement of representatives from TC13.  John Karat became chair of TC13 in 2002, while also serving on the SIGCHI Executive Committee.  His stated goal during his tenure was to bring about a better relationship between major HCI communities that had emerged during the 80’s and 90’s, and to find a way forward for TC13 within this dynamic landscape.   Formally, TC13 had held joint conferences with BCS (e.g., INTERACT 90 and 99) and ACM SIGCHI (INTERCHI 93 in Amsterdam), but in the long run it was difficult to reconcile the desires of large member organizations like ACM and BCS to hold annual events for their members with the emerging goals of TC13 to bring HCI to new audiences.  As his term developed, TC13 encouraged the organization of HCI specialist workshops to coincide with TC13 meetings, and also encouraged members from developing countries to host the INTERACT conference and Working Group events.  This strategy resulted in the spread of the HCI community, since it offered many members of the community the opportunity to take part in an international HCI event for the first time, but also created a challenge in essentially “reinventing” the conference every two years.  Balancing “local flavor” with “INTERACT conference tradition” proved to be difficult but rewarding for TC13.  In many ways it is fair to say that “not much new happened” in the 2002-2004 period.  Things set in motion in the first 12 years continued to evolve. The size of the TC13 committee grew in number of members, in worldwide participation, and in depth of HCI experience in the membership. Working groups sustained themselves well through potentially difficult times of leadership transition.  The committee managed the process of INTERACT site selection well in an environment where there were always multiple parties offering to host the conference. The INTERACT conference itself held its own in troubling economic times.  TC13 took new steps to become more integrated within IFIP through contributions to the WCC e.g., by Judy Hammond’s organizing a stream on Usability gaining a Competitive Edge, which focused particularly on industry as well as the research community at the 2002 WCC and later efforts.  As a minor side note, Dr Karat did not continue the pattern of two-term chairmanship and did not seek a second term.  Just prior to his seeking the chairmanship, he was pleasantly surprised to learn he was becoming a father as he approached the tender age of 50, and left the steering of TC13 to more energetic hands.  In 2010, he still serves as US-ACM representative, because he is proud of the accomplishments of TC13 and values the friendships he has made through the committee.

3   New Ways of Working (2005–2010)

Since its foundation, the world has changed in many respects of importance for the Committee’s future work. Having its origin in the emerging information society a move took place after the 90’s towards the knowledge society with focus on knowledge sharing as the predominant way of work, well enabled by the widespread ICT networks. As HCI became a well established research field, it became clear that an interdisciplinary approach was required to address the increasing complexity of HCI research in new mobile, integrated, digital ICT products embedded into everyday life. Knowledge sharing and collaboration among HCI researchers from different disciplines emerged quickly.  TC13 is a committee with a positive tradition for a large audience of representatives at the annual meetings and at the meeting following INTERACT conferences every second year. However, the hierarchical IFIP structure with the chair informing the audience about activities since the last meeting during two full work days did not seem very productive. A calculation of the man hours spent by around 25 professors at each of the 9 two days meetings during a six year period of chairmanship convincingly shows the high figure of 3.000 expert hours, which could be utilized to involve the experts actively in TC13 work. In order to benefit from the members’ differentiated expertise, five collaborative task forces were established in 2005 to deal with strategic issues, each having an agenda formulated by the new chair, who previously established and chaired WG13.6.  The first task force was on Proactive Developments and Future Missions. The second worked on Developing Countries and the Global HCI Society. A third task force focussed on Public Relations, Visibility and News. The fourth addressed the development of Strategy and Guidelines for INTERACT Conferences. The fifth task force looked at New Working Groups and Emerging HCI Disciplines. Task forces should deliver a report at the next meeting, but only a couple of task forces succeeded. This approach to the creation of new visions was too ambitious, the ties of mutual commitment among members were not strong enough. The topics on the agenda of each task force gradually became relevant during the following years and appeared as single items on the agenda of TC13 meetings.

3.1   New Ways of Management and Organization of Work

The first action was to break the hierarchical structure and establish a management board with collective responsibility for the new visions of TC13 work. Three vice chairs were appointed: Gilbert Cockton, UK, Gitte Lindgaard, (also secretary), Canada and Janet Wesson (also treasurer), South Africa. During the next years three more vice chairs were appointed, each responsible for an important task, the philosophy being that merits are necessary to encourage volunteer work. The involvement of the Committee’s members in collaborative work required a common tool to support their knowledge sharing. We developed a new and then more ambitious website during 2006-07 using a content management system. Chair was Janet Wesson, SA. Having an effective internal website made it possible to organize the annual TC13 meetings in a new way. Ahead of a meeting the TC13 chair selects about a dozen important tasks, appoints team members and a responsible team chair of each task. In order to make the teamwork successful, the TC13 chair collects all the documents relevant for each task, writes aims and expected outcome and relates each task, its documents and its team to the agenda of the meeting. This is mailed to all TC13 members in due time before the meeting and uploaded on the website. The chair of each team writes a common document based on their team discussions, uploads it on the TC13 website, and presents it at the meeting. The outcome of each task is discussed, decisions are made and actions taken during the meeting. The original assumption was to have a steady workflow during the year, which, however, over time developed into a less resource demanding, but concentrated and focused work effort before, during and after each annual meeting. The agenda covers a variety of issues ranging from reports of Working groups and SIGs, who have a separate meeting, IFIP initiatives and current and new TC13 activities. A new edition of the TC13 Handbook (originally written by Judy Hammond, now chaired by G. Lindgaard, and A. M. Pejtersen) covers this new work approach. TC13’s annual report has also become a joint collaborative effort by introducing a new uniform structure, which integrates all TC13 activities, and into which WG-and SIG chairs can insert their contributions. The result is a synthesis of the otherwise distributed presentation of events.  These new ways of working increased the members’ involvement, their productivity and the quality of work. The emphasis on continuity was motivating for both their volunteer work and their regular participation in meetings. The TC chair’s work load increased significantly, but it has been a rewarding experience. Our contributions are not lost, they can be found at our website. A major future challenge is to include Wikipedia media.

3.2   HCI Specialist Workshops and Videoconferencing

When I organized the annual TC13 meeting in 2003 at Risoe, Roskilde, Denmark, I decided to organize a specialist workshop in conjunction with the meeting, and to argue for the use of this model in future meetings in different countries, if the outcome was successful. The idea was to exploit this unique opportunity to introduce:  1. the diversity of TC13’s worldwide known HCI researchers to Danish HCI researchers, and 2. the internationally well known Danish HCI researchers’ methods and in depth analysis of users’ work activities to TC13 members. The mutual benefit of this event was very well recognized among all researchers with a number of workshop participants close to 100. It has now become a tradition to organize such HCI specialist workshops the day before each TC13 meeting. Hence, a guideline for HCI specialist workshops has been developed. Specialist workshops and TC13 meetings have been well organized by Monique Noirhomme, Belgium, Horst Oberquelle, Germany, Julio Abascal, Spain, John Karat/ACMSIGCHI conference in Florence, Italy and Nikos Avouris, Greece. Anirudha Joshi, India, successfully extended the usual one day specialist workshop to a successful 5 day HCI International conference before the TC13 meeting in Mombai, 2010, with the usual combination of TC13 speakers and talks by Indian HCI researchers. Videoconferencing at TC13 Meetings: Since members, especially from developing countries, cannot participate regularly in the annual meetings, we have investigated how to turn TC13 meetings into visual collaboration with absent participants. The application of video teleconferencing was investigated from two perspectives: technological solutions covering a set of interactive telecommunication technologies, and organizational solutions for meetings that should take place without interruptions for those in attendance. This requires anticipation of the interaction among participants at the meta level of people’s interactions during meetings. This work began in 2009 with a proposal and several planning meetings. The first videoconferencing was conducted at the TC13 meeting, Mombai, India, 2010. Though technical problems were encountered remote video participation will continue to be exploited and applied. Chair is Achim Ebert, Germany.

3.3    New Working Groups and Emerging HCI Disciplines

It is well recognized within IFIP and much appreciated in TC13 that the continuity and visibility of TC13 is secured by Working Groups’ annual Working Conferences and numerous workshops at international conferences worldwide. They contribute regularly to the growth of HCI disciplines, publications in IFIP and to the visibility of TC13. Our 7 WGs and 2 SIGs have been very active since they were established, although some groups have had dormant periods with less activity, mainly due to shift of chairs.  In addition, most of the chairs of the WGs and SIGs participate actively in every annual TC13 meeting and its work. Two new Working Groups have been set up during this period.

3.3.1   Human-Work Interaction Design (HWID) IT design mediates the interaction between humans and their work taking into account both the human capabilities and the work content. In 2005, Working Group 13.6 on Human-Work Interaction Design began its cross disciplinary, empirical and theoretical research. A core activity is to understand and conceptualize the complexity of work and to design and evaluate technology, which support humans in their work context. This WG has successfully organized 2 days annual Working Conferences in Europe and Asia with international speakers and participants together with workshops at INTERACT conferences. This WG has been particularly good at attracting academic researchers from India. Chair is Torkil Clemmensen, Denmark.

3.3.2   HCI and Visualization (HCIV) The Working Group 13.7 on HCI and Visualization was established in 2008. HCI and Visualization has been a still growing research discipline steadily posing new challenges for visual theories and techniques as the physical formats of technology changes and new constraints for visual representation appear, while other constraints disappear and allow new visual possibilities. This WG has successfully organized six 2 days annual high quality HCIV Working Conferences and an INTERACT workshop in 2009, both with a high number of invited international speakers and expert participants. Chair is Achim Ebert, Germany. TC 13 on HCI is actively committed to increase its number of young researchers through the INTERACT Doctoral Consortia and Students’ Design Competition and WG conferences. For the first time TC13 has established Special Interest Groups-for two reasons: Dynamic adoption of new HCI research areas and engagement of the next generation of HCI researchers in TC13 and IFIP. A SIG is an informal group of young and experienced researchers usually established to try out emerging research topics. Two SIGs have been set up and gained much respect. Vice Chair Phil D.Gray UK is chair of SIGs. The next step is to develop and agree on a SIG policy.

3.3.3   Interaction Design and International Development (IDID) The first SIG established in 2008 points at the need for an agenda of capacity-building to facilitate HCI research in the developing world, and to support emerging HCI capacity. It has successfully arranged workshops at INTERACT and at many international CHI conferences. It has obtained funding from the NSF to bring people from developing countries to participate. Lately, it has organized an IDID seminar in conjunction with the conference HCI International in India. It is under consideration to turn this competent SIG into a Working Group. Chair is Andy Dearden, UK.

3.3.4   Interaction Design and Children (IDC) The second SIG was established in 2009. The objectives are to develop the interaction research and design for children and to promote applications and education to address the needs, desires and aspirations of children. It is actively involved in organizing the annual conference series on Interaction Design and Children established in 2000, and it has successfully organized a workshop at INTERACT’09. Chair is Panos Markopoulos, the Netherlands, who has not yet participated in a TC13 meeting.

3.4   Strategy and Guidelines for INTERACT Conferences

Every evaluation of INTERACT Conferences by participants have demonstrated that they enjoyed the speakers’ quality, the diversity of well organized scientific programs and events, the technological exhibitions, and the social events. However, during the last decade a large number of specialized and general international HCI conferences have appeared. This has increased the competition among HCI conferences tremendously. What should TC13 do to maintain its academic position as a competitive, international, high quality conference aiming to attract the very best in academic papers – aside from maintaining the acceptance rate of submitted papers to be strictly kept around 30%?. For example: To ensure the optimal quality of award papers, the procedures for election of members of the B.S Award Committee was changed in 2009 giving better accordance of the expertise of the Committee members with the HCI topics of the reviewed papers nominated for the B.S Award. John Karat, USA, has successfully chaired the B.S. Committees. To encourage quality papers with international impact from a somewhat neglected research community and its users, an Accessibility Award for Disabled Users together with Guidelines have been introduced, It was awarded for the first time at INTERACT ’07 for outstanding contributions in assistive technology specifically for elderly and disabled people. Chairs were Julio Abascal, Spain, and Monique Noirhomme, Belgium.  Likewise, a special track on “HCI and Industry” is now mandatory, since HCI experts in industry face interesting problems, which are complementary to academic research, and also raise very different challenges when reaching out for a global market trying to meet local needs. At INTERACT 2011 The Student Design Competition allows students to exchange their innovative ideas when faced with a design challenge while competing for prizes, which encourages interactions among students from  different parts of the  world and dialogues among students and professional researchers. Both tracks encourage dialogue between different research cultures and nationalities. Steadily, TC13’s secretary Gitte Lindgaard has encouraged to help progress of the INTERACT guidelines, but elicitation of tacit knowledge from previous organizers is difficult and time consuming. However, Janet Wesson and Paula Kotze from South Africa have created new hopes by giving feed back to the guidelines while using them for planning INTERACT’13. Since 2007 sharing of lessons learned is mandatory among previous, present and future organizers of INTERACT during and outside our meetings.

 

INTERACT‘03 Zurich, Switzerland, hosted by the Swiss Informatics Society, 1 – 5 September 2003. Proceedings (1126 pp.), 82 full, 64 short papers published, as well as abstracts relating to accepted submissions in other categories. There were 472 attendees from 34 countries. Conference chairs were Matthias Rauterberg, the Netherlands and Helmut Krueger, Switzerland.

 

INTERACT’05 Rome, Italy, organised by the University of Bari, the University of Roma “La Sapienza”, and the Italian ISTI-CNR HIIS Lab, 12-16 September 2005  Proceedings (1158 pp.), 70 full, 53 short papers published, 423 participants from 33 countries.  Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the INTERACT conferences with the theme Communicating naturally with computers. It highlighted the visions and challenges as computers will have increasingly natural communication capabilities. Conference Chairs were Fabio Paterno and Maria Francesca Costabile, both Italy.

 

INTERACT’07 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hosted by The Special Commission for HCI of the Brazilian Computer Society (CE-HCI), 10-14 September, 2007. Proceedings (637 pp.) 76 full, 35 short papers published, 297 participants from 30 countries. The theme of the conference was Socially Responsible Interaction, which motivated many interesting discussions. In spite of economical constraints, it was a successful conference. Conference Chairs were Simone Barbosa and Cecilia C. Baranauskas, both Brazil, and Julio Abascal, Spain.

 

INTERACT’09 Uppsala, Sweden, hosted by Swedish Interdisciplinary Interest Group for Human Computer Interaction (STIMDI), 24–28 August, 2009. Proceedings published electronically (CD) and in book form. Proceedings (980 pp.), 104 full, 79 short papers published, 461 participants from 33 countries, in spite of the financial crisis. The theme: HCI, Research and Practice was successfully implemented by recruiting speakers from industry to present their HCI work. Conference Chairs were Jan Gulliksen and Lars Oestreicher, both Sweden.

 

INTERACT’11, Lisbon, Portugal, 5–9 September, 2011. The theme is “Building Bridges” among disciplines, cultures and societies. Conference Chairs are Joaquim Jorge, Spain, and Phillipe Palanque, France.

 

INTERACT’13 Cape Town, South Africa, 2–6 September, 2013. Conference Chairs are Janet Wesson and Paula Kotze, both South Africa.

3.5   Public Relation and Visibility

To ensure TC13´s international exposure and its strong professional reputation, marketing and visibility have also been in focus. A journalist from the British Computer Society was employed by TC13 to write about INTERACT´05 in the international HCI media to create awareness and attract submission of papers. In 2007 a new TC13 website replaced the old as a tool for marketing TC13 to a broader audience: 1. Experts Directory. An important topic is the kind of core expertise of TC13 members and the service which these experts can offer, and how this expertise can become visible. An Expert Directory is now available at the Website with both internal and external access to the profile of each TC13 member. Professional keywords are assigned to each person and these can be searched, and photos aligned with individual core competences and web contact information is displayed. Chair is Ute Klotz, Switzerland. 2.Digital Newsletter: Since 2008, TC 13 distributes an electronic Newsletter worldwide twice a year to encourage the international HCI community to become involved by keeping it informed about future INTERACT conferences, WG/SIG  events and new research initiatives in member countries. A team chaired by Janet Wesson suggested comprehensive additional features of the Newsletter. Cecilia Sik Lanyi, Hungary is editor. 3. New TC13 Brochure: A visually attractive brochure has been distributed at INTERACT’09, and a digital version will be produced for download and distribution worldwide. Chairs are Gerrit v.d.Veer, The Netherlands and Cecilia Sik Lanyi, Hungary. TC13 is also introduced in a bright new IFIP Brochure published in 2009. Most WGs and SIGs have been equally enthusiastic in (re)designing their websites, WG13.1 using the Wiki technology.

3.6   Developing Countries and the Global HCI Society

Although a convincing consensus exists in the Committee on bringing events to developing countries as well as to include their researchers in our activities, there is still a long way to go. Requirements to a special section for developing countries in our new website have been developed, but it was never implemented, it was too demanding in terms of time and money. TC13’s proposal for a HCI summer school at IFIP’s visionary WITTFOR in 2007 became irrelevant as it was decided to discontinue summer schools. Nevertheless, HCI summer schools on “state of the art” and other themes have taken place in South Africa. To encourage participants from developing countries to engage in HCI research, INTERACT conferences will increasingly be embedded in developing countries: INTERACT’07 took place in Brazil and INTERACT’13 will take place in South Africa. When INTERACT takes place in Western countries, a special track on “HCI in Developing Countries” is organised, for the first time at INTERACT’11. Focus is on users, contexts, and applications, which are different in these countries’ very resource constrained environments. Likewise, Working Groups and SIG’s have also increased their number of conferences and workshops taking place in countries such as South Africa, India and Brazil. New models such as videos of keynote talks and remote participation will be introduced at INTERACT to enlarge the audiences and also include researchers from  developing countries, who cannot afford participation in INTERACT. A business model for INTERACT conferences will be developed to ensure economic success and investigate the possibility of budgeting with travel support to students and researchers from Developing Countries, who submit papers.

3.7   Growth of TC13 Membership Countries

Many approaches have worked well to increase the membership of our Committee, one has turned out to be particularly effective: To contact national representatives personally at IFIP’s General Assembly meetings and ask them to suggest acknowledged HCI representatives from their country. From 2005 to 2010 TC13 membership has increased with 8 new national representatives from countries which have been dormant in the past: Bulgaria, Hungary, Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland, Kenya, Malaysia and Nigeria. Currently, TC13 has grown to 47 members, among these 35 are national representatives, 7 are Working Group chairs, 2 are SIG chairs and 3 are expert members. Likewise, TC13 decided to approve expert members after having agreed on rights and duties of invited expert members. We are committed to still increase active participation from all IFIP’s country memberships.

3.8   TC13 Relationship with IFIP

IFIP’s President in 2006 Klaus Brunnstein, Germany, was invited to our annual meeting to inform about the progress of IFIP’s work on its new strategy. The president’s excellent talk on IFIP was much appreciated, and the fruitful discussions laid the foundation for the Committee’s upcoming discussions of strategies. TC13 conducted a brainstorming the day before this meeting to identify what initiatives/problems we would like IFIP to focus on. We raised questions to the president such as: What does/can IFIP offer in terms of globalization? What can/does IFIP offer to encourage the next generation into IFIP? What does/can IFIP offer to improve IFIP conferences and WG activities, and to create new activities? What does/can IFIP offer to recruit members other than IT societies? What does/can IFIP offer to improve IFIP’s and TC’s websites? These questions were also presented at IFIPs General Assembly without causing much discussion, except for the IFIP Website issues, which were pursued by the IFIP Secretariat. Gitte Lindgaard submitted a fine report on the evaluation and design recommendations of IFIP’s website. Having contacted the Danish IT Society, it became clear, that it would be very beneficial for both IFIP and its member societies, if IFIP conducted interviews in a small number of representative societies to learn about their needs and to identify possible, fruitful relationships. IFIP Silver Core Awards were given in 2007 to five chairs of Working Groups, who were honored by IFIP for their outstanding contributions to international HCI research. TC13’s secretary received the IFIP OSA Award in 2008 for her outstanding service. Names are listed at www. IFIP.org/. TC13 has begun its work on a policy for TC13 awards, since a Committee’s recognition of well performed work only can be expressed in this symbolic way. At IFIP World Computer Congresses, The Human-Computer Interaction Symposium (HCIS) brings the various fields of HCI together to highlight its  recent breakthroughs. It was successfully held in 2008, Milano, Italy and in 2010, Brisbane, Australia. Conferences and proceedings have been organized by P. Forbrig, Germany, F. Paterno, Italy, and A M. Pejtersen, Denmark. All members of TC13 served in the Program Committee. Collaboration with IFIP, Klaus Brunnstein,  Basie von Solms, Eduard Dundler, Brigitte Brauneis and TC chairs has been smooth and very interesting.

3.9   IFIP TC13 and HCI Pioneer: Professor Brain Shackel

Brian Shackel was Professor of Ergonomics at Loughborough University, England, where he also served as Department Head and Dean. His lifetime dedication and immense scientific impact was the need for a comprehensive, human-centered research approach in the design and use of information technology, in which human and social implications have been taken into account. His most important achievement in the emerging areas of HCI as a new discipline was to establish HUSAT (the Human Sciences and Advanced Technology) Research Centre in 1970, which during his superior leadership became the most influential research institute in Europe in the field of Human-Computer Interaction during more than twenty years. Bryan was the founder of TC.13 on HCI in 1889 after having successfully organised the first IFIP INTERACT conference.  His association with IFIP covered more than 30 years. He also served in professional societies, and he was a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Ergonomics Society and the Human Factors Society (USA). His publications had a significant scientific impact on international HCI research, and he received many awards, including the IFIP Silver Core Award in 1992. TC13 honored Brian Shackel by creating an Award commemorating his immense scientific contribution to IFIP and to TC.13 as inaugural Chairman, “The Brian Shackel Award” to be given for an outstanding contribution at INTERACT Conferences.

3.10   IFIP HCI Pioneer: Professor Liam Bannon

Liam Bannon was a Director of the Interaction Design Centre, and a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Limerick, Ireland. He has had a profound influence on the development of the HCI discipline in Computer Supported Co-operative Work (CSCW). He has established the first European CSCW conference in 1989 together with Kjeld Schmidt, Denmark. Liam was a founding editor of CSCW: The Journal of Collaborative Computing in 1992. He has set out a detailed understanding of the field of CSCW together with coauthor Kjeld Schmidt. Equally important for TC13, he has build up HCI as a research discipline in India and contributed significantly to their HCI education. At the University of Limerick he has successfully introduced HCI studies for developing countries. He has worked on many international HCI research initiatives in Europe, and he has influenced the move “From Human Factors to Human Actors” in Participatory Design, advocating a change away from treating users as passive subjects towards an approach that sees users as active and individual partners in driving HCI design. He has served/serves on the editorial boards of many journals and international conferences. Liam Bannon is a Fellow of the Irish Ergonomics Society.

4   Conclusion

Today, most TC13 meetings are quite similar to a workshop with commitment to, (sometimes very hard) volunteer work, which thrives on individual and collaborative responsibility to decision making and progress. Members have expressed that this has “revitalized” the group. Volunteer work does not possess the negative aspects of academic life such as competition, unconstructive criticism and evaluation measurements/schemes. However, the scarcity of resources in terms of time and money is a major problem in volunteer work, which makes priorities a crucial issue for each individual. It is frustrating, when a member continues her/his work after a meeting and receives no answers, and it is unsatisfying to give up promised work and good ideas.  For example, I gave up our Committee’s collaboration with AGORA (TC3) in spite of relevant discussions. I found experts willing to establish new WGs on “HCI in Mobile Computing” and “HCI in Digital Libraries”, but gave up, although we need a dozen more WGs to cover important/new HCI research. Will a tighter collaboration among all partners be more cost-effective, or will it require more resources? A couple of Working Groups co-organize events once in a while. Collaboration among a few TCs exists. Could it be beneficial for IFIP to subsidize an analysis during a month or so of how -if- IFIP’s work can be organized/performed differently to improve the problems involved in volunteer work with scarce time- and money resources? Conducted by an expert from a company, which specializes in organizations and effective/satisfying work? In spite of this problem, substantial work has been undertaken by TC13/WG/SIG members, which has been essential to ensure valuable contributions and the rationale for TC13’s existance. In particular, the conference chairs, organizers and program committee chairs have all worked very hard, and they have done an excellent job. Three significant areas require continuing leadership and attention from TC13 and its new chair prof. Jan Gulliksen, Sweden: 1. The Committee’s volunteer work including WGs/SIGs to accomplish international success with scientific events. Increased sharing of experiences among WG/SIG and TC members with WG experience will no doubt increase innovation. 2. The Committee’s position within the IFIP Consortium. 3. The Committee’s international position within HCI bodies worldwide. .Dr. John Karat’s continuing examination of TC13 within national HCI communities has led to many initiatives, which have involved TC13 members from France, Belgium, South Africa and China. The latter initiative explores the status of HCI research in Asia as a venture sponsored by ACM SIGCHI and jointly organized by John Karat and Prof. Zhengjie Liu, China, who are members of both TC13 and ACM SIGCHI. Hopefully, IFIP TC13 is determined to organize purposive explorations of selective HCI Communities worldwide in collaboration with other international HCI bodies like for example ACM SIGCHI and IEEE. Obviously, many new human research issues have emerged since the origin of the Committee, and many complex issues will emerge in the future, involving new disciplines. For example, as the computer is integrated into life via sensors, bio-feedback etc., the need for a new understanding of interaction and quality of life will become even more important. “TC.13 on HCI is likely to become one of the most important TCs in IFIP in the future”. Quote: Klaus Brunnstein, former IFIP president.

2011. Brunnstein and H. Zemanek (Eds.): 50 Years of IFIP, pp. 192–193, 2011. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2011

Appendix: TC 13 INTERACT Conference Series

The INTERACT series of international conferences is TC13’s flagship conference and major activity, hosted by an IFIP member country society.  In this way, TC13 provides an excellent HCI activity of an international nature that helps to heighten awareness of HCI in the host country, brings many eminent international HCI experts into the local region to share knowledge about state-of-the-art HCI research and practice, and supports and encourages the local HCI community. TC13 relies heavily on INTERACT for meeting many of its IFIP objectives and to provide the funds to maintain the viability of TC13.  The following INTERACT conferences have been held: INTERACT’84, Imperial College, London, UK, organised by volunteers, with support contracted from the conference office of the Institution of Electrical Engineers,  4-7 September 1984 (Conference Chair – Brian Shackel). Proceedings (983 pp.), 152 papers published, 568 participants from 20 countries. INTERACT’87 Stuttgart University, Germany, organised by the Fraunhofer Institut für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation, 1 – 4 September 1987 (Conference Chair – Brian Shackel). Proceedings (1138 pp.), 163 papers published, 560 participants from 23 countries. INTERACT’90, Cambridge University, UK, organised by the British Computer Society and the BCS HCI Specialist Group, 27-31 August 1990 (Conference Chair – Brian Shackel).  Proceedings (1078 pp.), 153 papers published, 572 participants from 30 countries. INTERACT’93 named INTERCHI’93, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, organised by the Netherlands Society for Informatics and its Man-Machine Systems Group in conjunction with IFIP TC13 and ACM SIGCHI for a joint INTERACT and CHI conferences, 24-29 April, 1993 (Conference Chairs – Gerrit van der Veer??). Proceedings (547 pp.), 62 full and 40 short papers published, 1580 participants from 32 countries. INTERACT’95, Lillehammer, Norway, hosted by the Norwegian Computer Society, 25-29 June 1995 (Conference Chair – Svein Arnesen). Proceedings (436 pp.), 75  papers published, 220 participants from 29 countries. INTERACT’97, Sydney, Australia, hosted by the Australian Computer Society, and incorporating the second Asia-Pacific Conference on HCI (APCHI’97) and the annual Australian HCI conference, (OZCHI’97), 14-18 July 1997 (Conference Chair – Judy Hammond).  Proceedings (713 pp.), 140 (full and short) papers published, 366 participants from 23 countries (including 8 countries from the Asia-Pacific region).

INTERACT’99, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, organised by the British Computer Society through its BCS HCI Specialist Group, 30 August-3 September, 1999 (Conference Chair – Alistair Kilgour). Proceedings (Vol.1, 707pp. and Vol.2, 236pp.), 80 full, 49 short papers, 13 interactive experience papers published, 549 participants from 33 countries. INTERACT ‘01 Tokyo, Japan, organised by the Information Processing Society of Japan, Human Interface Society, 9 – 13 July, 2001 (Conference Chair – Masaaki Kurosu). Proceedings (896 pp.), 76 full, 35 short papers published, 387 participants from 25 countries. INTERACT‘03 Zurich, Switzerland, hosted by the Swiss Informatics Society, 1 – 5 September 2003 (Conference Chairs – Matthias Rauterberg, Helmut Krueger)  Proceedings (1126 pp.), 82 full, 64 short papers published, 472 attendees from 34 countries. INTERACT’05 Rome, Italy, organised by the University of Bari, the University of Roma “La Sapienza”, and the Italian ISTI-CNR HIIS Lab, 12-16 September 2005  (Conference Chairs – Maria Francesca Costabile, Fabio Paterno). Proceedings (1158 pp.), 70 full, 53 short papers published, 423 participants from 33 countries.    INTERACT’07 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hosted by The Special Commission for HCI of the Brazilian Computer Society (CE-HCI), 10-14 September, 2007 (Conference Chairs – Julio Abascal, Spain, Simone Barbosa, Brazil). Proceedings (637 pp.) 76 full, 35 short papers published, 297 participants from 30 countries.

INTERACT’09 Uppsala, Sweden, hosted by Swedish Interdisciplinary Interest Group for Human Computer Interaction (STIMDI), 24 – 28 August, 2009 (Conference Chairs – Jan Gulliksen, Lars Oestreicher). Proceedings published electronically (CD) and in book form. Proceedings (928 pp.), 104 full, 79 short papers published, 461 participants from 33 countries.

 

Future plans for the INTERACT series:

INTERACT’11, Lisbon, Portugal, 5-9 September, 2011 (Conference Chairs –  Joaquim Jorge, Phillipe Palanque).

INTERACT ’13, Cape Town, South Africa, 2-6 September, 2013 (Conference Chairs –  Janet Wesson, Paula Kotze).