A National UX Conference and National UX Body in India
Duration: Half day
Schedule:
Sunday, 21st March 2010, Afternoon
Fee:
Rs. 500
Participants: 10-25
Aim
The past decade has seen several HCI, interaction design and
usability conferences in India, including the Easy conferences, the India
HCI 2004 conference, the Doors of Perception conferences, the UMO conferences,
the World Usability Day events, the USID conferences, CAUE 2008, HWID
2009 and a few others. Some of these were peer reviewed, others were
based on invited sessions. Some were archived and published, others were
not. Some of these conferences were one-off efforts, others continue
to be organised annually. Organising these conferences has been a great
effort, often on the part of an individual or an organisation at other
times on behalf of larger groups.
Are these efforts enough or is there a need to organise yet another conference? Some believe that there is a need to pool these resources and efforts to organise a regular, national conference in an open, transparent manner such that everyone can participate in. Others feel that we ought to have both, an open national conference and continue organising other conferences. What do you feel?
The other side of the coin is the need for a national body that represents the Indian HCI professionals, researchers, academicians and students. Again, there have been several efforts but no body that can call itself a representative organisation. As the community expands, the need for such a body is growing. Should it be an independent national association? Should it be a SIG under a national body such as the CSI or NASSCOM? Should it be a chapter under an international body such as the ACM SIGCHI, UPA, IXDA or HFES? Or should it be a combination of all these? How should such a body be organised and popularised? What kind of events and activities it should have? How should it govern itself? What role should educational institutes play?
The workshop will result in a co-authored white paper documenting ideas, discussion and conclusions.
Content
Accepted papers will be circluated in advance and also given
a presentation slot during the workshop. In addition, there will be slots
for open discussions, and breakout sessions to come up with individual
proposals. We are also hoping to invite representatives from CSI, NASSCOM,
SIGCHI, UPA and people who have been past organisers of UX events to
attend this workshop and give their inputs. They will be invited to come
forward and state what works and what doesn’t work in the current activities.
Day's plan:
2:00 - 2:15 pm - introduction and opening comments by organisers.
2:15 - 3:15 pm - position papers and opening statements by invitees
related to UX conference
3:30 - 4:15 pm - position papers and opening statements by invitees
related to UX organisation in India
4:15 - 5:00 pm - break out sessions on conference and organisation
- themes "brainstorming
next steps"
5:00 - 6:00 pm - sharing and summarising a white paper
The workshop will be followed by a panel discussion during the main conference at a suitable time to discuss how to leverage current efforts in putting together a national body and conference. We will share a presentation capturing the summary of the workshop, followed by comments, discussion and questions and answers.
How to participate?
To participate, please write a 2-page position paper in the
BCS eWIC format (http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.7939) and send it to anirudha {at} idc.iitb.ac.in by February 1, 2010. The papers
will be reviewed by the organisers and accepted papers will be notified
by February 22. Accepted papers will be given a slot for presentation
during the workshop. In addition, there will be slots for open discussions,
and breakout sessions to
come up with proposals.
Organisers
Girish Prabhu, HFI
Sandeep Datar, Yahoo!
Sanjay Tripathi, ABB
Anirudha Joshi, IIT Bombay
Dinesh Katre, CDAC
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