Development Consortium

Chair	Important Dates
Richard Anderson Riander USA	Submission Deadline: 3 January 2005 [5:00 PM (1700) PST] Acceptance Notification: 31 January 2005 Additional Information Conference Publications Format Conference Publications Format
Contact Me chi2005-dev@acm.org

Meeting the Needs of the Multidisciplinary Professional and of the Multiple Professional Associations and Events of Importance to Them

About the Development Consortium

A large and growing number of professionals are finding a large and growing number of professional associations and events of relevance and interest to them. Those involved in the "User Experience" (UX) field are prime examples; they include interaction designers, graphic designers, business strategists, writers and editors, marketing specialists, ethnographers, usability specialists, industrial designers, web developers, information architects, product managers, instructional designers, environmental designers, and more

While SIGCHI, CHI Local SIGs, and CHI events are of relevance and interest to these people, so are many other professional associations, often with their own local chapters and events. Hence, SIGCHI and related professional associations are competing with each other for the time, attention, and money of many UX professionals, all of which exist in limited supply. (Even SIGCHI competes with its own Local SIGS.) This leaves a lot of professionals ill-served and unhappy, and professional associations struggling to be successful.

What will it take to solve this problem?

• A re-thinking of "cooperating society relationships"?
• Increased sharing of resources?
• Improved access to information about the many organizations and events of interest?
• More conferences like DUX2003 and DUX2005, targeted more directly at the UX professional and both the responsibility of multiple professional associations?
• The development of new, better-targeted professional associations and/or a redefinition of the focus of some of those which exist?
• The creation of new professional association memberships that are comprised of products and services from multiple associations?
• The development of a new organization designed to enable increased collaboration and coordination among existing professional associations?

The CHI 2005 Development Consortium seeks to bring together a mix of people to:

• develop a deeper understanding of the problem and barriers to its solution;
• examine a mix of potential or partial solutions that have been or are being attempted, or are being considered;
• examine a mix of (partial) solutions developed for similar problems in other domains;
• generate new ideas for solving the problem;
• establish relationships and a roadmap to facilitate problem solution.

Those who will be invited to participate will include leaders of many of the professional associations of importance to the UX professional.

If you believe you can contribute to the above, we encourage you to develop a submission and invite you to contact us to discuss your submission during that process. If you know of anyone else who you think might make a valuable contribution to this Consortium, please let us know. Just send email to chi2005-dev@acm.org.

This Consortium is intended to facilitate the development of multidisciplinary professionals, and of professional associations of importance to them.

Format

The Consortium will be conducted in a workshop format and will take place during the two days prior to the main CHI conference (Sunday, 3 April and Monday, 4 April). Financial support is in the process of being solicited so that participants can be reimbursed for at least some of the expense of participating; check with us for an update on the progress of this.

Results of the Consortium will be presented at the open Business Meeting held during CHI 2005. They will also be presented to executive committees of participating professional associations, to help ensure progress made during the Consortium gets translated into action.

Submissions

A Development Consortium submission has two parts: an extended abstract and supplemental information.

Extended Abstract
This is a position paper of no more than 2 pages that describes your experiences of relevance to the Consortium, your perspective on the nature of at least a part of the problem (and barriers to its solution), one or more possible (partial) solutions (and their status, their strengths and weaknesses, etc.), etc. Please prepare your abstract in the Conference Publications Format (Conference Publications Format )to make it suitable for publication.

Supplemental Information
This supplement should provide information of relevance to the Consortium that you did not include in the Extended Abstract (e.g., a more extended discussion of the problem or its solution). Consider including additional information on your background and experience that further demonstrates your potential contribution to the Consortium's objectives. If you will be representing a professional association, please provide a list of all your association's products and services; participant access to a compilation of all such lists will facilitate discussion during the consortium.

You will receive email notification shortly after receipt of your submission. The deadline for receipt of your submissions is Monday, 3 January 2005, at 5:00 PM (1700) PST.

Review Criteria

Participant selection will be based on the relevance of the submission to the Consortium theme and his or her anticipated contribution to the Consortium goals. Revisions of accepted extended abstracts might be requested.

Upon Acceptance

Consortium applicants will be notified of acceptance or rejection by 31 January 2005.