Local Chapters and SIGs

Local Chapters and SIGs

By Åsa Granlund, the Local Chapter and SIG Chair Asa.Granlund@era.ericsson.se

We are happy to welcome the latest addition to our local chapters: the Delaware Valley chapter! UPA now has a total of 12 chapters, and we hope to charter more soon.

Canada	Montreal	Louis Beauregard	louisb@convivo.ca
Canada	Toronto	Yves Rannou	yves@userfriendly365.com
Italy	Italy	Michele Visciola	mvisciola@etnoteam.it
Sweden	Linköping	Aseel Ibrahim	aseel.ibrahim@nokia.com
UK	UK	Marty Carroll	marty@theusabilitycompany.com
US	Austin	Kerrie Green	kgreen@hoovers.com
US	Bay Area	Bonny Brown	BonnyB@Vividence.com
US	Boston	Diana Demarco	ddemarco@mathworks.com
US	Dallas/Ft. Worth	Paul Sherman	paul.j.sherman@att.net
US	DC Metro	Bill Killam	bkillam@user-centereddesign.com
US	Delaware Valley	Kristy Knabe	KKnabe@worldnet.att.net
US	Minnesota	Richard Sit	richsit@us.ibm.com

The rapid expansion of chapters is exciting, but also requires changes to the organization, such as the definition of relevant policies. We are forging ahead with these changes, including a project a to develop a Members-Only section of the UPA website for chapter members and creating UPA SIGs (see Starting New SIGs).

Åsa Granlund
Asa.Granlund@era.ericsson.se

Starting SIGs
By Karen Gondoly

During the 2001 UPA conference, several people expressed an interest in starting Special Interest Groups (SIGs) within the UPA community. Åsa Granlund, the Local Chapter and SIG Chair, and I would like to bring these SIGs to life!

SIGs will allow groups of UPA members to discuss specific topics, share technologies, build ideas, and network between conferences. They will put you in touch with other usability professionals across the world, and provide forums for continual streams of information on topics that are of specific interest to you and the other SIG members.

The concepts suggested for new SIGs included:

1) Design patterns
2) International issues
3) Usability issues in the transportation industries (Auto/Aero/Marine/etc.)
4) The user experience in digital environments
5) Student and faculty discussions

If you are interested in moderating a SIG for any of these (or other) topics, please contact me at kgondoly@mathworks.com.

Once a preliminary list of moderators is compiled, we can all work together to set some guidelines and get the SIGs rolling. Issues we will need to address before firing up our SIGs include:

1) Determining "Rules of Conduct"
2) Specifying who can join SIGs (Do they have to be UPA members, is there another fee, etc.)
3) Finding an appropriate forum for conducting SIG discussions
4) Setting up a place on the UPA web site to advertise SIGs

This is an exciting opportunity to start new and vital communities within UPA. So, please, consider starting a SIG!

Thanks,
Karen Gondoly
kgondoly@mathworks.com

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