[Sighci-l] Live or let die?

[DeWeese, Keith]

Just my two cents...

I'm really a lurker when it comes to this SIG, and, for the good of the
cause, I'll tell you why:   I work for a major information/knowledge
corporation, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.  Sad to say, indexers,
taxonomists, information architects, content analysts, etc., are at the very
bottom of the barrel here.  There is no support of professional development,
no support of employee education, not much support of anything.  

The reason I'm mentioning this is because I joined this listserv to find
support; unfortunately, I've found that it just isn't here which is not the
problem of the SIG.  I get the emails, but the topics have nothing to do
with anything that I'm working on--that's not the SIG's fault, that's
because EB keeps itself out of the loop of everything.  So, bottom line, I
don't know what I'm doing here, I just get the emails and pitch them.

Ultimately, I have to agree with the folks who say that, perhaps, the very
flexibility or open nature of the SIG is the problem because, in many ways,
it is not very flexible or open but very much geared to the issues and needs
of a few.  Also, I feel that it is very much an "Academics Only" forum, and
if cannot attend every conference or meeting or picnic or taffy pull, there
just isn't any reason to belong.  

Now you might say, "Well, then throw out a topic to the group and get
involved!" to which I would answer, but I can't!  Everything I do here at EB
involves proprietary information or is so idiosynchratic to this
environment, I would be wasting everyone's time by doing so.  

So that's why I just lurk and don't participate, and I suspect that others
are in the same boat.  I think the effort put into this SIG has been
admirable, and the overall thought behind the endeavor is very worthwhile,
but, maybe in trying to be so open--everything to everyone--it just isn't
working.  Thank you.

kdeweese

-----Original Message-----
From: Jody Condit Fagan [mailto:jfagan at lib.siu.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 2:34 PM
To: sighci-l at asis.org
Subject: Re: [Sighci-l] Live or let die?



I think this is not just a problem faced by SIG HCI.

The dilemma is that if a SIG has energy and involvement, that draws others 
in - but if it has no energy/involvement, no one wants to participate.

 From what I've seen, SIGS can pretty much decide what they want their role 
to be: they can be solely a group to propose programs - and they propose a 
LOT of them - they can be a group where ideas are bandied about on a 
listserv, solicit experitse for projects or publications, or a combination 
of such activities.  I think that freedom is also a reason for the 
'nebulosity' of what a SIG is.

In other words, running a SIG might feel more manageable if there were 
defined goals that the group was supposed to accomplish (perhaps set by the 
Chair in consultation with members).

I think the area of HCI is worthy of its own SIG, but it probably IS 
overlapping with USE.... if USE is proposing the programs that HCI would, 
then perhaps it is ok to let HCI go.  Otherwise, rise up!

Jody



At 02:21 PM 12/3/02 -0800, Andrew Dillon wrote:
>So, I have to ask the
>members,  what do we want here? If we cannot answer this, then this group
>is, in my view, defunct. I hope it is not so, and cannot help but think
that
>ASIST without an HCI group would be a poorer society but the evidence of
the
>last year makes me wonder how we might consider it otherwise. Is there
>really room for an HCI sig anymore? I'd love to hear some voices.....


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