UbiComp 2008 Town Hall

Joe McCarthyStrands Labs Seattle

Chair, UbiComp Steering Committee

Topics not to Discuss (here)

• What is the scope of ubicomp?• Which UbiComp had the coolest logo / shirts?• Who was that Wark Meiser guy, anyway?• What time is dinner?

Topics to Discuss• UbiComp 2008 Closing Panel• UbiComp Steering Committee• UbiComp 2009, 2010, …• ACM Sponsorship (2009+)• Reintroduction of Notes• Digital vs. Print proceedings• Dates, times, tracks• Other … (“start / stop / continue”)• Hard stop @ 18:30 (30 min. before reception)

Off to a slow start…

Slides worth N*1000 words?

SlideShare.net“YouTube for Powerpoint”

An example:Jakob Bardram’s “Art of Doing a Ph.D.”(from last year’s Doctoral Colloquium)

Posterity: Presentations & Photos

Last year’s tag: ubicomp2007This year’s tag: ubicomp2008

www.slideshare.net www.flickr.com

UbiComp 2008 Closing Panel• The Past, Present and Future of UbiComp

– Wednesday, 16:15-17:45– Moderator: Dongman Lee (ICU)– Panelists:

• Gregory Abowd (Georgia Tech)– General Chair 2001, Prog. Co-Chair 2007

• Lars Erik Holmquist (Mobile Life Center)– General Chair 2002

• Eric Paulos (Carnegie Mellon Univ.)– Demonstrations Co-Chair 2003

• Albrecht Schmidt (Univ. of Duisburg-Essen)– Program Co-Chair 2003

• Hide Tokuda (Keio Univ)– General Chair 2005

UbiComp Steering Committee

• “Who died and left you in charge?” – Town Hall 2007

• Currently: – General & Program Chairs from past 5 years– 19 members (at most 10 “active”)– Unofficial chair (of unofficial committee)

• Proposed: – smaller, more formalized (nomination, voting)– Pervasive Steering Committee model (7 members)– At least one member on both Pervasive & UbiComp SCs

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Future UbiComp conferences

• UbiComp 2009: – Orlando, October– General Chair: Sumi Helal, Univ. Florida– Preview @ Closing Remarks (17:45 Wed.)

• UbiComp 2010: two interested parties• “Tradition”: International cycle

– 2009: North America; 2010: Europe; 2011: Asia

• Conference Committee positions available…

ACM Sponsorship

• UbiComp has been independent, but “in cooperation with” ACM

• Financial burden on General Chairs• Will be “sponsored by” ACM starting in 2009

– Co-sponsored by SIGCHI and SIGMOBILE

Reintroduction of Notes

• Offered by other conferences– CHI, CSCW, UIST, …

• Last offered at UbiComp in 2003• Changes:

– 4 pages vs. 10 pages (Full Papers) … vs. 10 / 16 pp (LNCS)– Full Papers & Notes reviewed by same committee– No Full Papers conditionally accepted as Notes

• Challenges:– Differentiating Full Papers from Notes in CfP– Relatively low acceptance rate this year

Digital vs. Printed Proceedings

• Printed proceedings– Advantages: tangibility, ability to leaf through papers, …– Disadvantages: costs (financial + environmental), extra

lead time, getting them home (luggage restrictions)• Proposal: Digital UbiComp 2009 Proceedings

– DVD or USB drive– Can order printed proceedings to be shipped after the

conference• Precedents:

– CHI 2008, …

Dates & Times

• Dates: Sunday – Wednesday in the fall– Workshops & Doctoral Colloquium: Sunday– Technical Program: Monday – Wednesday

• Times: – Paper / Notes slots: (22 & 11 minutes)

Tracks & Categories

• Single vs. multiple track conference• Participation categories

– Paper, Notes– Demos, Posters, Videos, – Panels, Keynotes– Workshops, Doctoral Colloquium– Other?

Other topics?

• Stop: what didn’t you like at UbiComp 2008?• Start: what would you like to add in 2009?• Continue: what did you like this year?• Also: general or specific questions, comments,

suggestions• But: please be brief!

– Or talk to me, other SC members afterward

Thanks!

• UbiComp 2008 Conference Dinner @ 19:00– Jangbogo Hall

• Additional questions, comments, suggestions:– joe@interrelativity.com– sc@ubicomp.org