Monday, June 07, 2004
University of York HCI Group
Last Friday I went to the 20-year birthday of the York HCI group, and we were treated to a day of talks and reminiscences, followed by an evening of food and wine. Primarily to send off Michael Harrison in a fitting manner (not a wake, but cos he's moving to Newcastle), I was suprised to see that I had actually been there during the first age of HCI, as it was so memorably described, and to be still around in the third age is quite astonishing.
The cross-section of the HCI community that has had the York influence on them is remarkable, from practitioners to theorists, from the funny to the incomprehensible, from the giants to the gnomes, and all in between. (Gnomes, did he say gnomes? Yup. Harold Thimbleby - amongst others - won a gnome, but strangest of all, a Google search for 'harold thimbleby gnome' actually brings up 2 papers.....).
Held in King's Manor, having a day of talks was an excellent way to lay out the history and accomplishments of York HCI, and many of the presentations were much better than those of a number of conferences I've gone to of late.
Things to take away?
Last Friday I went to the 20-year birthday of the York HCI group, and we were treated to a day of talks and reminiscences, followed by an evening of food and wine. Primarily to send off Michael Harrison in a fitting manner (not a wake, but cos he's moving to Newcastle), I was suprised to see that I had actually been there during the first age of HCI, as it was so memorably described, and to be still around in the third age is quite astonishing.
The cross-section of the HCI community that has had the York influence on them is remarkable, from practitioners to theorists, from the funny to the incomprehensible, from the giants to the gnomes, and all in between. (Gnomes, did he say gnomes? Yup. Harold Thimbleby - amongst others - won a gnome, but strangest of all, a Google search for 'harold thimbleby gnome' actually brings up 2 papers.....).
Held in King's Manor, having a day of talks was an excellent way to lay out the history and accomplishments of York HCI, and many of the presentations were much better than those of a number of conferences I've gone to of late.
Things to take away?
- HCI researchers should be more supportive, more open to ideas, and more communicative than they are currently
- There is need for more accessible theory in HCI
- HCI has been great at being descriptive - now it needs to become constructive as well
- We're a diverse lot: psychologists, computer scientists, formalists, experimenters, ethnogrophers, cognitive scientists, designers, artists; you name it, we all have a part to play
- We're a fun lot to be with
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(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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