by Scott Tilley

The 19th Annual International Conference on Systems Documentation (ACM SIGDOC 2001) was held last week in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Although recent events reduced attendance somewhat compared to previous years, I personally consider the conference to be a success. (Admittedly, I'm a little biased: I was Program Chair.) The theme of SIGDOC 2001 was "Going Global: Communicating in the New Millennium", a reflection of the new reality of the changing nature of professional communication as exemplified by the migration to multilingual Web sites.

SIGDOC is the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) Special Interest Group for Documentation, a professional organization dedicated to advanced topics in documentation for and with computers. This year's SIGDOC 2001 conference was held from Oct. 21-24 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the beautiful La Fonda hotel. There were about 60 people who participated in the conference -- about half the number originally planned for -- but the dedicated group of people who made the trip made this year's event all the more special.

SIGDOC 2001 was a companion event to the upcoming 3rd International Workshop on Web Site Evolution (WSE 2001), which will take place November 10 in Florence, Italy. WSE's theme this year is "Access for All," which refers to making web site available to multiple users (e.g., those with impaired vision), in multiple languages (e.g., Chinese and English), and multiple platforms (e.g., WAP phones).

On a personal note, I am deeply indebted to all the people who helped in the organization of the conference. Thanks to the members of the Program Committee for their high-quality reviewing of the proposals. Thanks to the conference participants who traveled from all over the world to attend the event. Finally, thanks to the sponsors for their gracious support, without which the conference would not have been possible.

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Conference Themes

The conference theme of SIGDOC 2001 reflects the fact that communication is becoming increasingly global. For example, English-only Web sites are fast becoming a limiting factor in the intellectual exchange of ideas and information. Indeed, the printed document is giving way to electronic formats, including non-textual and multimedia representations of critical information.

Within this context, SIGDOC 2001 provided a wonderful opportunity for the exchange of information related to exciting new research and experience reports in areas such as:

• National language support in all forms of documentation
• Migrating to multilingual Web sites
• Cultural issues for international audiences
• Making documentation available in multiple formats
• Fundamental design principles that transcend the medium

The 34 papers, 5 workshops, 6 tutorials, and 1 panel session that formed the SIGDOC 2001 program captured many of these themes.

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Program

The technical papers presented at SIGDOC 2001 were loosely clustered into 6 sub-themes: design issues, documentation roles, globalization issues, just-in-time documentation, online documentation, and searching & indexing. For example, Paper Session P5 was one of two sessions focused on globalization. The session was chaired by T.R. Girill of the University of California's Lawrence Livermore National Lab and featured three presentations:

• "Single Sourcing for Translations" by Deborah Hysell of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
• "Building A Culturally-Competent International Corporate Website: An Exploratory Study on Cultural Markers in Multilingual Websites" Huatong Sun of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• "Issues of Content and Structure for a Multilingual Web Site" by Shihong Huang of the University of California, Riverside

In addition to the paper presentations, this year's SIGDOC featured 5 focused workshops (4 workshops took place; 1 was canceled due to the inability of the workshop's organizer to travel to Santa Fe). The active workshops were:

• "Developing Single Source Content: In search of the XML Pot-of-Gold", led by Jim Stewart of Information Mapping, Inc.
• "Taking an Object-Oriented Approach to Restructuring Legacy Documents for the Web," led by Jonathan Price of The Communication Circle
• "Developing Content for International Knowledge Management Webs," led by  Rives Hassell-Corbiell of The Learning Edge
• "Documentation for Software Engineers: What is Needed to Aid System Understanding?" led by  Dennis Smith of  Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute and myself (with participation by Ken Wong of the University of Alberta)

A highlight of the conference was the presentation of the Rigo and Diana awards. The Rigo Award is made to an individual who has made an outstanding life-time contribution to the field of user documentation. The 2001 recipient of the Rigo Award was Don Norman. Dr. Norman is cofounder of the Nielsen Norman Group, an executive consulting firm, and an executive at Unext, a leader in distance education. He is Prof. Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, and former VP of Apple Computer. He is the author of numerous books, including "The Design of Everyday Things," and "The Invisible Computer."

The Diana Award is made to an institution or organization that has made an outstanding life-time contribution to the field of user documentation. The 2001 recipient of the Diana Award was  Information Mapping, Inc, represented by Robert Horn. Dr. Horn is a political scientist, ex-CEO, scholar, and consultant with a special interest in communication and knowledge management (especially the dynamics of highly complex problems such as organizational strategy). He is a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and a member of its nominations committee. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and a recipient of the Outstanding Research Award from the International Society for Performance and Instruction (ISPI).

Both award winners gave engaging keynote speeches during the conference. Dr. Norman's presentation was titled "The Design of Everyday Things: The Sequel." Dr. Horn's presentation was titled "What Kinds of Writing Have a Future?" -- a topic close to the heart of the SIGDOC audience.

The SIGDOC conference ended with a joint luncheon with the IEEE IPCC conference and a keynote by Moira Gunn. Dr. Gunn is host of the public-radio program "TechNation: Americans and Technology." Her presentation was titled "Everyone is a piece of the puzzle. Everyone is essential." With this presentation, SIGDOC 2001 officially ended, and IPCC 2001 began.

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Final Comments and Photos

As with previous conferences, I tried to capture special moments with my  trusty Canon Powershot S100 Digital Elph As usual, the following images were converted to compressed JPEG files to reduce download time. I think the photos give a glimpse into the activities at SIGDOC 2001, both professional and otherwise.

Note: Several of the pictures are a little fuzzy, due to the low lighting in the rooms.

The next SIGDOC will be held in 2002 in Toronto. The General Chair is Ceri Williams of Basis 100, Inc., and the Program Chair is Michael Priestly of IBM Canada Ltd. The theme for SIGDOC 2002 is "Connect", something very appropriate for the setting and these unsettled times.

	Dennis Smith and I getting ready for the afternoon's workshop. (101KB)
	Robert Horn delivering his Diana award keynote presentation. (69KB)
	Participants engrossed in the workshop "Documentation for Software Engineers: What is Needed to Aid System Understanding?" (101KB)
	The Rigo Award dinner, where Don Norman gave his keynote presentation. (126KB)
	SIGDOC participants enjoying the company of the Rigo and Diana award winners. Lucky table! (111KB)
	Shaoyi He, Shihong Huang, and myself at the end of the conference. Photo courtesy of Shaoyi He. (101KB)
	A view of Santa Fe at dusk, as seen from the rooftop terrace of the La Fonda hotel. (75KB)
	Michael Priestley at the conference opening, practicing for SIGDOC 2002 :)  (90KB)
	The joint SIGDOC/IPCC luncheon, where Moira Gunn gave her keynote presentation. (116KB)
	The interior of the beautiful La Fonda hotel. The picture doesn't do justice to all the artwork found throughout the hotel. (131KB)