SIGDOC, first evening

[cellio]

Tonight at the opening reception I spent some time talking with Bob Newman. In doing the "so what does your company do?" thing, I told him about CoMotion and CPOF and he seemed very interested. He sees what we do as "design of communication" -- not all communication involves words, after all, and the principles that apply to organizing data are sometimes the same ones that apply to organizing documentation. This is a good point. (Unbeknownest to me, the "DOC" in "SIGDOC" actually changed from "documentation" to "design of communication" a couple years back, in part to attract a broader audience.)

It turns out that Bob is the chair of next year's conference, and the theme is "documenting and designing for pervasive information". He would like to see a paper submission from us. Now maybe he says that to all the writers, but it's worth thinking about. (And the conference doesn't conflict with the high holy days next year either, so I could theoretically go.)

After the reception a couple guys from SAS in Raleigh and I headed out for dinner. One of them had been to Memphis before, so we let him guide us to Beale Street. It's hard to tell from just tonight's data points, but my tentative conclusion is that vegetarians are just SOL in this town, or at least on Beale Street. (I haven't looked into the hotel restaurant yet.)

The hotel is pretty spiffy, especially for the price ($95 plus tax). I have a two-room suite with microwave and fridge, though there are no dishes so I assume the microwave is intended for frozen dinners or something. There's a TV in each room (which is two more than I need but there's plenty of space so I don't care), and free network access (wired) in the room. The one downside is that my room is just off the lobby and it's noisy in the outer room, but the noise doesn't seem to carry into the bedroom so I don't care all that much.

This laptop is much worse than the one I borrowed this summer in one respect: legibility. More specifically, I can't find any controls, physical or digital, that affect contrast and brightness, and the defaults are harsh (to me). Dell laptop running XP Professional, in case anyone's got ideas. (The "native" resolution is also high for such a small screen, so I've got fonts cranked up both at the OS level and in my apps. But still, the brightness makes it hard to use.)

Comments

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

It turns out that Bob is the chair of next year's conference, and the theme is "documenting and designing for pervasive information". He would like to see a paper submission from us. Now maybe he says that to all the writers, but it's worth thinking about. (And the conference doesn't conflict with the high holy days next year either, so I could theoretically go.)

Well, speaking as a conference chair (for ACSAC (http://www.acsac.org/)), and as someone in an industry where papers count, I do suggest submitting the paper. In general, it is good for one's career.

[cellio]

I've got a lot to learn about this conference-paper thing. I was reading some of the proceedings tonight for this conference, and everyone cites long lists of references. I can describe what we do and why, but the whole research side is largely unfamiliar to me. I need a grad student. :-)

Still, since what he really wants is a paper about our software design, not my documentation, it wouldn't be appropriate for me to be lead author/presenter. But I could; contribute a lot as a co-author. Meanwhile, I'm going to think about doc-specific issues where I would clearly be a lead author. I've been assured that compliance with the conference theme is "a good thing when it happens" but not a strict requirement for submissions. I mean, most things can be spun a number of ways, so as long as it's vaguely connected it counts. The philosophy of the program committee seems to be that appropriateness for SIGDOC is more important than appropriateness for any particular conference.

More thought is called for, obviously.

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

As a paper reviewer, there are a number of factors. Appropriateness for the conference audience is one: this means written in the conference style (look at past proceedings before submitting), and the correct mix of theory/practicality for the conference in question. Also, having something well written (which shouldn't be a problem for SIGDOC) is critical: I can't tell you how many papers I have had to slog through. It can be painful.