SIGDOC 96 Call for Papers

[Brad Mehlenbacher <brad_m -at- UNITY -dot- NCSU -dot- EDU>]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 ***** SIGDOC Call for Papers *****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACM SIGDOC 96 Conference

The Association for Computing Machinery's 1996 Special Interest Group on
Documentation Conference

A CALL FOR PAPERS

Marshalling New Technological Forces: Building a Corporate, Academic, and
User-Oriented Triangle.

October 19-22, 1996

The Sheraton-Imperial
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

OVERVIEW

The cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill form the corners of North
Carolina's internationally renowned Research Triangle Park. This area
houses not only one of the largest corporate and research complexes in the
world, but also three of North America's top academic institutions:  North
Carolina State University (Raleigh), Duke University (Durham), and the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill). The Research
Triangle itself contains hundreds of corporate and research institutions,
and stresses the interrelationship between corporate, academic, and
user-oriented research.

SIGDOC 96 focuses on how developing new technologies (such as
object-oriented software, SGML, HTML, and VRML, and other systems that
integrate text, sound, video, and animation) challenge the way designers
of computer documentation produce usable texts and systems. These new
technologies cause us, as documentation experts, to re-conceptualize our
roles and our training. These new technologies also cause us to rethink
how diverse audiences interact with information.

Historically, corporations, researchers, and user communities have tackled
these problems separately. SIGDOC 96 will marshal the efforts of
corporations, researchers, and user communities to respond actively to the
challenges presented by new technologies.

CONFERENCE THEMES

Share your experiences, research, and development solutions with your
colleagues in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Papers, panels,
posters, demonstrations, and tutorials addressing the following areas are
encouraged:

* How _existing research_ on hardcopy information delivery can help us
  understand working with new technologies.

* How _new technologies_ are altering the ways we perceive information
  delivery and the audiences who process our products.

* How once _disparate fields_ such as technical communication, instructional
  design, computer science, ergonomics, information science, and graphic
  design are increasingly necessary training for the producers of online
  information.

* How _corporations, the academy, and user communities_ might form
  stronger and more mutually beneficial research partnerships.

PRESENTATION TYPES AND RULES FOR SUBMISSION

For all submissions, include, on a separate page, the name, title,
organization, address, and telephone number of each participant. Please
indicate the principal contact. Finally, outline the hardware required for
any software demonstrations that you would like to give.

 _papers_

* 60- to 90-minute in-depth presentations
* 30-minute presentations of a paper by one or more authors
* 20- to 30-minute presentations of two or three related papers.

Please submit a 500- to 1000-word description of the session topic,
outlining the thesis, main points, and implications for the field. Please
include an estimate of the time required for your presentation.

 _panels_

* discussion involving a moderator and a number of speakers with audience
  participation.

Please submit a 500- to 1000-word description of the panel topics,
outlining the connected theses, and the panel's implications for the
field. Please include an estimate of the time required for your
presentation. If you need more than 30 minutes, provide an outline with
the time breakdown.

 _posters and demonstrations_

* on-going demonstrations of software that you are currently or have
  completed designing.

Please submit a 200- to 300-word abstract of your poster topic and, if
you plan to do one, a description of your multimedia demo.

 _tutorials_

* half- or full-day hands-on workshops that explore one of the themes of
  the conference.

Please submit a 750- to 1000-word description of the tutorial's overall
organization and some reference to hands-on issues dealt with over the
course of the half-day or full-day session (specify the length of your
proposed session).

SUBMISSION ADDRESS

SIGDOC 96

Attention: Dr. Brad Mehlenbacher
Technical Communication, Box 8105
North Carolina State University (NCSU)
Raleigh, NC 27695-8105

E-mail: <brad_m -at- unity -dot- ncsu -dot- edu>
URL: <http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/users/b/brad_m/web/brad.html>
Fax: 919.515.1836
Phone: 919.515.4178

SUBMISSION AND REVIEW DEADLINES

The Program Committee must receive all proposals by March 1, 1996. We will
let you know by May 15, 1996, whether or not your proposal has been
accepted. Accepted papers and abstracts will appear in the proceedings
(CACM). We must receive an electronic, final copy of your paper via e-mail
or on diskette by July 15, 1996.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

_chair_, Brad Mehlenbacher, NCSU
 <brad_m -at- unity -dot- ncsu -dot- edu>

Ed Costello, IBM
 <costello -at- netcom -dot- com>

Amy Glass, SAS Institute, Inc.
 <sasasg -at- unx -dot- sas -dot- com>

Jim Palmer, Apple Computer, Inc.
 <Jim_Palmer -at- quickmail -dot- apple -dot- com>

Caroline Pope, Bell-Northern Research
 <pope -at- bnr -dot- ca>

Stuart Selber, Clarkson University
 <sselber -at- clarkson -dot- edu>

John Unsworth, University of Virginia
 <jmu2m -at- virginia -dot- edu>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!
 Dr. Brad Mehlenbacher    Voice:  919-515-4178 Fax: 919-515-1836
 Technical Communication  E-mail: brad_m -at- unity -dot- ncsu -dot- edu

 NC State University      What is impossible to do in your field, but if
 Raleigh, NC 27695-8105   it could be done, would fundamentally change it?
                          (J. Barker, "Future Edge")

 URL:<http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/users/b/brad_m/web/brad.html>
~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!^~!