Congratulations to Jed Brubaker and Janet Vertesi on the acceptance of their paper on death and social networking sites to the CHI 2010 workshop HCI at the End of Life.

Death and the Social Network

Jed R. Brubaker & Janet Vertesi

We analyze profiles and associated comments on social network sites following the death of the user to suggest two novel approaches to death and computing. Using the dead as examples of “extreme users”, we develop recommendations for design of Web2.0 applications that consider the importance of intersubjectivity in online identity construction and management, and the ubiquity of technospiritual practices.

Welcome to WISH 2010

In recent years, the biomedical informatics community has begun to recognize human-computer interaction (HCI) and better understanding of social and human elements as important to a sound Health IT strategy. Meanwhile, research in human-computer interaction has found healthcare a rich and interesting domain of inquiry. Despite this progress, however, there exists a largely untapped potential to create deeper and more profound connections among the medical, informatics, human-computer interaction, medical sociology and anthropology communities.

The Workshop on Interactive Systems in Healthcare (WISH) will take place April 10th and 11th, 2010 in conjunction with the ACM CHI 2010 Conference on Human Factors and Computing Systems, at the CHI conference site, the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. This event is designed to foster conversation and bridge communities and will include specialists in biomedical informatics, nursing informatics, medical sociology, human-computer interaction, and related fields.

The goals of this workshop are consistent with those of the ACM SIGCHI and the Agency For Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). They are to:

1. Bring together groups of scientists from a variety of disciplines all focused on issues of human-computer interaction and healthcare;
2. Guide the work of new researchers by having world-renowned experts provide them advice;
3. Provide encouragement and support for engagement in research in interactive systems for healthcare;
4. Make it possible for promising new entrants to the field, many of whom are highly respected professionals in other fields but relatively new to HCI, to attend the CHI conference;
5. Illustrate the interrelationship and diversity of HCI research, in particular as it relates to healthcare technologies;
6. Make the interdisciplinary researchers’ experiences at both WISH and the CHI conference an enjoyable and rewarding experience, encouraging them to return and submit papers, panels, demonstrations, posters, etc. to the conference.

WISH will have an exciting program, including plenary speakers, invited panels, and the presentation of peer-reviewed research in the form of paper presentations and posters. This event is open to the public, even if you do not submit content for presentation.

We hope to see you at WISH!

CareLog: A Selective Archiving Tool for Behavior Management in Schools was just accepted for CHI 2008

Abstract: Identifying the function of problem behavior can lead to the development of more effective interventions. One way to identify the function is through functional behavior assessment (FBA). Teachers conduct FBA in schools. However, the task load of recording the data manually is high, and the challenge of accurately identifying antecedents and consequences is significant while interacting with students. These issues often result in imperfect information capture. CareLog allows teachers more easily to conduct FBAs and enhances the capture of relevant information. In this paper, we describe the design process that led to five design principles that governed the development of CareLog. We present results from a five-month, quasi-controlled study aimed at validating those design principles. We reflect on how various constraints imposed by special education settings impact the design and evaluation process for HCI practitioners and researchers.

“Reconsidering Education and Learning in HCI: A Social Cultural View of Special Education and Technology” by Gillian R. Hayes will be presented at HCI in February 2008.

Abstract: This paper presents complementary views of education to the more traditional cognitive learning view of education represented in educational technology and HCI in education. This paper first presents a case study for which this extended model is considered and then overviews some of the historical treatment of education, special education, and technology for education.