CHI*Atlanta > About Us

		CHIA CHAPTER HISTORY

CHI*ATLANTA : ABOUT : HISTORY


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CHAPTER FOUNDING
The inspiration for CHI*Atlanta came from the 1997 CHI Conference "Looking to the Future" which was held in Atlanta. Richard Anderson, who was the SIGCHI Local SIGs Chair at the time, recognized that Atlanta did not have an active local chapter. He had the great idea of hosting a signup list for people interested in forming a chapter. When the conference was over, Richard emailed the two people on the list - Nick Sabadosh from Ratio DesignLab and Jackie Dane from NCR Human Interface Technology Center.

Nick and Jackie contacted each other to share their ideas. They were both excited by what they had experienced at the CHI conference, and shared a desire to form a local chapter that would provide a year-round CHI conference experience. With that goal in mind they recruited co-workers from NCR and Ratio, and coordinated a meeting to kickoff the new chapter.

The first CHI*Atlanta meeting took place on June 17, 1997 in the "vault" at Ratio’s offices in Buckhead. Thirteen people attended that first meeting, most from NCR and Ratio. This meeting was a brainstorming and planning session. We set goals for the chapter, developed ideas for meeting topics, as well as growth, funding, and communication plans. We closed by planning the next meeting!

A core group of leaders emerged from the initial meeting to form the Steering Committee, which lead the bootstrapping phase of the chapter. In October 1997, chapter officers were appointed, and the group became the CHI*Atlanta Executive Council.

The ACM and SIGCHI, and especially Richard, provided valuable assistance during this phase, including a mailing list of Atlanta-area ACM members that was used to create the first round of CHI*Atlanta meeting announcements. Ratio DesignLab and NCR HITC provided generous support to the founding of CHI*Atlanta, including meeting space and technical support for the CHI*A website. With help from these and other groups, and with the dedication of the volunteers and members, the CHI*A membership grew to over 100 members in its first year.

THE FIRST YEARS
During its inaugural year (1998), CHI*Atlanta established regular programming with significant assistance by Apple Market Center Atlanta. As the year progressed, our Chapter branched out to begin having hosted programs and Atlanta-area corporate and academic locations, leveraging our area's developing technology environment. Topics included: Web accessibility, intersections between graphic design and interface design, and educational media user interface design.

In 1999, CHI*Atlanta experienced its most successful year to date, gaining many members, and providing an incredible variety of informative and interesting programs. These programs were hosted by an array of corporate and academic organizations that mirrored Atlanta's dynamic market and vibrant intellectual climate. Speakers and presenters included Clement Mok (Chief Creative Officer, Sapient Corporation), Thad Starner, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech College of Computing, Lead Faculty for Contextual Computing), Delta Technology’s Usability Engineering Services' User Interface & Design Solutions (UIDS) Group, CNN Interactive and Elemental Interactive.

YEAR 2000 AND BEYOND
During Year 2000, CHI*Atlanta expanded on its previous successes, presenting a variety of informative and interesting programs in a variety of locations, hosted by an even greater variety of corporate and academic organizations. Topics included: "Linket" Information Appliance (AppForge), Georgia Tech Aware Home Research Initiative, Prototyping Pros & Cons, and various usability lab tours.

In 2001, CHI*Atlanta continued providing valuable member and public services, during a time of unprecedented technology industry volatility. Programs were offered on a variety of topics, including: Next-Generation User Experience Evaluation Tools (ClickFox), Planning for Disability Access (State of Georgia and IBM), Pervasive Computing Architecture and Design (Sapient and others), NCR Usability Services and Lab Tour, Atlanta Technology Industry and its Future. Also, the CHI*Atlanta EC began a significant redesign of this web site with support from the Agency.com Atlanta office and countless dedicated volunteers.

The CHI*Atlanta Executive Council remains committed to sustaining and growing our Chapter, and we welcome your support and interest! Please contact our Chair with any questions you may have about our Chapter.