Quick Facts
  • Submission: 8 Jan 2008 (5:00pm PST)
  • Notification: 30 Jan 2008
  • Camera Ready: 5 Feb 2008
  • Submission Format: Camera-ready, unanonymized document containing an up to four page extended abstract suitable for publication as well as supplementary material describing the SIG, in Extended Abstract format.
  • At the Conference: Accepted SIGs will have a scheduled session at the conference
  • Archives: Extended abstracts; DVD and ACM Digital Library
Message from Special Interest Groups Chairs

By organizing a Special Interest Group (SIG), you can attract a group of conference attendees who share your interest in a topic and engage in an interactive discussion. Organizing a SIG is a great way to start or extend your involvement in the CHI conference program -- several SIGs have evolved into other successful venues at subsequent conferences. We strongly encourage submissions related to the CHI 2008 theme: Art.Science.Balance. We also encourage you to think of innovative, interactive techniques for organizing and presenting SIGs. Feel free to contact us before submitting a proposal to discuss your ideas and questions.

Richard I. Anderson, Riander
Effie L-C. Law, ETH Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
Contact us: chi2008-sigs@acm.org

What are Special Interest Groups?

Special Interest Groups (SIGs) enable conference attendees sharing common interest to meet informally for 90 minutes of facilitated discussion during a scheduled session at the conference. SIGs offer excellent opportunities for dialogue and deliberation on a specific topic. SIG proposals are welcome from all six of CHI's communities: Design, Education, Engineering, Management, Research, and Usability. Cross community SIGs are especially encouraged. If you think your proposed SIG will appeal to multiple communities, select one of the relevant communities during the submission process and then in your supplementary material explain what other communities your proposal relates to. The proposal will be reviewed by members of all relevant communities. The conference provides each SIG with meeting space and advertises SIG meetings to the rest of the conference in the Extended Abstracts and Conference Program.

Preparing and Submitting Special Interest Groups Proposals

Submissions for SIGs must be received by 8 Jan 2008 (5:00 PM PST). Make submissions via the PCS submission system. You will need to submit a single PDF file, no larger than 4 megabytes large, consisting of:

  • a four-page extended abstract suitable for publication in the Extended Abstracts, in the CHI Conference Extended Abstracts Publications Format
  • supplementary material including: a brief description of community(ies) to which this SIG would be of interest and why, assumed attendee background, the interactive techniques you will use for organizing and presenting the SIG, an informal schedule of discussion topics, which of the organizers should serve as the primary contact
Special Interest Groups Review Process

Submissions will be reviewed independently by reviewers drawn from the relevant community(ies). We prefer that proposals be authored by a minimum of two individuals representing at least two different organizations. And as stated above, we especially encourage proposals for SIGs that span multiple CHI communities and are related to the conference theme.

We encourage you to examine examples of accepted SIG abstracts from recent CHI conferences, available for download from the ACM Digital Library.

At the Conference

Accepted SIGs will have a scheduled session at the conference. After your SIG is accepted, we will notify you what technical support will be available. Rooms will be set up to facilitate discussion.

After the Conference

After the conference, organizers are encouraged to continue their SIG by organizing a workshop at a future conference or creating and maintaining a website. Accepted SIG abstracts will be distributed in the CHI Conference Extended Abstracts DVD. They will also be placed in the ACM Digital Library, where they will remain accessible to thousands of researchers and practitioners worldwide.