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AIS SIGHCI had a great success at AMCIS'02
(8/14/2002)


This year, Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) had an overall acceptance rate of 57% with a total of 315 accepted papers. About 800+ people from all over the world registered the conference. There were 14 parallel sessions (papers and panels/workshops) on going at the same time for a total of two and half days.

AIS SIGHCI was involved in AMCIS'02 in two ways: Ping, Fiona, and Sid organized a minitrack on HCI Studies in MIS, and Ping organized a panel on The Role of HCI Research in MIS Discipline. Both the minitrack and the panel were very successful that they attraced many interested participants and generated a lot of valuable discussion and ideas.

Minitrack on HCI Studies in MIS

The HCI Studies in MIS minitrack was the 2nd most popular minitrack with 27 submissions, only two papers short of the DSS minitrack. In the final AMCIS program, both the HCI and the DSS minitracks had 18 accepted presentations in six sessions, making the two the biggest minitracks this year. The next biggest minitrack was the Philosophical Foundations of IS minitrack that had 17 presentations. Note that both DSS and Philosophical minitracks are well-established minitracks in AMCIS, and the HCI minitrack is a relatively new one.

Among the 27 submissions, two of them received four reviews, 19 received three reviews, and six received two reviews. All reviewers have provided quality reviews. Based on these reviewers' comments and recommendations, 18 high quality papers were accepted, among which are 11 completed research papers and 7 research-in-progress papers. Thus the acceptance rate for the minitrack is 67%. A summary of the 18 accepted papers can be found from the minitrack page.

At each of the six HCI sessions, the room was more than half filled (some sessions were so popular that the entire room was filled). The discussions at the sessions were very fruitful and constructive. Some sessions attracted researchers such as Fred Davis (TAM model) and Dale Goodhue (Task Technology Fit model). It shows that (1) the papers presented are quality work, and (2) there is a great level of interest in HCI studies among the AIS members.

As the co-chairs of the minitrack, we would like to express our sincere thanks to the authors who had submitted to the minitrack, and to the reviewers who played an important role in the quality control of the minitrack. Also, we want to thank the audience who also helped make the minitrack a successful one.

We encourage authors of this year's minitrack submissions and other interested researchers to consider submitting their quality work to future HCI minitracks and workshops.

Panel on The Role of HCI Research in MIS Discipline

Ping organized and moderated a panel on The Role of HCI Research in MIS Discipline. The panel consisted of five well recognized IS researchers who do HCI/MIS research (according to some participants, this is an all-star panel):

Izak Benbasat from University of British Columbia, Jane Carey from Arizona State University West, Fred Davis from University of Arkansas, Dennis Galletta from University of Pittsburgh, and Diane Strong from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

The panel attracted more than 45 people on the first day of the conference. The diverse viewpoints of the panelists stirred interesting and intriguing discussions during the QA session that made the panel 15 minutes longer than the scheduled finish time (this overrun was also due to the moderator's overlook of time and being intrigued by the discussion). The overwhelming positive tone is that HCI is a strong and important area within MIS, HCI/MIS definitely has its own uniqueness as compared to the traditional HCI, and more HCI/MIS studies need to be conducted in the Internet era, not only for supporting individual productivity, but also for improving group and organizational productivity as well as catering to other needs of individuals such as entertainment.

Many of the issues raised during the panel planning and preparation (five months long and involved more than 95 email exchanges among the 5 panelists and the organizer) as well as the panel discussion at the conference have provided interesting and important ideas for the first annual workshop on HCI Research in MIS, to be held pre-ICIS in Barcelona in December 2002. The workshop will include both invited speakers and peer-reviewed presentations. Submissions of peer-reviewed presentations are due on 9/20/2002. Ping already has a list of outstanding researchers to be the invited speakers. Stay tuned on this ...

As the organizer of the panel, Ping wants to say how wonderful the experience was while working with some of the most recognized IS people in the world. The panelists have been very supportive, enthusiastic, insightful, and prompt. The following facts may give you some ideas about the intensiveness of the communication and the sincerity of the panelists: we had 15 email exchanges among the six of us within 11 hours at once, and 16 email exchanges within 20 hours at another time. The panelists spent their valuable time discussing basically everything related to the panel such as the content, format, positions, presentations, and even the dissemination of the panel presentations. They collaborated and coordinated to provide multiple viewpoints, to reduce or minimize any unnecessary overlaps or redundancies, and to ensure that the panel covers relevant and interesting issues that flow smoothly from one to another. Again, it is a great pleasure to work with these outstanding IS scholars.