SIGCHI US Public Policy Committee

The US Public Policy Committee group within SIGCHI aims to educate and advocate for HCI-related issues as they relate to public policy in the United States.  Ben Bederson served as committee chair from 2004-2006, and Jonathan Lazar served as committee chair from 2006-2010. The current committee members are:

• Janet Davis, Grinnell College (Committee Chair)
• Harry Hochheiser, University of Pittsburgh
• Juan Pablo Hourcade, University of Iowa
  
• Jeff Johnson, UI Wizards
• Lisa Nathan, University of British Columbia
• Janice Tsai, Microsoft

Charter

The use of computer technology in a wide range of critical aspects of American life makes their design an important policy issue. The quality of human-computer interaction (HCI) has become a crucial factor in endeavors such as voting, electronic commerce, online government, and telecommunications.

The SIGCHI US Public Policy Committee provides a voice for SIGCHI in addressing HCI issues specific to US public policy. This function includes:

• Providing perspective and guidance to SIGCHI on US-specific public policy matters;
• Supporting SIGCHI and its members in providing HCI experts when and where needed to inform public policy in the U.S.;
• Coordinating with the USACM policy committee and public policy committees of non-ACM organizations (e.g., UPA, HFES, IEEE-USA).

Focus

While our focus is on the USA (as required by our charter), we hope to be a model for world-wide groups that might form to advocate for HCI-related issues everywhere. The Chair of the US Public Policy Committee also works with the SIGCHI Adjunct Chair of Public Policy and serves on SIGCHI's International Committee of Public Policy representatives.

Activities

• Wrote a white paper titled The Need for Usability of Electronic Voting Systems: Questions for Voters and Policy Makers, in response to a call for input from the National Academy of Sciences
• We coordinated the first CHI Social Impact Award, given in 2005 to Gregg Vanderheiden
• Held a SIG meeting at CHI 2005 in Portland, on the topic of Making an Impact in Your Community: HCI and US Public Policy note: the link goes to the ACM Digital Library, which requires a subscription
• Published a short paper in Interactions on the topic of Policy at the Interface: HCI and Public Policy (link to ACM DL)
• Published a fact sheet on the Election Incident Reporting System by Jeff Johnson
• Held a workshop on Public Policy at CHI 2006 in Montreal. Position papers and detailed information are available from the workshop. The CHI Public Policy workshop extended abstract is also available from ACM DL.
• Authored a Policy Statement on Universal Internet Accessibility which was approved by SIGCHI-EC on February 20, 2007. A revised version of the accessibility policy statement was approved by the entire USACM in 2008.
• Held a panel on the topic of CHI Policy Issues Around the World at CHI 2008 in Florence, Italy. A copy of the extended abstract on CHI Policy Issues Around the World  is available from the ACM Digital Library.
• Held a panel on e-government at the CHI 2010 conference in Atlanta, GA. A copy of the extended abstract on the e-government panel is available from the ACM Digital Library. 
• Organized a SIG on the NSF Broader Impacts criterion at the CHI 2011 conference in Vancouver, BC. A copy of the extended abstract on the Broader Impacts SIG is available from the ACM Digital Library. Slides and additional resources are also available.
  

Last updated May 31, 2011.