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The first TriUPA event of 2007 is here!
Windows Presentation Foundation & Windows Vista
The release of Windows Vista and Microsoft Presentation Foundation
(WPF) provides designers with a powerful set of new tools for
developing Windows user experiences. Art Swanson will introduce us to
the possibilities afforded by Vista and WPF.As an extra special bonus, we're giving away free 1-year TriUPAmemberships to
new folks who attend the event!
Location: Ruvane Auditorium at GlaxoSmithKline (see directions below)
Date: March 20, 2007
Time: 6:30pm - 7:30pm
RSVP at TriUPA.org.

Directions from Raleigh
* Take I-40 West to the Durham Freeway (147) North.
* Follow the Durham Freeway and take the Alexander Drive exit.
* Turn left off the exit and move to the right lane.
* Take a right into the GlaxoSmithKline campus at the 2nd stoplight (Moore Dr).
* Go to the fourth driveway and turn right, the sign will say Administration #1.
* Park in the parking deck, there is a walkway from the parking deck to Ruvane Auditorium.
* Sign in at the security desk, the event is held in the auditorium to the right of the lobby.
Directions from Durham
* Take the Durham Freeway (147) South to the Alexander Drive exit, and turn right off the exit (stoplight).
* Stay in the right turn lane and turn right at the next stoplight into GSK (Moore Dr).
* Go to the fourth driveway and turn right, the sign will say Administration #1.
* Park in the parking deck, there is a walkway from the parking deck to Ruvane Auditorium.
* Sign in at the security desk, the event is held in the auditorium to the right of the lobby.

NCSU DesignTech Looking for Interested Students

Dr. Ben Watson (Computer Science) and Pat Fitzgerald (Art+Design) heads up a great Summer Research Program. It's open to students from the UNC School System. Last year participants came from NC State University, NC Central University, Meredith and Peace.

To get an idea what we were up to last time...

From DesignTech home page http://designtech.ncsu.edu/:

Design Tech -- Sparking Research in Interactive Visual Design

Design Tech, an REU site funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) and the Department of Defense (DoD) Awards to Stimulate and Support Undergraduate Research Experiences (ASSURE), is an interactive visual design hothouse with projects spanning artificial intelligence, graphics, visualization, and visual design. Projects include cinematic camera control for interactive narratives and games; automated tours through virtual, visualized environments; agent-based visualizations of streaming data such as RSS feeds and sensor telemetries; and PDA-based navigation tools.

The Design Tech undergraduate experience involves a 12-week summer research program that provides outstanding research opportunities in the areas covered by Design Tech faculty research interests. Students receive a stipend, travel and living expenses during their participation in Design Tech. This Research Expereinces for Undergraduates (REU) program is supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense.

The OCLC/Frederick G. Kilgour Lecture in Information and Library Science at UNC SILS has been announced:What: Sharing Knowledge, Multiplying Value: The Non-Linear Nature of Open Source SoftwareWho: Michael Tiemann, Vice President, Open Source Affairs for Red HatWhen: 8:30am, February 20, 2007Where: UNC’s School of Social Work Tate Turner Kuralt Building AuditoriumMore information: Day-long forum to highlight sharing knowledge

North Carolina State University Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Student Chapter,
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Carolina Chapter, and the Institute of Industrial Engineers Raleigh Chapter proudly host:
Henry Petroski
Presenting: "The Evolution of Useful Things"
Monday, February 5, 2007
5:30pm-6:30pm
North Carolina State University Centennial Campus
Engineering Building II, Room 1025 (EB2 1025)
[890 Oval Dr., Raleigh NC 27695]
Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of History at Duke University. He has written broadly on the topics of design, success and failure, and the history of engineering and technology. His books include:

"To Engineer Is Human", "Design Paradigms", and "Engineers of Dreams", all of which deal with large structures like bridges. He has also written about small, common things in his books, "The Pencil", "The Evolution of Useful Things", "The Book on the Bookshelf", and
"Small Things Considered". His next book will be a technical and cultural history of the toothpick.

Please RSVP to Jennifer Cowley by February 2 if you plan to attend.
(Note: You are welcome to attend even if you cannot or do not respond.)

What: Cory Doctorow speaking at UNCQuick on Cory: Boingboing editor, EFF, SciFi Writer, Disney-obsessed Copyfighter, Fulbright Chair at Annenberg UCSDWhen: 2 pm Thursday February 22nd (aka 2/22 at 2)Where: Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel HillRead about Cory's previous trip to UNC. More about Cory:Cory Doctorow is a science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing, and a contributor to Wired, Popular Science, Make, the New York Times, and many other newspapers, magazines and websites. He was formerly Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards and treaties. In that capacity, he worked to balance international treaties, polices and standards on copyright and related rights, advocating in the halls of governments, the United Nations, standards bodies, corporations, universities and non-profit. Presently, he serves as the Fulbright Chair at the Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California. His novels are published by Tor Books and simultaneously released on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses that encourage their re-use and sharing, a move that increases his sales by enlisting his readers to help promote his work. He has won the Locus and Sunburst Awards, and been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and British Science Fiction Awards. He co-founded the open source peer-to-peer software company OpenCola, sold to OpenText, Inc in 2003, and presently serves on the boards and advisory boards of the Participatory Culture Foundation, the MetaBrainz Foundation, Technorati, Inc, Stikkit, Annenberg Center for the Study of Online Communities, SiteShuffle, and Onion Networks, Inc. His latest novel is Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town.

What: Talk by Dr. Henry PetroskiWhen: Monday, 2/5/2007, 5:30 - 6:30 pmWhere: NCSU Centennial Campus, Engineering Building II, Room 1025 (EB2 1025)Speaker Bio:Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesi Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. He has written broadly on the topics of design, success and failure, and the history of engineering and technology. His dozen or so books on these subjects include To Engineer Is Human, Design Paradigms, and Engineers of Dreams, all of which deal with large structures like bridges. He has also written about small, common things in his books, The Pencil, The Evolution of Useful Things, The Book on the Bookshelf, and Small Things Considered. His next book will be a technical and cultural history of the toothpick. A memoir about delivering newspapers in the 1950s and about what predisposed him to become an engineer is entitled Paperboy. His most recent book is Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design.More information: NCSU HFES chapter events

A new year ushers in a new crop of TriUPA officers:• Abe Crystal, SILS, President • Jackson Fox, Lulu, VP of Programs • Peter Warren, Insight PD, VP of Membership • Mir Haynes, Anabo Studios, VP of Communications • Noel Fiser, Motricity, Secretary/Treasurer We're eager to hear your ideas for improving TriUPA. Do you have thoughts on events we should be offering, what we should be doing online, or how we can better serve our members generally? Please comment on this post or get in touch with one of the officers.

It's December and the first official year of TriUPA is coming to a close, which means it's election time!

Come on out to Motricity's new office on Thursday 12/14 @ 6:30 PM to review the end of the year report from our current president (yes, that's me) and to vote on new officers.

Executive Council candidates for 2007 include:

• Abe Crystal, President
• Jackson Fox, VP of Programs
• Peter Warren, VP of Membership
• TBD, VP of Communications
• TBD, Secretary/Treasurer

As you can see we still have two vacancies. If you're interested in being a leader in the local community, making a lot of friends, and having a great time in the process, contact me and I can provide more information about the roles and responsibilities. '07 promises to be our greatest year yet. We raised more than $5K in sponsorship funds and are looking forward to putting it to great use in service to the local community. So, sign up for one of the open officer positionsexpand your network, grow your leadership skills.

Note that you must be a TriUPA member to vote, but that's quite easy (and cheap--$15 a year). Sign up today!

(Heck, show your support by joining even if you don't intend to vote!)

Hope to see you there!

-Rick

Good Experience Live (Gel) Gel ("Good Experience Live") is a conference and community exploring good experience in all its forms -- in business, art, society, technology, and life.Gel 2007 will be held: Thursday-Friday, April 19-20, 2007 The Equitable Theater (7th at 51st/52nd) New York City Register by December 12th for the best price.

GSKThe GlaxoSmithKline team exhibited enthusiasm and great team spirit on their “home court.” After hearing the problem description, the team divided into user researchers and designers, with two members interviewing members of the audience while two began design. GSK was also the only team to bring an audience member into the end of the process for evaluation. Their final design was focused on simplicity and addressing the problem of motivationundefinedhow to get children to pick up after themselves. The proposed storage was designed to be child-friendly, and to make a fun sound when an item was dropped into it. The limitation of this design was that it didn’t solve the entire problemundefinedin particular, it didn’t address the organization and retrieval needs of parents, or the specific characteristics of computer games and books. IBMThe IBM team was well-organized and communicated effectively, with dry humor and good use of the whiteboard. They took a “blue sky” approach to the design brief, arguing that all content will soon be available digitally. Based on this assumption, they designed a set-top device that could provide unified access to this digital living room. The drawback of this approach is that it might be very difficult to create an interface for 3 – 5 year-old children. N.C. StateThe N. C. State team came out strong with good teamwork, and managed their time effectively. The team solicited design ideas from parents in the audience, and focused on organization of physical materials. They developed a combination of color-coded shelves and wheeled organizing bin. This design was both practical and realistic. Its major limitation is that it does not address the need to organize and retrieve materials based on specific characteristics, such as title or author. UNCThe UNC team also came out with a strong focus on teamwork and audience interaction, with two team members interviewing audience members while two others clarified assumptions. Similar to IBM, the UNC team pushed the limits of living-room technology. Their design integrated a personal library kiosk (with a touch-screen interface) into shelving. The shelves supported both adults (high height, lockable cabinets) and children (low height, open shelves and bins). The limitations of this approach included cost and implementation, and the usability of the kiosk for children. The audience speaks...Here are the results of the audience voting: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th GSK 48% 16% 16% 20% IBM 0% 32% 20% 48% UNC 20% 16% 44% 20% NC State 32% 36% 16% 16%