ACM Interactions

Authors:
Ron Wakkary, Erik Stolterman

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In this issue's cover story, "What I Learned on Change Islands: Reflections on IT and Pace of Life," Phoebe Sengers reflects on our relationship with technology based on a study she conducted on Change Islands in Newfoundland, a large island on the furthest eastern end of Canada. In 1949 Newfoundland relinquished its self-governing dominion to join Canada as the last province. Despite this, attitudes of fierce independence have not abated so quickly—Newfoundlanders relish the fact that they are not mainlanders like the rest of Canadians. Change Islands are a series of islands off an island and so are twice removed from the geographic and metaphoric mainland. What better place to reflect back on a life that was in order to speculate on a future that might be. interactions has many possibilities, one of them is to be a "Change Islands" for our community. That is to create a venue, a place from which to reflect on what we have done and from here where we might go.

This being our second issue as editors-in-chief, we can now say that we have a past. We received lots of positive feedback on the last issue (more about that later), especially on the feature articles. The feature articles in the present issue should elicit equal feedback, if not more. Adding to our new introductions, this issue includes three new forums: "Social Mediator" is edited by Joe McCarthy and explores social media; "Let's Get Physical," which is edited by Eva Hornecker, discusses tangible and embodied computing; "Culture +Community" edited by Tad Hirsch discusses the intersection of what makes us who we are as a collective, and "Universal Interactions" edited by Juan Pablo Hourcade is a redux of "Lifelong Interactions," which was a forum on lifelong learning formerly edited by Allison Druin (thank you, Allison!).

We also have two new columns by three new columnists: Steve Portigal and Julie Norvaisis, who work together at Portigal Consulting, are coauthors of "True Tales"; and Jon Kolko, now with Thinktiv, will make a reprise with interactions in his column "Bodoni, Bandsaws and Beer."

In the future, we want to hear from you. We want to dedicate space in each issue with highlights from your emails and comments to authors, forum editors, columnists, and us. We of course need your input to do this! The issue is laden with email addresses of each author including our own at the end of this article. Please use them. Our plans for online and social media are brewing in the backroom and we plan to unleash them soon. This will be yet another opportunity to participate and give feedback. Why is this so important? Our futures are many and the ones we give shape to and articulate need to be determined by you—the islanders and mainlanders of interactions.

— Ron Wakkary and Erik Stolterman
[email protected]

  Footnotes

DOI: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1925820.1925821

 

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