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Capstrat has generously offered to host the April social event for TriUPA.
Come out this Tuesday evening for drinks, snacks, and the good company of your fellow usability professionals.
Usability students graduating soon should take special note the benefits of being in a room full of potential future employers ;-)

WHAT: TriUPA Social
WHEN: Tuesday, April 3 6-8 pm
WHERE: Capstrat

http://www.capstrat.com/cs/contact.cfm#map

1201 Edwards Mill Road
Suite 102
Raleigh , NC 27607
919.828-0806 (main number)

There are no special parking instructions.
The building locks at 7:00 , but may be open later for the event.
If it is locked when you arrive, please call the main number.

Capstrat will be providing beer, soda and snacks.

Interested? Please RSVP online by Monday, April 2nd.

(To RSVP, click "Register Now," then log in if you are a TriUPA member, or enter your contact information if you aren't a member).
Contact Abe Crystal, TriUPA President, or Virginia Ingram at Capstrat [vingram@capstrat.com], with any questions.

Peter Warren, TriUPA VP of Membership, recommends this new book by Prof. Jon Kolko at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Thoughts on Interaction Design
It is the primary goal of this text to better define Interaction Design: to provide a definition that encompasses the intellectual facets of the field, the conceptual underpinnings of Interaction Design as a legitimate human-centered profession, and the particular methods used by practitioners in their day to day experiences. This definition and investigation centers around the issue of argument and rhetoric, and illustrates that Interaction Design is a form of communication that can be thought of as identical in nature to language. As Interaction Design is a vast subject, this text attempts to touch on many topics in a slight manner rather than one topic in a deep manner.

Gel 2007, in New York City, April 19 - 20. It's one of the most acclaimed conferences around, with an array of innovative speakers that inform, but go way beyond, mainstream user experience work. Register by March 20 for the best rate.

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.