Meeting Agenda

Date:	December 16, 2009
Location:	DC 1331
Time:	1:30
Chair:	Gabriel Esteves

1. Acceptance of the Agenda - additions or deletions

2. Coffee Hour

Coffee hour last week:: Volunteers?
Coffee hour this week:: Volunteers?
Coffee hour next week:: Volunteers?

3. Forthcoming

Date:	January 6, 2010	January 13, 2010	January 20, 2010	January 27, 2010
Location:	DC 1304 1:30	DC 1304 1:30	DC 1304 1:30	DC 1304 1:30
Chair:	Eugene Greene	Elodie Fourquet	Marshall Hahn	Craig Kaplan
Technical Presentation:	Cherry Zhang	Gabriel Esteves	Elodie Fourquet	Eugene Greene

4. Technical Presentation

Mike Terry	Title : Usability in the Free/Open Source Software Community Abstract: In the past 10 years, the free/open source software (FOSS) community has demonstrated effective new ways to develop software. However, it is just beginning to develop practices to address usability needs. In this talk, I describe results from an interview study of 27 individuals, from 11 different projects, that examined how FOSS developers think about, act on, and are motivated by usability issues. Our results show that FOSS developers possess rather sophisticated notions of software usability, similar to those found in HCI textbooks. Results also reveal that the primary motivator for attending to usability is the high quality, positive feedback received from respected end-users during development, rather than the desire to increase the software?s user base, as is commonly perceived. Finally, I describe some of the unique ways we found FOSS developers attend to usability issues, including the use of "reference users," or users close to the project who provide continual feedback on emerging designs. Collectively, these findings suggest a need to reconceptualize HCI methods to better integrate with the distinct reward structure and work practices of FOSS development.

Mike Terry

Title : Usability in the Free/Open Source Software Community
Abstract:
In the past 10 years, the free/open source software (FOSS) community has demonstrated effective new ways to develop software. However, it is just beginning to develop practices to address usability needs. In this talk, I describe results from an interview study of 27 individuals, from 11 different projects, that examined how FOSS developers think about, act on, and are motivated by usability issues. Our results show that FOSS developers possess rather sophisticated notions of software usability, similar to those found in HCI textbooks. Results also reveal that the primary motivator for attending to usability is the high quality, positive feedback received from respected end-users during development, rather than the desire to increase the software?s user base, as is commonly perceived. Finally, I describe some of the unique ways we found FOSS developers attend to usability issues, including the use of "reference users," or users close to the project who provide continual feedback on emerging designs. Collectively, these findings suggest a need to reconceptualize HCI methods to better integrate with the distinct reward structure and work practices of FOSS development.

5. Discussion Items

None so far...

6. Action Items

7. Conferences and Special Journal Issues

Recent Additions

Upcoming Deadlines

8. Directors' Meeting

9. Seminars and Events

Ashif Harji PhD Thesis Presentation: Non-blocking versus Blocking Sendfile: 1:00 p.m.; DC2314
Karim Ali Master's Thesis Presentation: Algorizmi: An Open-source Configurable Virtual Testbed for Intrusion Detection System Evaluation: Mon Dec 21st 9:00 a.m.; DC 1331