June's Forum focuses on sustainability. How do you implement innovation in a way that creates lasting change? How do you preserve and maintain the change you've worked for? This month's forum will guide you through both of these considerations, the two sides of real sustainability. Join us to share your ideas and discuss emerging local and national concepts and projects and how they are sustaining the good! The Springboard Social Innovation Forum offers a monthly event designed to support those interested in creating a better future. Our focus is to help practitioners or potential practitioners of social projects push beyond discussion and debate into action. Each Forum will inspire and teach with ideas, powerful role models, and stories. Speakers, content experts, panels, and workshops will help you improve your strategies for planning and launching effective social ventures. The Forum will create a context to connect, learn, and take action around ideas that lead to tangible change—all in a venue designed for building community. Cost is $5.00 at the door.

The Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN), Software Association of Oregon (SAO) , Oregon Business Association (OBA) and the Portland Business Alliance are presenting the 2010 Gubernatorial Candidate Forums. Tech America will be a supporting organization for the forums

Oregon’s economy is facing great challenges. The state is struggling with serious budgetary shortfalls and that is exacerbated by an unemployment rate that is hovering above 10 percent. With the recent passage of measures 66 & 67 many Oregonians question what the impact will be for Oregon businesses. Policies that support and encourage business growth and economic development are a top-of-mind priority for many Oregonians. These candidate forums are intended to provide an opportunity for members of the business community to ask the candidates from each party what they would do to help support business and economic growth in Oregon.

The Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate forum will take place on Wednesday, April 7 at Portland General Electric’s auditorium located at 121 SW Salmon St, 2WTC in Portland. It will feature Democratic candidates Bill Bradbury (www.bradburyfororegon.com) and John Kitzhaber, (www.johnkitzhaber.com).

The Republican Gubernatorial Candidate forum will take place on Tuesday, April 27 at the Multnomah Athletic Club 1849 SW Salmon St. in Portland. It will feature Republican candidates Allen Alley (www.allenalley.com) and Chris Dudley (www.chrisdudley.com).

Tickets are required for onsite attendees and individual live stream access. Registration is recommended for satellite venues.

The gubernatorial candidate forum will be held prior to the primaries and will be moderated by Laural Porter of KGW News (twitter.com/lauralkgw). Check-in begins at 4:00PM. The program will begin at 4:30 PM and will run to 6:00 PM. Tickets are $20 for members of presenting or supporting organizations and $40 for non-members. We encourage attendees to pre-register online using the link below.

The forums will be streamed live over the web. Individual web stream tickets can be purchased for $10 in advance, but business community members outside of the Portland area may attend a satellite event in their local area at no charge.

For more information about the forums, or to register for either of these events, please go to:

Democratic Candidates Forum: www.sao.org/event/dgp

Republican Candidates Forum: www.sao.org/event/rgp

Follow the discussions on twitter: #pdxGDP & #pdxRGP.

Who: Springboard Innovation hosts its monthly Social Innovation Forum on Wednesday, May 12th 2010, from 6-9pm. Due to limited space, RSVP is REQUIRED.

What: Join us after the ReVisioning Value Conference to learn about social entrepreneurship and social enterprise. How is social enterprise/business different from a traditional non-profit? What benefits and challenges does it offer? How does it tie into impact investing and new legal structures? Speakers and experts will facilitate discussion and learning. Join us!

Mark your calendars now and RSVP today! Space is limited. Learn more about the Forum at www.springboardinnovation.org/forum.php

When: May 12, 2010 5:30 Doors Open; appetizers, drinks and networking 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. Discussion and Workshops

Where: The Think Tank in the Olympic Mills Commerce Building, 107 SE Washington, Portland, or, 97214

Cost: $10, snacks and drinks included

RSVP and Contact: Please contact Mary Grace at (503) 452- 6898 or [email protected] for more information about this event and to RSVP.

About The Social Innovation Forum: The Springboard Social Innovation Forum offers a monthly event designed to support those interested in creating a better future. Our focus is to help practitioners or potential practitioners of social projects push beyond discussion and debate into action. Each Forum will inspire and teach with ideas, powerful role models, and stories. Speakers, content experts, panels, and workshops will help you improve your strategies for planning and launching effective social ventures. The Forum will create a context to connect, learn, and take action around ideas that lead to tangible change—all in a venue designed for building community. The Forum is intended to attract people with a wide range of experience and backgrounds, but with a common interest—making a difference. If you are getting tired of waiting for someone else to step up to take on issues you care about, come see how this can be a place to make a difference, here or around the world. We invite people from both the business and non-profit community—investors and activists—to join in, work together, and make this a model for other cities to adopt. Learn more about the Forum at www.springboardinnovation.org/forum.php

About Springboard Innovation Springboard Innovation (www.springboardinnovation.org) is a not-for-profit headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Through a process of “innovation incubation” we help community members launch social change organizations and programs. We invite you to be involved in our newest initiative for change.

Who: Springboard Innovation hosts its monthly Social Innovation Forum on Wednesday, May 12th 2010, from 6-9pm. There is limited space for this month’s event, so RSVP is REQUIRED.

What: ReVV 2010 is over, and it's time to discuss how to foster new models for change. What do we need to know? What resources and best practice should we be aware of? Let's talk more about social entrepreneurship and social enterprise. How is social enterprise/business different from creating a traditional nonprofit? What benefits and challenges does it offer? How does it tie into impact investing and new legal structures? Speakers and experts will facilitate discussion and learning.

We are delighted to present two regional experts who have rich backgrounds in both research and academia, as well as practical experience in enterprise development:

Kim Alter, Founder, Virtue Ventures and Venturesource, a brand new resource for social entrepreneurs.

Rob Wiltbank, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University and venture partner with Montlake Capital. Kim has been teaching at the Said Business School in Oxford for the last few years, has consulted with social ventures in over 40 countries, and is an author and leader in the field. Fresh from the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, Kim will share her experience in social ventures.

Rob presented at a breakout session at ReVV AND conducted a post-conference workshop and was counted as having shared one the seven key ideas identified from the conference. We're thrilled he has agreed to join us to share his research, and the very compelling implications is has for impact investing.

Don't miss this forum! Space is limited. Learn more about the Forum at www.springboardinnovation.org/forum.php

When: May 12th, 2010 5:30 Doors Open; appetizers, drinks and networking 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. Discussion and Workshops

Where: The "Think Tank" at Olympic Mills Commerce Center

Cost: $10, snacks and drinks included

RSVP and Contact: Please contact Mary Grace at (503) 452- 6898 or [email protected] for more information about this event and to RSVP.

About The Social Innovation Forum: The Springboard Social Innovation Forum offers a monthly event designed to support those interested in creating a better future. Our focus is to help practitioners or potential practitioners of social projects push beyond discussion and debate into action. Each Forum will inspire and teach with ideas, powerful role models, and stories. Speakers, content experts, panels, and workshops will help you improve your strategies for planning and launching effective social ventures. The Forum will create a context to connect, learn, and take action around ideas that lead to tangible change—all in a venue designed for building community. The Forum is intended to attract people with a wide range of experience and backgrounds, but with a common interest—making a difference. If you are getting tired of waiting for someone else to step up to take on issues you care about, come see how this can be a place to make a difference, here or around the world. We invite people from both the business and non-profit community—investors and activists—to join in, work together, and make this a model for other cities to adopt. Learn more about the Forum at www.springboardinnovation.org/forum.php

About Springboard Innovation Springboard Innovation (www.springboardinnovation.org) is a not-for-profit headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Through a process of “innovation incubation” we help community members launch social change organizations and programs. We invite you to be involved in our newest initiative for change.

Your future as the next global leader starts right now

The world is constantly changing…What does it takes to be the next global leader? Come join us for an amazing forum, discussion and social event brought to you by the Master of International Management (MIM). Learn more about the current and emerging global business trends in a competitive market through the personal stories of thought leaders from MIM as well as Fortune 500 corporations including DHL and LG International.

RSVP for this free event before it fills up -- limited to 25 seats!

When: Wednesday, October 20th, 6 p.m. Where: Smith Memorial Student Union 1825 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, 97201 Room 236 - The Cascade Room

Don’t miss the discussion that may help you become a global leader! RSVP now: http://psumim.eventbrite.com/

QA has seen so much happen in the last 5 years, from mobile, to cloud, to social media and beyond - challenging every company to do things faster and still maintain high quality. The question on the table is: Where does QA go from here? We’ve been hearing from our members that they would like a discussion about the future of Quality Assurance, Testing methodologies, and the impact it may have on our career paths. This is highlighted by the need to define the role of QA on an Agile team, which may differ from the classic "career QA” path.

We have assembled a panel of thought leaders representing the academic, business, and practitioner view to discuss and clarify the future path of QA . We hope you can join us for this interactive lunch event!

Click here for more information and to register!.

DIY Storytelling With Video with Julie Yamamoto, CMD Agency

To kick off this year’s series on storytelling, we’ll try on a few constructs for size. In this discussion, we will review a variety of ways to structure narratives, from the common to the complex, paired with examples from our current digital environment. Attendees will have the opportunity to survey different forms of storytelling and determine if some may work for their organizations’ needs. Hands-on talk about how to use video capture equipment and editing for storytelling and capturing user experiences for design, usability, research, social sharing and other needs.

Persona Stories: Weaving Together Qual and Quant for a Richer Picture with Whitney Quesenbery, WQusability.com

Stories have power to add empathy and connection to our work. They can help us learn about people, culture, and context—why, when, and how our products might be used—and share this with a design team. Stories permeate UX techniques from user stories to storyboards. They come to full power when used with personas: the persona provides a fully envisioned lead character for the story, a perspective through which interactions can be explored, and a voice for the emotional reactions to design ideas.

Creating stories for personas is a craft. They are not fiction, but are grounded in the data and user research that informs the persona. They are not fact, but are imagined events, shaped to explore possibilities. They are realistic, but not perhaps real, because they represent not just one individual or event, but something that might happen, and that provides insights into a user experience.

We’ll look at some structures that are helpful in crafting persona stories. And at questions like whether to write in first, second, or third person—and when each is valuable. We’ll create a quick story and share it, showing how impromptu stories can help in design sessions.

Show, Don’t Tell: Storytelling Experience Design in Modern Comics with Mike Lonergan, Intel

Comics are a collaborative storytelling effort—many talented individuals contribute to the success or failure of each comic book, much as a good design team leverages complementary talents in delivering a stunning product. When their talents are combined, the writer (information architect) and artists (visual designers) attract attention and deliver the mood and flow (interaction design) to pull the reader along a highly stylized, deliberate path. Mike will take you on an illuminating journey of discovery, highlighting his favorite design techniques in comics that facilitate not just the mechanics of reading but the pure enjoyment of these colorful stories.

Along the way, you’ll be granted a tour of comic book storytelling techniques that can enrich your design communications such as story boarding, visual cues and iconography and unique ways to show your users the happy path without having to tell them.

Ducks, Dolls & Robots: a Genealogy of Socio-Technical Anxieties with Dr. Genevieve Bell, Intel

The introductions of new technologies are rarely seamless and silent affairs. There are the inevitable boosters and utopian dreamers who will tell us and sell us on the notion that this new technology will change our lives, in both big and small ways: we will be cleaner, safer, happier, more efficient, more productive, and of course, more modern with all that implies. The message here is everything will be different, better. There are also the equally inevitable naysayers and dystopian dreamers who worry along equally familiar but slightly different lines: we will be less social, less secure, more isolated, and more homogenous. The message here is everything will be different, but perhaps not so much better. Of course, running in between these larger conversations are the practicalities of living with new technologies—how much does it cost? where does it live? who should look after it? what will we will do with it? and, in the end, what will we do without it?

Perhaps it is no surprise then that we worry, that new technologies are frequently accompanied by anxiety, and sometimes even fear. In this talk, Genevieve traces the roots of these hopes, fears and anxieties back through our history with machines—Vaucason’s Duck, Edison’s Talking Doll, the tea-cup robots of the Edo-period in Japan, Frankenstein’s monster and Ned Ludd’s polemics are all part of this story. She takes an expansive view, crossing cultures and historical periods, to create a genealogy of our socio-technical anxieties. Ultimately, she suggests a framework for making sense of these anxieties, and in so doing, a new way of thinking about the next generation of technologies we are designing.

Speaking the Language of Meta-Principles: Consistency, Hierarchy, and Personality with Deborah Levinson, Nimble Partners

When designing or redesigning an application, Nimble Partners focuses on three core principles: consistency, hierarchy, and personality. We can think of these principles as if they’re part of a language. Consistency and hierarchy are the grammar people learn while using an application: the basic elements that define how a language is spoken. The “words” we speak—that is, the visual design characteristics we choose to convey a message—create an application’s personality. These principles are so fundamental to creating successful interfaces that we call them “meta-principles.” While technology that affects interfaces changes, the underlying meta-principles hold true.

Nimble Partners arrived at these three meta-principles after years of heuristic reviews, usability studies, and informal observation of digital applications. In this talk, Deborah will introduce these principles and show how they apply in examples, including a case study redesign of a web and mobile application to help users track diet and exercise.

Epic FAIL: Takeways from the War Stories Project with Steve Portigal, Portigal Consulting

After nearly two years in gathering War Stories about the unusual, comic, tragic and otherwise astonishing things that happen in fieldwork, Portigal Consulting has amassed a compelling archive about the user research experience. While it’s common for the members of any group to share stories of their adventures, the user research community hasn’t supported this well. For a practice that feels misunderstood by others, there’s pressure to only share successes. Yet the confidence to share the honest and human messiness of this work can help develop the skill and even prestige of the community.

In this presentation, Steve will review some of the stories collected, highlight some of the patterns revealed by the stories, and suggest some of the lessons that we can take away. We’ll also feature live storytelling from a couple of local user researchers, sharing their own War Stories. Meanwhile, we invite you to contribute your own fieldwork War Story (about contextual research only, please) here.

Give Dimensions, a Face, and a Beating Heart to Projects Through Storytelling with Leah Noble Davidson, LeahNobleDavidson.com

Since qualitative research, or market research, can largely be spit out by a computer, we’ll take a look at how one can move beyond big data and do what a computer cannot do—go inside the head of a person and learn about their motivations and goals. Humanity’s experience is constantly shifting and so is the motivation behind our fears and goals, and that shift changes how we experience and use things. Story allows one to put a finger on that pulse. Story gets right to the bottom of things, it uncovers how the user will actually use the product in this time/place, how they will experience it in their lives, in their own home/office etc. Story is research above market “fill in the blank” research. It exposes rituals, and when one works to streamline those rituals, innovation enters. Discovering this level of story has another great benefit: it can be used to created scene stealing pitches in front of clients. One can stand in front a user or a client and paint out the story of how this will be a great new part of their lives.

Lost But Not Forgetten: The Thanhouser Studio Ned Thanhouser, Thanhouser Films

Film history has forgotten the pioneering productions created by the Thanhouser studio that operated in New Rochelle, New York during the birth of cinema in America. From 1910 to 1917 the Thanhouser studio produced and released more than 1,000 films, of which some 220 have survived. Reconstructing the history of his grandfather’s studio and the stories behind key executives, actors, technicians, directors, and the films they made has been Ned Thanhouser’s focus for more than 25 years. He will share these stories, as well as the challenges posed by decades of changing video technology and the surprising results of making the films available for free online.

About the Speaker Ned Thanhouser (@nthanhou) is the grandson of silent film pioneers Gertrude and Edwin Thanhouser and is president of Thanhouser Company Film Preservation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. Since 1986, he has been actively involved in the research, acquisition, preservation and publication of the history, surviving films, and related ephemera from the Thanhouser studio that operated in New Rochelle, NY from 1909 to 1918. He is a member of Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) and the Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) and has presented and published research papers at the SCMS conferences (2005, 2013), the AMIA Journal The Moving Image (2011), the Women and the Silent Screen conference (2006), and the Domitor conference (2012). He is also co-founder and vice-president of the International Youth Silent Film Festival which organizes competitions for filmmakers age 20 and under to create modern versions of silent films.

Fieldwork for Human Computer Interaction: A 4-Part Workshop on Ethnographically-Informed Fieldwork

Sara Bly and Françoise Brun-Cottan

A growing number of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers and practitioners use the results of fieldwork to guide the design and evaluate the user experience of interactive systems and technologies. Why? Because data about real people in real situations spurs creativity and innovation around practical challenges, resulting in more useful and usable artifacts.

Fieldwork for HCI typically consists of firsthand observations made in the naturally occurring environment of use (as opposed to studies performed in a controlled environment). Many techniques are adapted from anthropology – particularly ethnography.

As the mobile app and manufacturing industries grow in Oregon, UX designers are increasingly recruited from out-of-state. The Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon - CHIFOO - recognizes a local need for more basic training in this area.

Workshop Format This practicum is a new offering by CHIFOO, separate from the popular monthly guest lecture series. Developed with industry experts Sara Bly and Françoise Brun-Cottan, this unique pilot program serves as a first test model for future educational programs by CHIFOO.

To conduct fieldwork well, the researcher needs the knowledge, ability and access to observe the activities and complexities of people within the context of their day-to-day pursuits. This makes it difficult to practice in a classroom-only or online environment. The methodology is best learned by apprenticeship and experience.

Each session builds on the prior one. Participants are expected to attend three private classroom sessions, to complete group assignments in between, and to ‘report out’ on the experience in teams at the last session, an open CHIFOO event. Sessions will be held:

• Sunday, October 5, 12-4 pm
• Wednesday, October 15 6-9 pm
• Wednesday, October 29, 6-9 pm
• Wednesday, November 12, 6-9 pm

Who Should Participate? The practicum is tailored especially towards locals who seek a better command and understanding of the skills utilized by User Experience Analysts, Design Engineers, and Interaction Designers.

To make the learning experience as rich, collaborative and personalized as possible, the # of participants is capped at 16. Group exercises are designed to be completed in teams of 2-4.

About the Instructors

Dr. Sara Bly – Head Instructor – Sara Bly has been an active researcher and practitioner in qualitative user studies for more than 25 years. Ethnographically-informed fieldwork is a major component of her user experience studies, which focus on understanding the context of an activity as well as the specific user task. During Sara’s tenure at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, she served on multi-disciplinary teams with anthropologists, designers, and computer scientists. Sara has worked in a variety of companies and development teams, and has experience teaching user study techniques for both industry and academia. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from University of California, Davis. Currently Sara Bly lives in Oregon and consults nationally.

Francoise Brun-Cottan, Phd – Instructor - Anthropologist Francoise Brun-Cottan spent over a decade as a Work Place Ethnographer and Interaction Analyst with Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). Specialties include:

Integration of ethnographic insights with engineering research, product/services development and design to inform innovation. Ethnography - Observation and interviewing, analysis and representations of work practices and user experience. Video ethnography Conversation and Interaction Analysis Work Practice and Participatory Design Studies. Currently Francoise Brun-Cottan consults for libraries, government agencies, large corporations and research agencies.

Clodine Mallinckrodt – Facilitator – From Wall Street to MarCom Way, Clodine Mallinckrodt’s varied background spans the early days of interactive multimedia and distance learning to data security and strategy consulting. Currently, Clodine is Manager of Ambulatory Reporting & Analytics for Providence Health & Services, where she enjoys enabling analyst teams to deliver data visualization and exploration tools to healthcare executives throughout the west. She helped develop new Providence Consumer Segments, is a GE-certified Change Facilitator, and trained in Lean. Based in Portland, OR, Clodine Mallinckrodt is Program Co-Chair for CHIFOO.

Register Online Be an Early Bird! Get the best price by registering before August 20.

Art of Articulation with Lee Fain, Electrolux

Products, services and technology have a political gauntlet to conquer before they make their first appearance in the marketplace. Often the first line of defense in a corporate environment is the internal audience and invested key stakeholders.

Developing the solution is not enough. How you communicate the idea is just as important as the solution itself. Communicating your approach at the right time with the right mediums, and using the right level of fidelity to motivate the audience into action is an art. One needs to be an effective persuader. One needs to be a provocateur.

About the Speaker Lee Fain (@houseoffain) leverages the process of design provocation to develop compelling stories of technology while building deeper relationships within 3M’s culture of innovation. He currently leads design-centric initiatives for 3M’s Electronics & Energy Business Group based in Saint Paul, MN. His expertise is in contextualizing material science solutions through the tools of design and articulating big stories of innovation with high fidelity video productions.

Before this role, Lee was a strategic designer within 3M’s Consumer Business Group where he developed product design strategies for brands including Post-it and Scotch. His experience over the past 10 years ranged from website development for the US Air Force in Aviano, Italy to appliance design for General Electric to expanding intellectual property claims on emerging technologies. Most recently his design thinking was highlighted in a book titled: Solving Problems with Design Thinking: Ten Stories of What Works (Columbia University Press).

Lee Fain received a Master of Fine Arts in Industrial Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Campbell University in North Carolina. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota enjoying its tropical climate with his wife and two children.

Fieldwork for Human Computer Interaction: A 4-Part Workshop on Ethnographically-Informed Fieldwork

A growing number of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers and practitioners use the results of fieldwork to guide the design and evaluate the user experience of interactive systems and technologies. Why? Because data about real people in real situations spurs creativity and innovation around practical challenges, resulting in more useful and usable artifacts.

Fieldwork for HCI typically consists of firsthand observations made in the naturally occurring environment of use (as opposed to studies performed in a controlled environment). Many techniques are adapted from anthropology – particularly ethnography.

As the mobile app and manufacturing industries grow in Oregon, UX designers are increasingly recruited from out-of-state. The Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon - CHIFOO - recognizes a local need for more basic training in this area.

Workshop Format This practicum is a new offering by CHIFOO, separate from the popular monthly guest lecture series. Developed with industry experts Sara Bly and Françoise Brun-Cottan, this unique pilot program serves as a first test model for future educational programs by CHIFOO.

To conduct fieldwork well, the researcher needs the knowledge, ability and access to observe the activities and complexities of people within the context of their day-to-day pursuits. This makes it difficult to practice in a classroom-only or online environment. The methodology is best learned by apprenticeship and experience.

Each session builds on the prior one. Participants are expected to attend three private classroom sessions, to complete group assignments in between, and to ‘report out’ on the experience in teams at the last session, an open CHIFOO event. Sessions will be held:

Sunday, October 5, 12-4 pm Wednesday, October 15 6-9 pm Wednesday, October 29, 6-9 pm Wednesday, November 12, 6-9 pm

Who Should Participate? The practicum is tailored especially towards locals who seek a better command and understanding of the skills utilized by User Experience Analysts, Design Engineers, and Interaction Designers.

To make the learning experience as rich, collaborative and personalized as possible, the # of participants is capped at 16. Group exercises are designed to be completed in teams of 2-4.

About the Instructors

Dr. Sara Bly – Head Instructor – Sara Bly has been an active researcher and practitioner in qualitative user studies for more than 25 years. Ethnographically-informed fieldwork is a major component of her user experience studies, which focus on understanding the context of an activity as well as the specific user task. During Sara’s tenure at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, she served on multi-disciplinary teams with anthropologists, designers, and computer scientists. Sara has worked in a variety of companies and development teams, and has experience teaching user study techniques for both industry and academia. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from University of California, Davis. Currently Sara Bly lives in Oregon and consults nationally.

Francoise Brun-Cottan, Phd – Instructor - Anthropologist Francoise Brun-Cottan spent over a decade as a Work Place Ethnographer and Interaction Analyst with Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). Specialties include:

Integration of ethnographic insights with engineering research, product/services development and design to inform innovation. Ethnography - Observation and interviewing, analysis and representations of work practices and user experience. Video ethnography Conversation and Interaction Analysis Work Practice and Participatory Design Studies. Currently Francoise Brun-Cottan consults for libraries, government agencies, large corporations and research agencies.

Clodine Mallinckrodt – Facilitator – From Wall Street to MarCom Way, Clodine Mallinckrodt’s varied background spans the early days of interactive multimedia and distance learning to data security and strategy consulting. Currently, Clodine is Manager of Ambulatory Reporting & Analytics for Providence Health & Services, where she enjoys enabling analyst teams to deliver data visualization and exploration tools to healthcare executives throughout the west. She helped develop new Providence Consumer Segments, is a GE-certified Change Facilitator, and trained in Lean. Based in Portland, OR, Clodine Mallinckrodt is Program Co-Chair for CHIFOO.

Register Online Be an Early Bird! Get the best price by registering before August 20.

Fieldwork for Human Computer Interaction: A 4-Part Workshop on Ethnographically-Informed Fieldwork

Sara Bly and Françoise Brun-Cottan

A growing number of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers and practitioners use the results of fieldwork to guide the design and evaluate the user experience of interactive systems and technologies. Why? Because data about real people in real situations spurs creativity and innovation around practical challenges, resulting in more useful and usable artifacts.

Fieldwork for HCI typically consists of firsthand observations made in the naturally occurring environment of use (as opposed to studies performed in a controlled environment). Many techniques are adapted from anthropology – particularly ethnography.

As the mobile app and manufacturing industries grow in Oregon, UX designers are increasingly recruited from out-of-state. The Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon - CHIFOO - recognizes a local need for more basic training in this area.

Workshop Format This practicum is a new offering by CHIFOO, separate from the popular monthly guest lecture series. Developed with industry experts Sara Bly and Françoise Brun-Cottan, this unique pilot program serves as a first test model for future educational programs by CHIFOO.

To conduct fieldwork well, the researcher needs the knowledge, ability and access to observe the activities and complexities of people within the context of their day-to-day pursuits. This makes it difficult to practice in a classroom-only or online environment. The methodology is best learned by apprenticeship and experience.

Each session builds on the prior one. Participants are expected to attend three private classroom sessions, to complete group assignments in between, and to ‘report out’ on the experience in teams at the last session, an open CHIFOO event. Sessions will be held:

Sunday, October 5, 12-4 pm Wednesday, October 15 6-9 pm Wednesday, October 29, 6-9 pm Wednesday, November 12, 6-9 pm

Who Should Participate? The practicum is tailored especially towards locals who seek a better command and understanding of the skills utilized by User Experience Analysts, Design Engineers, and Interaction Designers.

To make the learning experience as rich, collaborative and personalized as possible, the # of participants is capped at 16. Group exercises are designed to be completed in teams of 2-4.

About the Instructors

Dr. Sara Bly – Head Instructor – Sara Bly has been an active researcher and practitioner in qualitative user studies for more than 25 years. Ethnographically-informed fieldwork is a major component of her user experience studies, which focus on understanding the context of an activity as well as the specific user task. During Sara’s tenure at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, she served on multi-disciplinary teams with anthropologists, designers, and computer scientists. Sara has worked in a variety of companies and development teams, and has experience teaching user study techniques for both industry and academia. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from University of California, Davis. Currently Sara Bly lives in Oregon and consults nationally.

Francoise Brun-Cottan, Phd – Instructor - Anthropologist Francoise Brun-Cottan spent over a decade as a Work Place Ethnographer and Interaction Analyst with Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). Specialties include:

Integration of ethnographic insights with engineering research, product/services development and design to inform innovation. Ethnography - Observation and interviewing, analysis and representations of work practices and user experience. Video ethnography Conversation and Interaction Analysis Work Practice and Participatory Design Studies. Currently Francoise Brun-Cottan consults for libraries, government agencies, large corporations and research agencies.

Clodine Mallinckrodt – Facilitator – From Wall Street to MarCom Way, Clodine Mallinckrodt’s varied background spans the early days of interactive multimedia and distance learning to data security and strategy consulting. Currently, Clodine is Manager of Ambulatory Reporting & Analytics for Providence Health & Services, where she enjoys enabling analyst teams to deliver data visualization and exploration tools to healthcare executives throughout the west. She helped develop new Providence Consumer Segments, is a GE-certified Change Facilitator, and trained in Lean. Based in Portland, OR, Clodine Mallinckrodt is Program Co-Chair for CHIFOO.

Register Online Be an Early Bird! Get the best price by registering before August 20.

Big Story, Little Story with Jason Sack, Wieden+Kennedy

Working the last couple years in a building full of storytellers, Jason Sack has learned how powerful narrative can be in creating great products and experiences. Selling an idea, creating a sense of drama, and maintaining engagement in an experience all stand to benefit from a better understanding of storytelling. Because UX people are uniquely positioned to work across disciplines, we can act as stewards of our stories as well as those of our users. Using examples and anecdotes, Jason will walk through a variety of ways we can bring the larger story to life while reinforcing it down to the smallest interactions.

About the Speaker Jason Sack (@jasonsack) is currently Lead User Experience Designer at the global agency Wieden + Kennedy. He moved to Portland two years ago from the Bay area, where he led design teams at notable Silicon Valley companies such as Adobe and Apple. He has worked with Nike, American Express, 3M, Imation, General Mills, and many more.

Sack began his design career in Minneapolis, where he built the User Experience practice at digital agency space150. He studied at the University of Minnesota and California State University, and has taught interactive design at the Art Institutes International.

Jason is a passionate advocate of human-centered design, and has spoken throughout the country about emotional design, user experience, and innovation. When he’s not working Jason composes music, hacks wireless children’s toys, and writes an occasional post in his blog at jasonsack.com.

Fieldwork for Human Computer Interaction: A 4-Part Workshop on Ethnographically-Informed Fieldwork

Sara Bly and Françoise Brun-Cottan

A growing number of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers and practitioners use the results of fieldwork to guide the design and evaluate the user experience of interactive systems and technologies. Why? Because data about real people in real situations spurs creativity and innovation around practical challenges, resulting in more useful and usable artifacts.

Fieldwork for HCI typically consists of firsthand observations made in the naturally occurring environment of use (as opposed to studies performed in a controlled environment). Many techniques are adapted from anthropology – particularly ethnography.

As the mobile app and manufacturing industries grow in Oregon, UX designers are increasingly recruited from out-of-state. The Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon - CHIFOO - recognizes a local need for more basic training in this area.

Workshop Format This practicum is a new offering by CHIFOO, separate from the popular monthly guest lecture series. Developed with industry experts Sara Bly and Françoise Brun-Cottan, this unique pilot program serves as a first test model for future educational programs by CHIFOO.

To conduct fieldwork well, the researcher needs the knowledge, ability and access to observe the activities and complexities of people within the context of their day-to-day pursuits. This makes it difficult to practice in a classroom-only or online environment. The methodology is best learned by apprenticeship and experience.

Each session builds on the prior one. Participants are expected to attend three private classroom sessions, to complete group assignments in between, and to ‘report out’ on the experience in teams at the last session, an open CHIFOO event. Sessions will be held:

Sunday, October 5, 12-4 pm Wednesday, October 15 6-9 pm Wednesday, October 29, 6-9 pm Wednesday, November 12, 6-9 pm

Who Should Participate? The practicum is tailored especially towards locals who seek a better command and understanding of the skills utilized by User Experience Analysts, Design Engineers, and Interaction Designers.

To make the learning experience as rich, collaborative and personalized as possible, the # of participants is capped at 16. Group exercises are designed to be completed in teams of 2-4.

About the Instructors

Dr. Sara Bly – Head Instructor – Sara Bly has been an active researcher and practitioner in qualitative user studies for more than 25 years. Ethnographically-informed fieldwork is a major component of her user experience studies, which focus on understanding the context of an activity as well as the specific user task. During Sara’s tenure at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, she served on multi-disciplinary teams with anthropologists, designers, and computer scientists. Sara has worked in a variety of companies and development teams, and has experience teaching user study techniques for both industry and academia. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from University of California, Davis. Currently Sara Bly lives in Oregon and consults nationally.

Francoise Brun-Cottan, Phd – Instructor - Anthropologist Francoise Brun-Cottan spent over a decade as a Work Place Ethnographer and Interaction Analyst with Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). Specialties include:

Integration of ethnographic insights with engineering research, product/services development and design to inform innovation. Ethnography - Observation and interviewing, analysis and representations of work practices and user experience. Video ethnography Conversation and Interaction Analysis Work Practice and Participatory Design Studies. Currently Francoise Brun-Cottan consults for libraries, government agencies, large corporations and research agencies.

Clodine Mallinckrodt – Facilitator – From Wall Street to MarCom Way, Clodine Mallinckrodt’s varied background spans the early days of interactive multimedia and distance learning to data security and strategy consulting. Currently, Clodine is Manager of Ambulatory Reporting & Analytics for Providence Health & Services, where she enjoys enabling analyst teams to deliver data visualization and exploration tools to healthcare executives throughout the west. She helped develop new Providence Consumer Segments, is a GE-certified Change Facilitator, and trained in Lean. Based in Portland, OR, Clodine Mallinckrodt is Program Co-Chair for CHIFOO.

Register Online Be an Early Bird! Get the best price by registering before August 20.

Play Matters with David Galiel, Elbowfish

David will share how emerging developments in HCI are creating virtual civic spaces. Learn how David and Elbowfish succeed in applying game-inspired approaches to improving work, converting customers to fans, and harnessing the power of community.

"If It Isn’t Fun, No One Will Care" with Grant Roberts, E-Line Media

Grant will share a variety of game and human-computer interaction design insights from his long career in the video game industry — which has featured Marvel Comics games for kids, free-to-play games for phones, big-budget sequels for the hardcore, and casino games for the bargain bin.

“Gamers Succeed Where Scientists Don’t- Combining Humans and Computers to Solve Scientific Problems” with Seth Cooper, Center for Game Science, Northeastern University

Rather than solving problems with a purely computational approach, combining humans and computers can provide a means for solving problems neither could solve alone. Seth will describe the challenges of mapping real-world problems onto games and ways to address these challenges. Further, Seth will discuss other current problem solving game projects and future possibilities.

"Mental Health & Social Impact Are No Game - Or Are They?" with Skyler Corbett, University of Portland Online Learning Development and Yori Kvitchko, SleepNinja Games

CHIFOO 2-for-1! Skyler will cover educational developments in the indie gaming, “You Have Gained A Level - Adding Empathy and Understanding to Online Education”. Yori will be filling in and covering the same topic as Will Lewis. He'll share the pros and cons of applying gameful design to HCI in “Games for Social Good”.

"’Outside-In’ Engagement: Identity, Transformation, and Agency in Digital Story Based Games” with Josh Tanenbaum, Transformative Play Lab, University of California

Joshua will help us draw on theories of method acting training to investigate how to support the experience of transforming into a character in a digital narrative. Then we'll discuss the relationships between embodied game interfaces, tangible storytelling, game-based-learning, virtual worlds, and nonverbal communication.

“Online Story-Driven Games” with Rym DeCoster, FIX Flyer, Geek Nights, & Datenighto

Through his geek-focused radio talk show, events and lecturing, Rym has had exposure to and a direct hand in a variety of projects that leverage game-inspired techniques in a computer interface, and will delight us with his stories about how he's observed the unique interaction of gaming and how HCI is maturing.

7CTOs is a forum for technology leaders to share wisdom, experience and advice. Come enjoy a 2 hour introductory forum led by fellow CTO and founder of 7CTOs, Etienne de Bruin that will help you connect with other CTOs in Portland and grow as technology leader in your own company.

Come and enjoy drinks and appetizers. For more information on 7CTOs, please visit 7ctos.com/story or e-mail me any time at [email protected].

This event is free to CTOs and technology co-founders, leaders but please RSVP over here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/innovative-cto-mini-lab-hosted-by-7ctos-portland-cto-tickets-22746408119

Etienne

There are always scenarios where when given a hard deadline, we must respond with what work can be accomplished by that date. How do we know when to work with what we have been charged to do or push back? What options do we have?

How do we know when to Commit, Estimate or Explore in differing technical or business scenarios? When choosing estimation or exploration as an option, how do you communicate your reasons and negotiate with your customer or stakeholder when he or she would prefer a commitment?

We will meet in a conference room at CENTRL and spend 2 hours together discussing this topic and getting to know more about each other's business challenges. We will also run through a few exercises designed to challenge our thinking and ultimately make us better leaders.

Agenda

We are meeting at CENTRL 1355 NW Everett St on April 25, 2016

6pm: Food and Drinks

6:30pm: Get started on Forum discussions topic: Estimates

7:30pm: Exercise

8pm: Done!

What is 7CTOs?

7CTOs is a Chief Technologist Community of Practice where we share business challenges, grow together and collectively solve hard problems for the greater good. We meet in forums of 7 members on a monthly basis in cities across the USA. Check out 7ctos.com/story