HotSoft

WikiSym2008 in Porto was a great success. The organization was superb, and Ademar Aguiar and his colleagues did a wonderful job. Moreover, I really felt the conference reached a level of cohesion I had not seen before. There was a feeling of cooperation among people working with different technological approaches. Even more impressive, I found a real harmony that encompassed people taking the human perspective of wikis as well as people working on technology. The two most interesting ideas I saw were involved wikis for knowledge mangement in organizations (a popular theme in doctoral research) and glimpses of a new kind of end-user programming within wikis. WikiSym 2009 will be held in Orlando, USA, at the same time as the OOPSLA conference in the same location. – Robert Biddle

We had a nice, albeit rainy, stay in Liverpool, UK, for the British HCI conference this year. It was our first time attending and we were unsure what to expect. We were impressed by the quality of the presentations and the organization (including the great dinners held at great locations!). The presentations covered a wide range of topics, ranging from practical to artistic. In 2009, the conference will be held in Cambridge and judging from this year’s, it will be well worth attending.