STC Usability SIG Newsletter
Usability Interface

Editorial: Keeping the Community Informed

by David Dick 

In this issue, Andrea Ames, STC President, describes the scope of the STC Transition, and Karen Bachmann describes how it affects the Usability SIG. The Transition is a reaction to declining membership and perceived member value. Declining membership and commitment to members meant that the Society had to reduce subsidies to Chapters and SIGs, put publications online instead of printing them, use e-mail as a method to inform members instead of sending correspondence in the mail, and limit amenities offered at the annual conference or increase conference costs and membership fees. The good news—the Society didn’t increase conference fees and membership renewal.

Rising publication and mailing costs forced us to look at ways to reduce our costs. The only major cost we have is the publication and mailing of the newsletter. The member survey in January 2003 told us that you wanted a printed copy of the newsletter. In August, we published a mini newsletter. It was only intended to publish a feature article, SIG news, and draw your attention to the Web site where additional articles are published.

Publishing an online offered value-added benefits to members:

• No limitation on the number of pages an issue can have. This issue has 16 pages of articles.
• Authors make greater use of URLs to point to Web sites where additional information is available.
• Greater use of color than possible with the printed (black and white) newsletter.
• Articles are read by a wider audience than ever before because they are accessible via the Internet. They like what they read and are becoming STC members.

It’s all in an effort to keep the community informed.