CHI 99 Press Releases

Press Releases:

Jakob Nielsen, most websites failing

Cyberspace Civil Wars - censorship and the web

How to Succeed in Business by Really Trying

Digital Library or Digital Store?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Computer Controlled Kids Toys

(PALO ALTO, CA) March 16, 1999 -- The human-computer interaction (HCI) community faces many new issues as a result of the increasing amounts of information being delivered on the World Wide Web. Some of these issues are technological, but other important new issues concern political and social forces. When politics and differing societal goals come into conflict with new media, the result is challenges to free speech and access to information on the Web. These important disputes will be discussed at the upcoming CHI 99 Conference on Computer-Human Interaction.

Several years ago Web users experienced a serious legal attack, the Communications Decency Act (CDA), passed by the United States Congress. Ann Beeson, a staff attorney for the ACLU National Legal Department and principal in the successful fight against the Act, will speak at the closing plenary for CHI 99. Beeson is a specialist in the area of civil liberties in cyberspace, with the ability to translate the language of high technology to concepts persuasive to the courts.

More recently, the U.S. Congress passed another bill named the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). Beeson is the lead council for the ACLU fight against this bill. She comments that "COPA does nothing to protect children" and that it "has the potential to devastate small on-line businesses." Her efforts have resulted in a temporary injunction preventing enforcement of the new law.

The CDA and COPA legislation are examples of what happens when new technologies collide with existing law and custom -- something that regularly occurs whenever new technologies are introduced. However, according to Beeson, "the Web should be entitled greater (rather than less) protection than other media because of its free-speech enhancing characteristics." Beeson also points out that the issues in these cases were not so much technical or legal, as they were about the people creating content and using the Web, and the compelling nature of these uses. Beeson emphasizes that "what convinced the courts to overturn the CDA was the important nature of what people were doing on the Web, and the potential harm the Act could do to these activities."

CHI is the premier worldwide forum for the exchange of information on all aspects of how people interact with computers. The annual conference features a full program of presentations, tutorials and vendor exhibits. Approximately 2500 professionals from over 35 countries will examine the future of human-computer interaction from 15-20 May in Pittsburgh, PA at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center at CHI 99.

CHI conferences are sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM)'s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI). The CHI conference is traditionally supported by industry organizations. The CHI 99 champion sponsors include: Microsoft, Motorola, National Science Foundation, Sun Microsystems and Yahoo! Inc.

For more information about CHI 99 or the field of human-computer interaction, please contact Ace Public Relations at: chi99media@PublicizeIt.com