A limited number of digital photos (as opposed to the Polaroid photos we were also shooting!) on Facebook. Feel free to add your photostream to the list. http://tr.im/oEup

What plans are there to get attendees using this Crowdvine site? I've tweeted about it...have you? What percentage of attendees can we hope for on here? 50%? 75%? Lyle

Kate Caldwell: Hey Lyle! We have a few socnets going including Crowdvine. I'm also curious to see if we get more hits where people are already due to integration (LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr) Twitter seems to be being used a LOT for the #UPA2009 tags. When I go down... [read more]

James McElroy: based on the responses to date, 5-10% may be more on target - what benefit does using a closed social networking site that requires me to register offer over the open ones I already use?

Kate Caldwell: That was my concern. I think the 51 of us on here (if we include the conference logo;-)) can testify to it not being a really good idea for that very reason... Try and fail;-) Hope everyone enjoyed the conference. Have a great rest of week! Kate

Folks who are actively volunteering for the User Experience Network are gathering at 5pm on Thursday (location TBD) to touch base on what is going on with UXnet and the user experience profession overall. Very informal. It is rare that you get meet your "virtual colleagues" face-to-face... If you are a UXnet volunteer and I have not already invited you to this meeting, then I apologize. You are also welcome to attend. We also welcome anyone else ... [read more]

Keith Instone: We have a room now for the UXnet gathering: Galleria III/Yoga room on your UPA map. (But you may see it called Galleria I/South.) It is on the ballroom/basement floor, behind the elevators. Again, anyone interested in UXnet is welcome to join us.

I am traveling with my family to Portland (girl, girl, boy, wife, kids age range 7-15). They are planning on doing their own thing while I am at the UPA conference, but if there is something they would enjoy, then I will let them tag along. I looked at the program and nothing jumped out at me. When we were in Boston for CHI, we did find one evening where they found something fun for them - see http://www.flickr.com/photos/keithinstone/3422978310/... [read more]

Keith Instone: Thanks. We have a long list of things for my family to do in the Portland area. I was hoping there would be something happening as part of the UPA conference experience that they would enjoy. Two of my 3 kids would enjoy coming to the conference with... [read more]

Attendance pretty sparse, so I wanted to gather thoughts! Thought starters: 1) What problems have you faced in making decisions/suggestions? 2) How do you ensure legacy users are able to easily learn to use the new version? 3) Is the term 'usable' relative? 4) How do you make the tradeoff b/t potentially alienating legacy users and creating software that follows 'good principles'? Thanks!

Kate just told me that there are people from 21 countries coming to UPA this year. Can't wait to meet you all!

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Susan Dray: Wow! Cool! I'm from the US.

Kate Caldwell: Canada!

Alain Robillard-Bastien: All in all, we are from 21 different countries! :)

One of the best things about conferences is to match a face to a name. We are going to encourage more of this at the conference with some old school Polaroid cameras. (We have an exhibition booth and thought we'd do something a bit more fun than hand out brochures). So, speakers especially - we'd love to snap your photo and pin it up on our boards. It will mean people can find you more easily and hit you up for questions during the breaks. If you... [read more]

OK, I am not too shy to wait for someone else to start the first discussion. The problem is I have no idea what the first discussion should be about. (^:

Kate Caldwell: How about what you think of the conference schedule so far? I know I`m plugging it, but that's part of the job;-)

Keith Instone: The schedule I see here looks good - https://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/upa_conference/app/schedule/index/for:2009 I have browsed it and find some thing I am pretty sure I want to attend, some I will avoid and some I am not sure of. Are you plann... [read more]

Kate Caldwell: Thanks Keith. We actually do have that feature somewhere in the rollout, currently deciding whether we can implement in time. Do you think it's easy to do on Crowdvine? Kate