Los Angeles ACM Chapter Meeting
Wednesday, April 1, 1998
Hal Berghel, ACM Lecturer
The social effect of the Web is not well understood. Not surprisingly, the zeal to harness and exploit the richness of Web resources and technology, combined with the desire to capitalize on commercial Web services, have taken precedence over efforts to understand the social dimensions of Web use. This talk will discuss such major implications of Web use including the centrality of location transparency to the concept of electronic communities, the effects of information overload, the degree to which future technology will be enticing and immersive, the benefits and weaknesses of anonymous engagement and relative identity, and the degree to which electronic communities will replace more traditional forms of information exchange.
Hal Berghel is currently Professor of Computer Science at the University of Arkansas and past Director and co-founder of the University's Center for Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems. His research interests include electronic information management, particularly with an emphasis on ill-structured data, and software and interface architectures, especially with regard to information agency and highly interactive and participatory systems. His research work appears frequently in such publications as "Computer" and the "Communications of the ACM".
Berghel was also the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Society for Computer and Information Technology (ASCIT). He is currently a member of both the ACM Publications and ACM Member Activities Boards. He is also a past Director of the ACM Lectureship Series, and remains chair of both the ACM Technology Outreach Program, and the ACM Electronic Communities Committee.
Berghel also publishes extensively on cyberspace in a wide variety of scholarly and trade publications, and has designed or developed countless interactive Websites for applications as diverse as Web client compatibility test patterns, networked gaming, digital ballot boxes, interactive CGI programming support, digital publications and the ACM's Web-based Graduate Assistantship Directory, to name but a few.
Berghel has also been an IEEE Distinguished Visitor, and has twice been selected as ACM Lecturer of the Year. He was awarded the 1996 ACM Distinguished Service Award. He is also a Fellow of the ACM.
Please join us for dinner. The charge is $19 with a reservation, $21 without. Non-members are welcome at the same price.
There is always a choice of beef, either chicken or fish, or vegetarian plate.
Dinner is served at 7:00 PM with a preceding social hour at 6:30 PM.
The technical program begins at 8:00 PM.
To make a reservation, contact Ed Manderfield, (310) 391-5936, and indicate your choice of entree, by Sunday before the dinner meeting. There is no charge or reservation required to attend the program. Parking is free!
For membership information, contact Lee Schmidt, (805) 393-6224.
Last revision: 1998 Mar 9 [ls]