TIMELINESMCC's human interface laboratory: the promise and perils of long-term research

Success famously has many parents, and SIGCHI is no exception. A strong paternity claim can be made by Bill Curtis, who garnered funding and organized ACM's sponsorship for the Gaithersburg conference in 1982, during which plans to form SIGCHI were announced. The successful and unexpectedly profitable Gaithersburg meeting provided the model for the first CHI conference, which convened in Boston in December 1983. In this column, Bill discusses his subsequent involvement with the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation. This research enterprise, largely forgotten today, was highly influential in the 1980s, hiring and providing visibility to HCI researchers, many of whom remain active. From 1986 to 1989, I was one of the occupants of that unusual building in Austin, Texas, where the fourth-floor management comprised mainly former intelligence-agency employees, while many researchers on the floors below were there in part to avoid working on Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars") projects.As Timelines editor, I would like to thank Richard Anderson and Jon Kolko for their unwavering support and assistance, and for the inspiration provided by their dedication to and outstanding stewardship of this magazine.---Jonathan Grudin