Some of you may remember that I published a WWII book a few years ago - written by Harry A. Franck in 1944-45, it’s the story of the 9th Air Force in the ETO. As part of that effort, we set up a web site (cleverly called www.harryafranck.com) and sent copies of the book to many of the men mentioned in it. “Winter Journey Through the Ninth” is available through the site or Amazon, though as you might expect, after several years in print, sales have declined to what you’d have to call “minimal.”

As a result of that effort, I get lots of email and sometimes phone calls from people who typically have one of two questions:

1. “My (father/grandfather/uncle/relative/neighbor) was in the 9th Air Force, and he just passed away - can you tell me about his experience?”

Well, no I can’t. Unless he was one of the 200+ men mentioned in the book (and there’s a list of their names on the site), I have no idea what it was like for anyone in 1944-45. Though I can’t help these individuals, I do want to share the lesson with everyone else. The time to ask this question is while your *whoever* is still around to answer for himself! And I’m not limiting this just to WWII survivors - talk to ALL your older relatives and friends, help them to see the importance of capturing their stories while you can.

2. “I (or my father/grandfather/uncle/relative/neighbor) was in the 9th Air Force, and have a great story to tell! Can you help me publish it?”

Well, no I can’t, not really. “Winter Journey Through the Ninth” was definitely a labor of love, not a profit-making enterprise. No offense to anyone else’s family, but I just don’t have the passion or energy to do that much work again for someone I don’t know.

But I CAN help a little bit with both of these questions by pointing out that there are lots of people and organizations who are trying to capture these types of stories and preserve them for the future. Here’s just a few resources - either for learning about what those times were like, OR for contributing your piece of the larger story.

Library of Congress Veteran’s History Project provides forms and helpful hints on turning your notes into a story. They’ve got a whole archive of finished projects online.

The Army Air Forces Historical Association actually sell some of their collected oral histories.

The National WWII Museum has small set of oral histories, and lots of other information and events and programs.

“Our WWII Veterans” is a private organization that preserves WWII stories and also tries to help fund trips for veterans to visit the memorial in DC.

The EHistory site at OSU has a large resource set of primary sources for a lot of time frames, not just WWII. Easy to waste a lot of time looking through their fascinating info!

There are often projects for subsets of the larger “WWII” category - for example, the Oral History project at Rutgers University works hard to capture WWII stories with a New Jersey tie-in, and there are lots of organizations devoted to the sub-sets of the 9th or other Air Forces (such as the 391st Bomb Group Association.

Check out the History Channel’s “Save Our History” effort - lots of different topics, and links to resources for educators.

The important thing to remember throughout all of this is that EVERYONE’S story is valuable. Write things down, pull out the old cassette recorder, video tape where appropriate! Even just making sure that all those old photos have written captions on the back is a huge step toward saving what will become the story of your family.

This week, the Usability Professionals Association is having their annual conference up in Portland, OR. This year’s theme is “Bringing Usability to Life.” It looks like there’ll be lots of great sessions and terrific networking opportunities, and I’m disappointed that I can’t make it. They’re expecting something like 600 people!

Luckily for Arizona UPA folks, those who ARE attending will be talking about the conference at the next meeting of the local chapter (AZUPA). Here’s the scoop from their recent email:

Please join us for the Arizona Usability Professionals Association (AZUPA) Chapter meeting on Thursday, June 18. AZUPA President Miguel Almarez will present a summary of this year’s International UPA conference. Miguel’s presentation will include industry updates, best-practices, and other insights from his experience this week in Portland, OR (http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/conference/2009/). The conference theme this year is Bringing Usability to Life: Making everyday things better.

Other chapter meeting attendees will also be welcome to informally share their experiences from the UPA conference. In addition, you’ll learn about the UPA and meet local colleagues who share a passion for all things related to creating compelling user experiences.

Speaker Bio
Miguel Almarez is currently the User Experience Project Manager for Choice Hotels International and President of the Arizona UPA. He holds a B.S. from Arizona State University and a MBA from Western International University.

Meeting Location
The Art Institute of Phoenix
2233 West Dunlap Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona
Note: The meeting will be in room 456

Map: www.artinstitutes.edu/phoenix/AboutUs/Map_Directions.aspx

Agenda
6:00 pm Arrival, networking and light snacks
6:30 pm Brief business meeting
7:00 pm Presentation - Invited Speaker
8:00 pm Adjourn

This is a free event, but space is limited. Walk-in attendees are certainly welcome, but please RSVP to this address so that we can ensure we provide the appropriate accommodations.

You do not need to be a member to attend. Feel free to come and check us out!!! Also, please feel free to forward this message to any interested colleagues.

This looks like a GREAT event - lots of opportunity to learn about the conference and connect with other local usability folk. As is often the case, however, this meeting happens to be on the same night as the next TDAC meeting here in Tucson (with ITT Tech students and Sony Online talking about video game design). It never rains but it pours, huh?

Here’s the post I did on the previous AZ UPA meeting!

It’s been almost exactly 10 years since I moved from Billerica, Massachusetts (just north of Boston) to Tucson, Arizona, and I’m feeling a bit nostalgic. I’ve been happy enough here in the Southwest, but there are some things I miss about living Back East:

1. Proximity. Everything is very close together. A trip to the Berkshire mountains (or my old alma mater, UMASS/Amherst) was only a two-hour drive. The historic and cultural mecca that is Boston proper was less than an hour. Skiing in New Hampshire, swimming down the Cape, classes at any of the dozens of top-notch schools - all 2 hours away or less.
2. My private hide-away. Years ago, we purchased a piece of land with the plan to retire (someday) to the back woods of Maine. It’s 14 acres of blueberries and pine trees on a private, fresh-water lake, just two hours north of our house. This meant we could and did visit often.
3. Real seasons. Nothing like 3 months of bitter cold to make you really appreciate the thaw of spring!
4. America’s Technology Highway. Tons of technology companies line Route 128, and fill the space between 128 and 495 to the West. As a technical writer, this worked out pretty well for me!
5. Family near by. This one became more important after I had my kids - and not just because grandma was willing to babysit for free! I think it’s really important for my children to know their relatives so that they will understand where they come from (and why I am the way I am)!
6. Old friends. I grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and though very few of my high-school friends still live there now, many of them remained in the area. There’s just something comfortable about hanging out with someone who saw me with permed hair and wearing a smock-top and decided to remain my friend anyway.
7. The T. No, not the letter T! I miss the MBTA - that’s the local public transportation. I’d call it the subway, but big chunks of it run above ground. There’s even a song about the T in Boston
   

   
   

   This video was made by the Kingston Trio in the late 1950s, but the original version was a campaign song from the 1930s.

8. Colonial style houses.I can’t help it, it’s what I was raised in. I like a house with layers, not all spread out and flat. I like attics and basements, neither of which are easy to get here in the desert. I like wallpaper and fireplaces and staircases.
9. Bowling. I guess most people call it “candlepin”, but I didn’t even know there WAS another kind of bowling until I went to college. I’m not very good at either type, but I don’t embarrass myself quite as badly at candlepin.
10. The 99. This local chain had TWO restaurants within a mile or two of my house in Billerica. The “big” 99 was good for large groups and evening events - for a while, there was even a disco-dance kind of place in the basement, but that’s gone now. The “little” 99 was more low-key, with the nicest bartenders you’d ever want to meet. Typical bar food - steak, burgers, chicken, and pasta - but lots of it at reasonable prices. This was also the most convenient after-work stop for most of the jobs I had. I’m still grateful for friendships formed and nurtured at the 99.

Don’t get me wrong - I like living in Tucson! It’s completely opened my eyes to all kinds of new things. But sometimes, you know, you just want to wallow in the old and familiar. I’ll have to plan a visit soon.

I’ve been home from the STC Summit in Atlanta for about a month, and only feel like I’m caught up with work as of this week. Pitiful, isn’t it? But that’s the situation when you are independent and have trouble saying “no” (though I’m working on that last bit…. “nnnnot right now”…”maybe later”…”I’ll see what I can do.”)

This week’s priority is work on the upcoming IEEE/PCS conference, and I’m getting really excited about it! The program is coming together nicely.

Our keynote will be Blaise Aguera y Arcas from Microsoft. If you haven’t seen his Photosynth demo on TED, you should probably go check it out right now. It’s a really collaborative way of working to make online, interactive pictures. He’s a dynamic speaker and I’m really looking forward to meeting him in person!

I know that some people think of this conference as somewhat academic, and while it’s true that we have significantly more professors and research papers than , say, the STC Summit, we also have a lot of practical workshop type of sessions. For example, we’ve got the always-fabulous Sarah O’Keefe (from Scriptorium) talking about Movable Type and XML, we’ve got George Hayhoe describing how to implement the new ISO standard for documentation into your workplace, and we’ve got Tharon Howard from Clemson University (whose work I’ve admired for years!) talking specifically about user testing of information products.

Though I was not involved in selecting the accepted papers (that was the dedicated and hard-working team of Sandy Bartell and Anne Watt), I’m really pleased to see lots of sessions that apply directly to my current interests. There are sessions on social media (of course!), controlled languages, globalization, and visual communication. I’m particularly excited to see some sessions that combine two or more subjects that I find fascinating. For example, I’ve been doing a lot of work over the past several years with emergency preparedness and business continuity. I’m also a big proponent of social media, as my twitter followers know! I can’t wait to see the presentation by Liza Potts called “Peering into Disaster: Social Software Use from the Indian Ocean Earthquake to the Mumbai Bombings”.

As you can see, I’m pretty excited about our conference program! For people thinking about joining us, I do think it’s important to understand that this is a bit different from other events you may have attended like the STC Summit or DocTrain events. Because we’re an IEEE event, the sessions are mostly paper-based. That means that (except for the ones clearly labelled “workshop” or “panel”) some sessions are reports of new developments or studies that have been conducted recently. In a typical 90-minute session, you’ll get to see up to 3 different but related paper presentation. And of course, all papers go into the proceedings and are eventually available for purchase from the IEEExplore digitial library.

Another difference is that we don’t have an exhibition hall. We do accept sponsorship (just drop me a note if you or your company want to send us money!!) but the only booth you’ll see is the one for IEEE membership.

But like the other conferences, the main benefit (for me, anyway) is the opportunity for networking. I sometimes learn more inbetween sessions that at the formal presentations. If you’re looking for something fun (and deductible) this summer, join us in Hawaii in July!