Theme: Social media and networks are producing a new set of expectations regarding people's ability to contribute, create, personalize, and share information.

These new expectations are changing the roles, methods and responsibilities of Designers and Researchers. The effects are being realized through:

• Ease of access to new types of information
  
• Explosion and redefining of online communities
  
• Emergence of new tools and capabilities
  
• Significant shifts to the worlds of product development, advertising, marketing, and customer service

DUX2007 will surface issues and strive to define the role of designers in this time of shifting spaces.

Location: Intercontinental Hotel (on Magnificent Mile)
505 North Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611

The website is scheduled to launch later this week.

Conference Chairs (chairs at dux2007.org):
Parrish Hanna, SIGCHI
Joseph O'Sullivan, AIGA
John Finnegan, SIGGRAPH

1. ACM's Digital Library;
   
2. GAIN: AIGA's Journal of Business and Design.
   

Papers corresponding to presentations made during the first two sessions of the conference have already been made available, and according to Liz Danzico, DUX 2005 Media Consultant and AIGA's Director of Experience Strategy, more will be made available every week or so until all have been posted.

ACM SIGGRAPH, AIGA, and ACM SIGCHI have a joint sponsorship agreement in place that extends over the first three offerings of the DUX conference. According to that agreement, the first three offerings will occur every other year.

The first DUX conference was DUX 2003; the second -- DUX 2005; that makes the third: DUX 2007.

The organizations revisit this agreement regularly. But as of now, to the best of our knowledge, the same three organizations will jointly sponsor the next DUX conference, and it will be held sometime during 2007. (Location to be determined.)

Contact us if you have opinions about this and/or have interest in being a part of the development of the next DUX conference.

The vast majority of attendees reported that, overall, the conference had met or exceeded their goals.

Evaluation form return rate: ~40% of conference forms; ~75% of tutorial forms.

Thanks to everyone who completed the evaluation forms. We are still reading through your many written comments!

Particular thanks go to Betsy Johnsmiller (pictured), Conference Manager.

Special thanks also to: the Sponsorship Chairs -- Robin Bahr, Fred Sampson, and Hugh Dubberly; Internet Support -- Carly Tanaka-Lubensky, Chris Schmechel, and Michael Kellner; Emeritus Advisors -- Jonathan Arnowitz and Aaron Marcus; Media Consultants -- Sylvia Paull and Liz Danzico; Conference Identity Designers: Zago Design; and all the conference attendees.

Additional thanks go to the following people and companies:

Bay Area Video Coalition; Hewlett-Packard Company; Dodsworth Associates; Bluerock Technologies; Riander; Event Alchemy; James Stewart of Precision Conference Systems; Ric Wanetik and David Hagans of Ricochet; Claudia Brenner; Laurie Brown, Jennifer Antos, Sharon Walton, Bill Keller, and the stage technicians of the Fort Mason Center; Jessica Wilmers, Caryn Chan, and Erica Johnson of ACM; Elizabeth Rosenzweig; Chuck Moore; Terry Swack; Wattle Creek Winery; Pabini Gabriel-Petit; Ryan Reposar of Dubberly Design Office; Super Shuttle; BreakPoint Books; Keith Instone; Guide Publishing Group; Signworks; Hotel del Sol; McCune; 111 Minna; and the many, many more that should also be listed here.

flickr offers a multidimensional look at DUX 2005, courtesy of conference attendees. Search for photos tagged with dux05 or dux2005. (Photos appearing in several blog entries are there for you to access.)

Poster sessions filled the long Bayfront Gallery with attendees discussing case study specifics with authors.

An invited panel of distinguished designers discussed industry trends.

And Edward Tenner (pictured at right being interviewed by Heather Gold) closed with an insightful, historical perspective on innovation and adaptation to the unforseen.

Thanks to all the participants in these many sessions, to all those who submitted papers to the conference, and to the many submission reviewers and mentors. Special thanks to Program Chairs Rakhi Rajani, Clark Dodsworth, and Nancy Frishberg.

Heather Gold provided comedic insight, to be integrated throughout the conference in her role as emcee.

J.Walt provided a moving graphic performance combining video, animation, gestural drawing, sculpture, music, and dance, taking interactive graphics into uncharted territories.

And Tony Award winning Bill Irwin dazzled with his insights from years on the stage about the language of the body and important lessons which "improv" offers to designers.

Dinner and conversation in the historic Fort Mason Center Firehouse brought day 1 of DUX 2005 to a late evening close.

Hundreds of conference attendees spent the opening day of DUX 2005 attending tutorials (including Methodology of Visualization, pictured below left) and/or touring San Francisco studios (including frog design, Gensler, and Odopod, pictured above).

Many thanks to the 15 studios and to the instructors of the 6 tutorials. Special thanks to Studio Tours Producer Maia Garau (pictured above right) and to Program Co-Chair Rakhi Rajani who worked on development of both the tutorial and studio tours offerings.

If you need assistance at any time during the conference, look for:

Volunteer Chair Teresa Hardy (pictured), Judith Blankman, Steven Dow, Matthew Kam, Mark Meagher, Dan Perkel, Michael Kelly, William Hall, Chantal Mora, Susan Michael, Josh Evnin, Marcela Musgrove, Sara Thomas, Rachel Murray, Jennifer Lee, Ann Kim, or Adele Framer

You'll be able to spot them in their distinctive DUX 2005 volunteer t-shirts.

Bill Irwin has arrived (that is Bill in conversation with Conference Chairs Brian Blau, left, and Richard Anderson, center).

Volunteers are here placing program CDs in sleeves within printed programs. Conference bags are being stuffed with an assortment of items. Attendee badges and badge ribbons are being prepared. Boxes of books for the bookstore are being unloaded. etc. etc.

The opening of DUX 2005 is only a day away.

Registration Chair Jeff Jortner, pictured at left, will be at your service at the registration desk in Building C, Room C165 from 8am to ~2pm. At ~2pm, Jeff will move his operation to the lobby of the Cowell Theater, location of the evening's opening plenary session.

If you are registered for a morning or full-day tutorial, be sure to arrive at the Fort Mason Center early -- as close to 8am as possible -- so to check in, pick up all your registration materials, and get to the room of your tutorial by 9am.

If you are coming to register for a studio tour, arrive as early as possible since the studio tours are in another part of San Francisco. Studio tours run at different times between 10am and 4pm.

If you are registered for an afternoon tutorial, try to arrive as close to 12:30pm as possible, one hour before your 1:30pm tutorial starts.

Everyone else registered for the conference should arrive as much before the 5:30pm opening plenary start as possible, since the opening plenary is slated to start on time.

More complete instructions appear in an earlier blog entry, as does information about parking, driving, and public transportation, and about getting to the Fort Mason Center from the conference hotel.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow for the start of DUX 2005!