Web Program

As the Web Program enters its fourth year at SIGGRAPH, it's undergoing a bit of a make-over. The change, says Web Program Chairperson, Nishant Kothary, was prompted by a desire to reach out to the academic community.

This year's program has been divided into three separate tracks — Application, Paradigm, and Technical. The Application Track showcases short presentations about cutting-edge applications on the Web. The Paradigm Track showcases presentations about cutting-edge advances in such areas as Web standards, usability, user experience, and design. The Technical Track consists of the presentation of peer-reviewed papers. The review process for this track was roughly modeled after the review process for SIGGRAPH's Papers program.

In total, the Web Program program will consist of 19 presentations — four Technical Track presentations, five Paradigm Track presentations, and nine Application Track presentations. There will also be one panel discussion. The speakers in this year's program will include:

Ze Frank — Online performance artist and humorist, Ze Frank is best known for his hilarious video How To Dance Properly. Ze's talk, titled The Creative Act, will delve into the importance of the creative process as it applies to the web. www.zefrank.com

Peter Morville — A world-renowned information architecture guru, Peter will be speaking about user experience design. www.semanticstudios.com

Casey Reas — The co-creator of the fantastic java-based graphical programming language, Processing, Casey will be speaking about the same. www.processing.org

Ed Burton — Research and Development Director at Soda Creative Ltd., a British design group formed in 1996, which combines art and research with a broad range of commercial activities. Ed will speak about his latest innovation, Moovl. www.moovl.com

For a full list of sessions, go to www.siggraph.org/s2005 and click on the Web Program link.