<--Word Circuits ---->Information about the corresponding MOO session

Cybermountain logo--keyboard and mts.


CyberMountain
The Denver Hypertext Colloquium
May 28th through June 2nd, 1999

Abstract

This focused event is designed to push both texts and tools to new levels through collaborative interaction, review/reaction, and usability testing 24/7 (if desired) in a scenic setting. Colloquium findings will be reported online.

Colloquium participants will be limited to the first thity (30) invited participants who can confirm their attendance. We will strive for a balance of hypertext content creators, system developers, and researchers. If you know of others who should be invited, please forward this message to them and advise organizer Deena Larsen.

Others who cannot participate in the colloquim are welcome to participate in a simultaneous face to face/MOO conference.

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Our Vision

A synergistic combination of people interested in creating hypertext systems and content, to obtain mutual feedback for all participants' ongoing work, and define significant issues for the next generations of hypertexts and the systems used to create them. Each participant will help collect findings and shape the final report, which will of course be in the form of a hypertext.

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What To Bring

Authors should prepare a work in progress, and system developers should bring hypertext tools (from early prototypes to versions on the market). All texts and tools should be those that could benefit from intense feedback and collaboration.

Bring:

Possession logistics:

If staying at Trygve's, keep stuff to as little as possible. (We will assign rooms based on time of crashing. The upstairs outside of Trygve's office and room will be for people crashing between 9 pm and 11 pm. The middle floor office, library, and listening rooms will be for those crashing between 11 and 2 am. The downstairs theater and library will remain open (at that point, whoever is left can negotiate something). We will require the downstairs theater on Wednesday morning at 8 am, so will probably switch these arrangements Tuesday night). There will be a "possession room" for people to keep their belongings in.

I am still trying to arrange a reading. If I do, I will let folks know so they can bring works to read (as opposed to works in progress).

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Lodging

We are fortunate to be the guests of Trygve Lode, in his museum-quality mansion with an excellent view of Colorado's Front Range. Facilities include 3 parlors, 3 offices, 4 living rooms, dining room, a board room, and a theater that seats 30. Trygve has extensive experience with new products and technology transfer issues; we look forward to his participation in the conference. (See http://www.trygve.com for pictures of this house--along with some great shots of the Halloween and Christmas parties...)

Most participants can stay at Trygve's house. House rules will be strictly enforced:

Attendees wishing to bring their families may prefer to stay in a comfortable hotel, the Marriot Residence Inn only ten minutes away. The hotel is:
Denver Highlands Ranch Marriot Residence Inn
93 West Centennial Blvd
Highlands Ranch CO 80126

A special room rate of $109 for studios and one-bedrooms has been reserved for CyberMountain. Call 1-800-331-3131 or 303-683-5500 and reserve under CyberMountain, code name CMC.

Our chosen area is a half hour from Denver by car, and carpools will be available. Colorado sightseeing can be arranged before or after the colloquium, alone or in groups. See the mountain trip.

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Directions

 

If you are at Colorado Springs airport, ask how to get to C-470 and Sante Fe. (They are doing construction and this changes daily.)

From DIA, you can pay a $3.75 toll to get onto E-470 (This just opened up May 3). (If you do not want to pay the toll, you can do I-70 west, I-225 south -I 25 south-C-470 west. Have fun.)

Keep on going on E-470 and it changes automatically to C-470. You will be headed west, toward the mountains. You will see the exit for Broadway, and the one for Sante Fe is the next one after this. Get off at C-470 and Broadway if you want to go to the hotel first, or go to the next exit at Sante Fe if you are going directly to Trygve's. (Both of these are the SOUTH exits.)

The hotel is at C-470 and Broadway. To get to C-470 and Sante Fe, go west (toward the mountains) on C-470 for ONE exit.  

At the intersection of C-470 and Santa Fe (highway 85), get off the highway and head south on Santa Fe. After about 1.7 miles, you'll pass a traffic light with the west end of Highlands Ranch on your left and a Hugh M. Woods on your right; continue south on Santa Fe about 1.3 more miles and when you see a T-intersection sign and an equestrian crossing sign on your right, there'll be a left turn lane for Lakeside Drive--(THIS IS THE FIRST PAVED LEFT TURN YOU FIND.)

Turn left there; there's now a pair of decorative brick walls labeled "Chatfield Estates" on either side of the road. (If you get to Titan Road, you've gone just a bit too far.)

Lakeside Drive goes uphill and winds around a bit, but eventually you'll come to a dead-end sign; turn left at the street immediately before the dead-end sign (Lakeside Circle).

Lakeside Circle will start to veer to the right and, soon enough, you'll see the house on the left. The driveway is the eighth and last one before the street ends at a T-intersection. The address is 6529 Lakeside Circle, and it's the only house in the area that's blonde brick on the lower half, shingles on the upper half, and looks kinda flat on top. It's also the only one with gargoyles, a gryphon for a mailbox post, and a slab of red granite by the road with the address and a brass tree on it. When coming down the driveway to my house, take the left fork and the front door is the big one with the two urns on either side of it.

If you have any trouble finding the house, Santa Fe and C-470, or the ground, call 303-202-1209 and leave a message or call Trygve's house directly at 303-470-3200.

 

Transportation

Please e-mail Deena Larsen for directions to Trygve's house.

(Orientation: Denver and Trygve's house are pretty much 1/2 way between DIA and Colorado Springs. The Colorado Springs Airport may be cheaper; it really depends on who is having what fare war.)

Transportation from Denver International Airport will be arranged at:

There will be vans going back to the airport on Wednesday at:

You can also rent a car at DIA.

You can also take the AT bus from DIA to Littleton Park N Ride at Mineral and Sante Fe. ($8). When you get there, call Trygve (303-470-3200) and we will pick you up from there (it is only a 4 mile walk....) Basically, this bus leaves every hour on the hour from 7 am to 11 pm. The bus only goes from the WEST side of the airport. (When you get off the DIA train, curve around the wall to your left for the baggage claim area. Then go out door 5 and go straight ahead. The bus stop has a small glass shelter on the third pick up lane.)

If you are coming into the Colorado Springs Airport, look at shuttle information at http://www.colorado-springs.com/airport/service.htm#grndtrans.

If you need other arrangements, please let us know.

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Costs

We are trying to keep costs to a minimum:

Fees: There will be a $100 conference fee.

Proceedings: Hard copy proceedings will be $15

T-shirts: T-shirts will be $10.

Transportation: Rides from DIA will be split between all parties on that ride. (This will probably be about $16 a ride which is labor, gas, and mileage--I am still negotiating with my father, who is a partner in an airport shuttle company.) Airport shuttles to Trygve's are also available, but costly. (Supershuttle is $35 for one person and $10 for additional ones on the same trip and the city bus is $9--Get to Mineral Springs Park and Ride, call, and we can pick you up).

We may have volunteers to rent cars, and we can help split these costs.

Lodging: If you crash on a couch at Trygve's (www.trygve.com) it is free. (A house gift would be welcome to thank Trygve for his hospitality and bravery). Rooms at the Marriot Residence Inn are $109 for studios and one-bedrooms.

Meals: We will buy stuff in bulk, cook in Trygve's kitchen and split the costs. (Probably about $10 -15 a day for food and sundries)

Utilities: We will figure out how much extra Trygve paid for utilities and re-imburse him. (Probably a total of $50-75).

Scholarship fund: Please contribute to a scholarship fund to get some starving student types out to the conference. If everyone could donate the cost of a meal out, we could cover these expenses. Anything above actual expenses (curently projected at $350) will be donated to nyx.net (Trygve helps run one of the very few nonprofit internet service providers in the States).

Contents

Reaction/Collaboration Sessions

Four 4-hour reaction/collaboration sessions will feature four to six authors and developers stationed in various rooms in the house (e.g., John Smith will show System X in the parlor, Jane Doe will show her new hypertext poem in the drawing room, Mary Jones will show System Y in the living room, Tom Black will show his hypertext novel in the board room). Participants can wander from room to room to see the different works or can stay in one room and work very closely with the developer or author to suggest new approaches or simply experience and comment upon the work. Slots will be assigned by sign-up so that presenters can also see the works they are interested in.

These sessions will be the heart of the colloquium. Based on our previous experience, intense synergies can be expected from small group discussions in each room.

It is anticipated that many *many* issues will arise that will benefit from discussion with the wider group, at meals (which will be cooked by assigned sub-groups and eaten together), in the evenings, and on Sunday and Wednesday (the two bracketing days set aside for discussion).

Discussion Topics

What are the most critical issues we are now facing (both camps)?
How can we collaborate in addressing them?

Additional questions are welcome in advance or during the agenda- setting phase of each discussion day.

Evening Activities

Potential evening activities include hypertext movies and the optional opportunity to experience one-hour formal hypertext usability tests, as well as simply continuing the ongoing discussions and collaborations (e.g. people showing work to presenters who had schedule conflicts, or continuing thought-provoking discussions) and socializing.

Julianne Chatelain will moderate several formal usability tests (1 hour each) of work brought to the colloquim, during the evening hours, and either train other moderators or record the reviews on videotape for later analysis.

Formal or "deep" usability reviews provide answers to the question, "How does my work fare when I'm not right there with it, showing it off?" They can be tailored to answer whatever questions you have about your work.

MOO

A MOO session on Wednesday will connect the conference to simultaneous conference sessions around the globe. Part of our charter is to share our findings and thoughts and make them available to others both informally and formally.

Hypertext system and content developers around the world will meet to discuss issues before the MOO session, post their results, and stay online for a discussion. This combination of face to face and cyber discussion will provide wide ranging opportunities to explore issues and to collaborate on solutions.

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Detailed Schedule

Day

Activity

Thursday, May 27th

 

Arrival date for people who want to go to the mountains. Pick up time at the Denver International Airport (DIA) 6 pm. (People will stay at Trygve's this night. If you want to stay at a motel, let me know and we can arrange that, too.)

Friday May 28th

Mountain trip. We will leave at 8 a.m.for Marble, Colorado and tour the ghost town, graveyard, waterfalls, and quarry. Stay Friday night at the Raspberry Inn Bed and Breakfast. On the return leg, we'll stop at Glenwood Springs for the hot pools.

Saturday May 29

Mountain trip people will return to Trygve's late afternoon, evening. Pick up times from DIA will be 3 :30 pm. Stay at Trygve's or the Marriot Residence Inn.

Saturday 2:00 - 6 pm Getting network set up. If anyone has any skills to offer, please come to Trygve's early!

Saturday 6 pm Trygve's -- supper and relaxing session before really starting in. (If people want to, we might go see the town or something. Those of you in the hotel are more than welcome to join us. Please call us at Trygve's --303-470-3200--by 7 pm to see what we are doing.)

Sunday May 30

Pick up from DIA at 1 pm.

8:00 - 9:00 Practice MOO  
9:00 - 10:30 Set up -- getting a network going, getting computers in each room, making sure we have what we need.  
10:30-12:30 Beginning discussions: What do we want out of this? Objectives, ground rules, etc.  
12:30 to 1:30 lunch  
1:30-4:00 Opening Session (Get us started talks: including introducinglit issues with Mark Bernstein facilitating, introducing software issues with Peter Nuernberg facilitating, introducing business concepts issues with Gene Ashe facilitating)  
4:00 - 5:00 Logistics session (people sign up for which work sessions they would like to present at)  
5:00 - 6:00 supper  
6:30 - 11:00 Evening Session (The evening sessions will be the same Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday)  

  • Track 1: Usability Sessions--Julianne Chatelain (There will be a sign up board for this, we will be nice and let Julianne have some chances to do something else during the evenings as well.)  
  • Track 2: Solving specific data needs and problems (This will be a large board with specific questions. People who know will answer other people's questions, and we will get specific stuff done and questions answered. Ask whatever you need to: from specific software questions---such as how do I get an animated gif, how should I set up a spatial interface for my work, how can I get Flash to do a transition page--to more general questions such as how should I show the structure in this work, how can we do a proposal for a hypertext soap opera)  
  • Track 3: Fun. We will have guitar jamming with Larry Clark and Bill Bly, videos, cd listening, and hypertext type games  

 

Monday May 31

7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 - 10:00 First work session Reaction/collaboration
(At each work session, people will show works in progress. This will be a chance to look in depth at a hypertext work or software and give constructive comments, collaborate on solving particular problems, etc. Sessions will also include a brainstorming session with Gene Ashe about how to make money at hypertext--see his paper at http://www.wordcircuits.com/htww/ashe.htm) 10:30-12:30 Second work session
12:30 - 1:30 Lunch
1:30 - 5:00 First discussion sessions What do we need to do for users and readers? moderated by Marjorie Luesebrink
5:00- 6:00 Dinner
6:00-11:00 pm Evening Sessions

Tuesday June 1

7:00 am Breakfast
8:00 - 10:00 First work session Reaction/collaboration
10:30-12:30 Secondwork session
12:30 - 1:30 Lunch
1:30 - 5:00 First discussion sessions
What do we need to do for software features? moderated by Robert Kendall 5:00 - 6:00 Dinner
6:00 - 11:00   Evening Session Wednesday 8:00 to 11:00 MOO session

Wednesday June 2

7 am Breakfast
8:00 - 11:00 MOO session (Please verify that this is 3 pm GMT--I am
still not sure about my calculations:)
11:15-12:30 Wrap up discussion
12:30 - 1:30 lunch
1:30 - 4 Planning session--if we want to do this again.  
Transportation back to airport at 2:45, 4:00 pm

NOTE: Work sessions will be held in various rooms of the house. People will either have a literary work or a system and will show this system to two or three other people. This indepth look will provide a great deal of time for constructive criticism and following the user/reader through the work.

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Commitments Required of Attendees:

You are welcome to participate in as much as you can. The only real stipulation is that if you are doing a work session, please attend at least one other work session.
Preference will be given to attendees who can participate in the entire colloquium. Those who cannot attend the colloquim are strongly encouraged to organize MOO conference sessions.

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Papers

The papers are to make it easier for writers and developers to identify issues and collaborate on solutions. The format can be anything you like, but please cover:

Please either e-mail Deena Larsen with an HTML text in the body of your message or put them up on your own site. If you put them up independantly, please put a link back to this page (http://www.wordcircuits.com/htww/cyber.htm)

Right now, we have some great papers to mull over:

Keep checking back for more!

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Deadlines and Contact Information

Warning! This colloquium is based on the precept, the earlier the better. As spaces are limited, responding by the formal due date may be too late.

May 1, 1999

Confirmations of attendance (Contact Deena Larsen to confirm you are coming)

Please Respond With:

  • Your contact information
  • Description of work you plan to bring (at least type of work)
  • Additional discussion questions you'd like the group to work on
  • Any dietary restrictions
  • Which logistics committee you would like to be on: (cooking, cleaning, transportation)
  • Will you need transportation from the Denver airport?

Let Deena Larsen (textra@ chisp.net) know as soon as when you are coming and where you want to stay so we can plan and keep track.

May 15

Papers and description of work due

Those people who get their papers in earlier than this will receive my heartfelt thanks and a marble plaque when they get to CyberMountain. Also, those who get their papers in earlier will get their papers read.

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Background Reading

Issues this colloquium will discuss have been drawn from discussions of the Hypertext Writers' Workshop and the ACM-SIGWEB Hypertext conferences, especially HT'98 and HT'99.

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Setting and Other Activities

Denver and its environs offers great cultural activities, hiking, horseback riding, bird watching, (even hot air ballooning and windsurfing). For joggers and bikers, the Highline Canal--a great trail that runs parallel to the Front Range andthe Platte River Bike trail (that goes through downtown Denver) are close by. We will also be very close to Chatfield Reservoir, Colorado's largest freshwater body.

Check out:

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Mountain Trip Details

We will leave Trygve's at Friday 8:00 am. IF YOU ARE NOT STAYING AT TRYGVE'S Thursday night, please call me so we can figure out how to get on the road by 8:00 am. This is crucial.

I will rent a large van for us, and Marjorie Luesebrink will drive.

We will probably lunch in Eagle, where all the workers in Vail actually live.

Our first stop will be Glenwood Springs, where we will trek up a short hill to Doc Holliday's grave. There are a lot of other interesting graves and a spectacular view here. Then we'll relax in the two olympic sized outdoor hot pools. We will then proceed on to Marble Colorado, where we will have a barbeque dinner and spend the night at the Raspberry Inn Bed and Breakfast. We are taking over this place. It has 4 queen beds and a couple of couches.

In the morning, we will hike up (about 2 miles, maybe a 45 percent grade) to the marble quarry and see inside. (Unfortunately, the quarry just went out of business again, so we can't get a tour.

We'll explore Marble a bit, particularly the ruins of the old church and town. If the weather is good, we will tour Crystal River by jeep.

On the way back, we will stop at my favorite waterfall.

Costs for the mountain trip:

What to bring:

 

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