State of CAOS

[Guest]

CAOS doesn't seem to be doing much lately.

I've spoken with a couple of the officers, and the consensus seems to be that no one has time to organize anything because all of them are seniors. This is a regrettable state of affairs. It seems like quite a lot could be accomplished with CAOS.

I mentioned at the last meeting that I had some ideas for the organization. I know the officer elections aren't for a while yet, but lately I'm giving serious consideration to running for a position. However, since a meeting is coming up, I thought I'd post some of my thoughts.

A short time ago I had a conversation with Dr. White. He explained that he had initially held some reservations about HCI being part of the core curriculum in computer science. Later he changed his mind after observing that the class "brought back" many students who had been considering changing their majors from computer science. Many students become discouraged with the idea that computer science work is little more than being stuck in a room (or cube) and writing code by yourself all day; showing them that there are other aspects to it makes a big difference.

It seems like CAOS could serve a similar function. We should try and demonstrate that computer science can be interesting and fun. Having a talk on SIGGRAPH is a good start. I know its been done previously, but getting speakers from different fields in computer science and showcasing the different directions that people can go with a computer science degree really seems like it would be a good thing for CAOS to be doing. It would probably be fun too.

It also seems like we should be making more efforts to advertise, and not just to engineering majors. It wouldn't hurt to try and attract freshmen and sophomores who haven't yet decided on a major. Maybe sidewalk chalking?

That's rather long, but if you're still with me, I'd appreciate hearing anyone's thoughts on these matters.

[Jonathan Birch]

Sorry, didn't mean to post that anonymously...

[Tyler]

I am myself a senior and was in CAOS two years ago, and I was not in it last year.  I would however like to become active again in it, but it seems like there is only a website to the association.  It would be good to get some younger "lesser" nerds in it.  Promotion would be a good idea, as well as events that would attract people.  Chalking could be a good idea.  

"Like computers? Join CAOS".  

[Guest]

As the CAOS advisor for nearly eight years now, I can tell you that the CAOS activity depends on the availability of members to organize an event.

Some years have been very active. For example, the year Elizabeth Weber was president, we had numerous events like talks, lan gaming, movie night, and the Red Hat Tour (one of my personal favorites).

If anyone is interested in organizing an event I'm willing to help them out. You don't have to be an officer, just a member.

Also, we will be having officer elections in Jan. So please if you or someone you know would be willing to serve let us know.

[Jerry]

Ugh!

The usability of the forum has a lot to be desired.

I did not mean to submit the last message as anonymous.

Jerry Weinberg  

[Bryan]

I know that all of the other officers (I have just taken over as the Treasurer) are just as busy as I am.  I personally have quite a few ideas for things we can do and am actively making them happen.  If anyone EVER has any ideas for things CAOS can do, here is my contact information, if you email me I'll get back to you with in 3 or so hours assuming I'm not in class or at a bar somewhere (my one vice).

email: Bryan@hciunderground.com
AIM: ModernDayDarwin

-Bryan

[Elizabeth Weber]

Jerry Weinberg

I was wondering when you'd find your icon Dr. Weinberg  :-D

I would be more than happy to continue to offer support to CAOS.

I still have contact info for the Red Hat folks, I'm sure we could talk them into some freebies.

We can also promote gateway chi events, as SIUE has a corporate membership, any SIUE student can attend meetings free of charge.

Cyberstorm would also still be glad to host a college night.
And who knows, maybe you could ask Elitegaming ;-) ;-)

These last two are events that don't take any more effort than publicizing them through signs in the halls, posts on the forum and/or an email through the CAOS mailing list (and yes, there is one of those).

[Guest]

 Sorry, folks, but Peter is the one who arranged the Red Hat Road Tour, not Elizabeth.  Give credit where credit is due, please.  

[Chris Swingler]

The usability of the forum has a lot to be desired.

I'll try to get around to that next week.  This week is really busy for me (lots of work, two exams, and I'm working as an election judge tomorrow).  But it will be addressed; since this forum is getting progressively harder to use.  My QUOTE button is MIA. :-(

Sorry for the derail.  Though getting the forum/website running well again would hopefully bring in some members.

[Elizabeth Weber]

Sorry, folks, but Peter is the one who arranged the Red Hat Road Tour, not Elizabeth. Give credit where credit is due, please.

I don't think Dr. Weinberg intended to give me credit for the  Road Tour, he just mentioned that it happened during my presidency.

As for credit, all of the officers helped immensely with every activity we put on and we frequently recieved an abundance of help from past officers including Peter Motyka, Erin Harris, and Andrew Lamonica, other faculty and staff, and other organizations outside of the computer science department.

Of course we thank all of them as many of them continue to offer their support to the group in ways that many members of the organization never even see.

[Chris Swingler]

Here at College of Lake County, where I'm taking a semester of some gen-ed to get it out of the way, we have a small computer club.  One of the physics TAs is listed as our faculty advisor, and we really don't do anything particularly useful or educational.  However, we always manage to have more people show up to our meetings than we can handle.

Why is this?

Two reasons--one, we advertise.  Every single announcement post has a sign up.  We don't do chalking (because this is a community college and campus safety would jump us if we did).  Secondly, our meetings consist of hijacking a CAD lab, and loading some game on all the machines.  That tends to bring in quite a few people. XD

Since CAOS is an actual ACM chapter, and we're on a universty, we're expected to act more professional than just play games.  Nonetheless, by holding a good game-playing session, and advertising the crap out of it all over campus (not just the EB, head over to Founders/Alumni and start posting stuff in the CMIS department, and get some people chalking), we could rope in many members who may show up to our more intelectually stimulating meetings.  I'm sure some CMIS and art majors are very interested in computer graphics; and they'd be ecstatic to see White's SIGGRAPH presentation; and a good LAN may be a just the way to tell them we exist.

Then again, we also hit the speed bump regarding game licensing.  At CLC, we use "backup" copies, but like I said earlier, we're just a community college and we don't take anything seriously.  I know we have a bunch of Quake III licenses, but it would be nice to get some new games.  Anyone know of any games that we could use for free?

[Guest]

Americas Army and RTCW:Enemy Territory are both free multiplayer only games that you can download.  Americas Army is distributed by the army, and Enemy Territory is from activision (although i had problems getting to the activision website)

[Brian Glass]

Americas Army is a great multiplayer online game, I must agree.  I've been playing it for about a month now and enjoy playing every time.

[Kit]

You could also have a Bring Your Own Computer type deal. I'm pretty sure a lot of people have Counter-Strike or Half-Life on their computers. (A good nerd wouldn't be without!)
You could probably find enough people willing to do that.
-or-
Halo 2 for xbox. This definitely would bring in a lot of people. (We're going to be doing it anyways, might as well bring people together to play it.)

[Tyler]

Would that matter at all if it may not be an entirely "legal" copy?

[Guest]

I'm pretty sure a lot of people have Counter-Strike or Half-Life on their computers.

had counter strike for maybe a month when it was really popular, never will again, its just too old and boring :-D

[Bryan]

if you rememeber I offered my up my entire house for a lan party last spring and got about 10 people interested but only 2 RSVP's.  Please bring all of your ideas to the meeting next week: if (money == true && people== true) fun = YES;


and just for clarification, we do have money we just need bodies  :-)

[Tyler]

Maybe we need a state chart.