Pushing LIMITS
Michelle Kaczmarek, Saguna Shankar, Rodrigo dos Santos, Eric M. Meyers, Lisa P. Nathan · 2020
As a pandemic rages and ecosystems around the globe collapse, the LIMITS community---along with the rest of the world---is working to adapt. Some adaptations to adjust to emergencies are easy to imagine. For example, months before in-person conferences were canceled in response to COVID-19, the User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) 2019 conference took significant steps towards hosting a geographically distributed, virtual conference, in part adapting to the global climate emergency. This type of change is conceptually clear, if organizationally challenging. However, many needed changes are conceptually difficult, even in the midst of an existential crisis. It is long-recognized that we need to bridge the separation between scholarly venues and publications that focus on technical aspects of computing systems (i.e., "applied") and those that center social and political aspects of computing systems research and design, particularly when attempting to address complex life-wide problems. Yet, disciplinary crystals (e.g., siloes) remain resistant to change. The authors of this paper contribute to ongoing socio-technical efforts, identifying dominant practices and forces that reinforce the socio-technical divide, and holding up empirical projects that offer promising alternatives.