We have settled into three basic tracks for the conference series. This remains an open issue, with not much possibility of progress in the foreseeable future. The issue is basically one of funding. Many artists work freelance and thus without sponsorship to attend our conference. We also have to take in account that artists are very far from being the only ones with financial difficulties for attending such a conference, and that any scheme to help such attendance should not create a treatment which might be interpreted as unequitable by other potential participants.
New leadership needs to be recruited.
Recruitment within the active volunteer community has been initiated. SIG Fund Balance. A major focus of Multimedia'97 was the issues relating to the human-computer interface. Ben Shneiderman of the University of Maryland's Department of Computer Science, and Brad A. Myers of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science. There are two days of pre-conference tutorials and workshops, followed by almost 3 days of the full technical program.