ances (STARS Alliance, Computing
Alliance for Hispanic Serving Institutions, Access Computing, Alliance
for African American Researchers in
Computing, and NCWIT). Over 300
researchers, educators, and practitioners have signed a petition supporting the SIGBP; 75 people expressed
interest in SIGBP leadership. The
initial leadership team will include:
Monica Anderson, Maureen Biggers,
Brian Blake, Ann Condon, Juan Gilbert, Richard Ladner, Bobby Schnabel, George K. Thiruvathukal, Manual
Perez Quinones, and myself. Endorsement letters have been received from
16 organizations, including ACM
SIGCSE, ACM SIGITE, ABI, CDC, CRA-W, NCWIT, and the Natural Sciences
and Engineering Research Council of
Canada. We received NSF funding for
SIGBP startup.a The committee held
several meetings and community forums to inform the vision of the SIGBP, as summarized next.
The scope of a SIGBP is to provide
an overarching international community to highlight, support, connect,
and strengthen the diverse array of existing BP communities, activities, and
research. The mission is to advance innovation and discovery by increasing
and broadening participation in computing. The SIG will promote research,
technologies, practices, and policies for
increasing the participation of women,
underrepresented minorities and persons with disabilities in computing.
SIGBP members will be researchers, practitioners, educators, and policymakers from academia, industry,
government, K– 12 schools, and the
non-profit sector within a variety of interests, including computing, psychology, sociology, ethnic and gender studies, education, and human resources.
The SIGBP goals are to foster collaboration, dissemination, and support
among organizations, programs, and
people seeking to broaden participation in computing, with a fourfold focus
on research, practices, awareness, and
professional development, as follows:
˲ Advance research on the factors
behind lack of participation. The SIG-
a NSF Award 1042372 (T. Dahlberg), 1042337 (G.
Thiruvathukal), ACM SIGBP: Forming an ACM
Special Interest Group to Scale the Impact of
BPC Activities.
the need to involve
all voices to inform
change and provide
equitable access to
jobs is urgent.
BP will provide greater opportunity for
computing researchers to publish in
a computing venue. This will provide
a referencing mechanism to research
with an explicit focus on BPC, research
on broadening participation in science and engineering that is relevant
for computing, and publications in
the many disciplines that inform BPC
research, such as education, psychology, gender studies, ethnic studies,
educational technologies, student
services, and human resources. SIGBP
peer-reviewed publications will make
the outcomes of BPC research more
visible to computing researchers and
practitioners who are not already connected to BPC activities.
˲Evaluate and promulgate effective practices for increasing participation. The SIGBP will provide a central
community to find information about
organizations, activities, publications,
awards, other communities and portals with a BP mission. Examples of BP
practices to be disseminated include
models, frameworks, and strategies
for recruiting and advancing people
along the pipeline from K– 12 to college to the workforce.
˲Advocate beneficial institutional
or government policies. The SIGBP
will raise awareness among policymakers and the public at large, by seeking
to inform and engage the computing
community in emerging efforts to address policy.
˲ The SIGBP will advance the academic and career development of students and professionals in computing
by providing an index to the many opportunities to participate in programs
with goals to broaden participation.
SIGBP activities will include:
˲ Sponsor an annual SIGBP sym-
posium, co-located with an existing
conference, publishing peer-reviewed
papers.
References
1. Chubin, d. E. and Johnson, R. Y. A program greater than
the sum of its parts: The BPC alliances. Commun.
ACM 54, 3 (mar. 2011).
2. Etzkowitz, H., Kemelgor, C., and Uzzi, B. Athena
Unbound: The Advancement of Women in Science and
Technology. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
3. Ladner, L. Opening remarks. Commun. ACM 52, 12
(dec. 2009).
Teresa A. Dahlberg ( Teresa.dahlberg@uncc.edu) is a
professor of computer science and Associate dean of
Undergraduate Programs and Administration for the
College of Computing and Informatics at the University of
North Carolina at Charlotte.