Position paper for the ACM SIGCHI CHI-2000 Workshop:
Challenges in the Multicultural HCI Development Environment

Fahri Yetim, PhD
DAAD Assistant Professor
Marmara University Istanbul
German Dept. of Information Systems
Anadoluhisari Kampüsü, TR-81616 Anadoluhisari - Istanbul
E-Mail: yetim@hotmail.com; yetim@aenfor.marun.edu.tr

In my previous research on this topic, I addressed the interaction of
culture and information technology, being  concerned with various aspects of
information systems: I discussed multilingual aspects of text and hypertext
(Yetim 1996), and cultural factors in group support systems (Yetim 1995a,b;
Yetim 1998a) as well as linguistic and philosophical issues of culture in
the context of global communication (Yetim 1998b). In the latter work, I set
out the  three metaphors of "multiculturality", "transculturality" and
"interculturality" and presented some justifications for an intercultural
orientation for the design of global cooperation systems.

In this workshop, I wish to reflect on new developments and proposals for a
generic cultural interaction design, the framework for Modular Multicultural
Interaction, and give some recommendations for cultural profile attributes.
I am interested in the following issues for Modular Multicultural HCI
Design:
Intelligent agents
Social interface
Formality vs. informality
Group vs. individual
Abstract vs. detail
Information retrieval
High text vs. high graphic
Searching: monolingual vs. multilingual

My previous publications concerning culture and information technology:

Yetim, F. (1998a): Cultural Aspects of Group Support Systems. In: Knowledge
Management and Communication Systems (Proceedings of 6th international
Symposium on Information Science - ISI'98, 4 -7, Nov. 1998, Prague), pp.

Yetim, F. (1998b): Interkulturalität und Informatische Gestaltung. Eine
interdisziplinäre Annäherung. In: Informatik-Spektrum  4 (1998), 206-215

Yetim, F. (1996): Multilinguale Aspekte von Text und Hypertext. In: Krause,
J.; Herfurth, M.; Marx, J. (Hrsg.): Herausforderungen an die
Informationswirtschaft. Informationsverdichtung, Informationsbewertung
und Datenvisualisierung. Konstanz: Universitätsverlag, 109-120. 1996

Yetim, F. (1995a): Interkulturelle Kommunikationsprobleme und die
Konsequenzen für CSCW. Eine neue Betrachtung des Sprach-Handlungs-Modells
von Winograd und Flores. Künstliche Intelligenz 2, 45-47  (1995).

Yetim, F. (1995b): Internationalisierung der Telekommunikation: Der Kick für
interkulturelle Kommunikation und Kooperation? In: Schieber, P. (Hrsg.):
Informationsmanagement in der Informationsgesellschaft, Konstanz:
Universitätsverlag , 287-301. 1995