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Chair’s Corner

Hope for the best, plan for the worst

Jun 10, 2025 | ,

At the EC meeting in February and then again in May, finances were a pressing item on the agenda. The February meeting has typically been the meeting where the SIG budget, also called the organizational budget or “org budget”, is deliberated, and for the most part, finalized. In February we discuss what we know about projections around the SIG’s income and expenses, including the projections around the upcoming SIGGRAPH conference provided by the Conference Advisory Group (CAG). By the time May rolls around, the CAG starts to adjust projections around the conference income and expenses based on early activity. These insights make the May EC meeting a good time to deliberate on the costs of our portfolio of year-round activities and standing committees of the organization.

Our organizational income comes from three sources: the conferences, membership dues, and digital library revenue, in pretty much the same ratio as it did back in 2021.  The majority of the revenue from conferences comes from our two flagship conferences, SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia. Specialized conferences do not generate a significant surplus in typical years, and when they do, we allow them to use half of that surplus amount toward the next year’s conference. For the SIGGRAPH conference, the conference chair, in consultation with the CAG, puts together a budget which projects income and expenses. When the conference closes, any surplus gets deposited in the organizational reserves. In a low year, we have the ability to draw on the reserves to make up any losses. SIGGRAPH Asia is a different financial model. At this moment, KoelnMesse, an international event organizer, assumes the financial risks associated with that conference and our organization receives a minimum fee along with a small percentage of the profit, if any. The SACAG, though analogous to the CAG in terms of its mandate to maintain year to year continuity in terms of the conference experience, does not have the same level of visibility or authority over SIGGRAPH Asia finances, decisions around locations, choice of contractors, etc. As a result, the really big source of revenue for the organization is the SIGGRAPH conference.

So, what has been top of mind for the EC this May? That while we hope for the best, it will be prudent to plan for the worst.

The amount of digital library revenue we can expect in the coming financial year has a question mark next to our (and ACM’s) best projections because it remains to be seen how authors and institutions respond to the move to ACM OPEN. Membership has been declining over the past thirty or so years (see Figure 1) in each category (affiliate members are those who are members of the SIG but not ACM members). Membership revenue is thus unlikely to make up for deficits in other sources of revenue. If the conferences do not return a surplus, or worse, if they run into losses due to the factors that are outside of our control, we will deplete our reserves quite quickly (see Figure 2). The EC that navigated SIGGRAPH through previous financial crises prescribed a reserve amount over and above the ACM mandated reserve. If this reserve gets hit, then the fiscally responsible thing to do by the conference (by which I mean the SIGGRAPH conference) and the standing committees of the organization (including the EC) is to take drastic steps whether that involves reducing expenses or generating revenue or both.

The EC considered this sobering situation in the May meeting. The EC talked about contingency planning. Some of the ideas that emerged in that discussion: reviewing our approach to large contracts as those are multi-year agreements that are a big part of conference costs, reviewing our approach to contributor and volunteer recognition and associated expenses, considering new conferences (SIGGRAPH Europe?), exploring ways to grow specialized conferences and examining the tradeoffs involved in static versus moving conference locations. Readers, this is your SIG– I invite you to send the EC your thoughts and ideas via this Google form.


(Figure 2)
(Figure 1)

Fifty years is a long time.

Nov 28, 2024 |

We celebrated 50 years of SIGGRAPH in 2023. In its heyday, SIGGRAPH drew almost 50,000 attendees. In our 51st year, we were back in Colorado, where it all began. Attendance was closer to 9000. Given this context, it behooves us to ask some hard questions. Where are we headed? Often, it helps to start by asking “where are we coming from?” I started by looking through our history archives.

The first conference in 1974 had only two types of content: papers and courses. The content was driven by scientific and engineering applications. Human input and interactive techniques were as important as techniques for measurement and representation. One title drew my attention: “Searching for Oil with an Interactive Graphic Terminal”. I appreciated the authenticity and excitement in the first line of the front matter posted by Rob Shiffman: “The conference was a smashing success.”

At this point, the conference was in a growth phase. By 1994, there were 25000 attendees, and in 1997, a record attendance: 48700! In 2004, we were down to approximately 28000 attendees, by 2014, we were down to 14000 attendees and in 2024, somewhere in the neighborhood of 9000 attendees. Graphing these numbers was sobering. In the year 2024, we are somewhere in between the attendee totals of 1980 and 1981 (Figure 1). Our exhibitor numbers are in the same ballpark too (Figure 2). I wondered, if we continue on this trajectory, in six years, will we be where we were in 1974?

Figure 1: Attendees
Figure 2: Exhibitors

That got me curious about the rest of the programs listed on the history archive. While the first conference in 1994 had only two programs, papers and courses, we have since added new programs in an almost linear fashion. In 2024, we had 26 programs listed on our website (Figure 3). These numbers are subject to debate – should Awards be counted as a program, for example – but the trend is clear. Now, I found my mind boggling. I tried listing all the programs we had on offer off the top of my head, and I could not. I asked a few others, just as a fun challenge, and they could not either.

Figure 3: Programs

I recently saw the film Koyaanisqatsi. An indie film made in 1982, the tagline said, “Life out of Balance”. The film has no dialogue or narration, only visuals set to a musical score. In the year 2000, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in the Library of Congress. A visual from the film sprang into my mind: crowds of people walking briskly in various settings ranging from train stations to streets, no time to soak in the wonders of the world. I cannot convey in words what was so masterfully conveyed in that film. But I can ask: how could any of us find the time to enjoy even half of the programs we offer in the space of the annual conference? In a five-day conference, even if I try to catch two programs a day, that’s only ten programs that I can sample. And I call it sample for a reason – an attendee would only be able to catch two technical paper sessions in a half day of attending that particular program, for example.

And so, I found myself wondering again: Have we spread ourselves too thin? Is it time to go back to our roots? And if so, what are they?

Chair’s Corner – On the scale of SIGGRAPH’s activities

Oct 16, 2024 |

As I prepared for the first Executive Committee (EC) meeting of the 2024-25 year, my first meeting as Chair, I found myself confronted by the breadth and scale of our activities as a Special Interest Group (SIG).

The overall organizational structure of the SIG is provided on our website. Standing committees are typically composed of a chair and volunteer committee members. Standing committees are grouped and each grouping has one or two EC directors as their liaison to the EC. The role of the liaison is to guide the standing committees on how to align their planned activities with the strategy set by the EC. Ad Hoc committees are typically new committees that are stood up in response to some need that was created by the EC overall strategy or as a result of an opportunity that was brought to the EC’s attention. Currently, we have three ad hoc committees: Design (led by Masa Inakage and Mona Kasra), Hybrid (led by Masa Inakage and Elizabeth Baron) and Volunteer Development (led by Mashhuda Glencross). At the end of the 3 year term, the EC may decide to renew an ad hoc committee, transition it to a standing committee or suspend it if the need has been fulfilled.

Our advisory groups oversee activities that are “standard” year to year. Their role is to ensure that the chair for the year is supported, that new programs are balanced with year-to-year continuity, and that decisions that need to be made on a multi-year time frame are made in a well-thought out way. The Conference Advisory Group (CAG), which oversees the SIGGRAPH Conference, and SIGGRAPH Asia Conference Advisory Group (SACAG), which oversees SIGGRAPH Asia, have somewhat of a special status in that these are the only two groups whose Chairs are appointed directors on the EC and have voting status. The Governance Advisory Board (GAB) also attends the EC meetings, but as a non-voting representative of the board. That leaves us with strategy groups. Strategy groups are created by the EC to help with big picture thinking. As an example, in the last few years, the Nurturing Communities strategy group advised the EC on the need for a Volunteer Development Committee and was instrumental in standing up this committee.

As I prepared for my first meeting, I counted 11 standing committees (+3 pending), 3 ad hoc committees, 6 advisory boards, 3 affinity groups and 1 strategy group. My mind boggled. At the very least, 23 individuals who were chairs of each of these units needed to interface with the EC. These individuals rotated in and out. When a chair stepped down, individual committee members had questions and concerns that needed to be addressed and a new chair had to be confirmed. Assigning liaisons itself is a complex optimization problem. We had new directors with their interests and expertise areas who did not necessarily have historical context. We had continuing directors who might wish to do the same thing as the previous year or change. Everyone was a volunteer working across time zones, day jobs and personal responsibilities. I found myself wondering, are we doing too much?

Eakta Jain

ACM’s Transition to 100% Open Access Publishing: A Q&A with Jonathan Aldrich

Jun 14, 2024 |

Interviewed by Mona Kasra, ACM SIGGRAPH Chair

In 2026, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) will fully transition its publication process to 100% Open Access. Concurrently, the ACM Digital Library will shift from its current Pay-to-Read model to a Pay-to-Publish model. With numerous queries surrounding this transition within our community, I have invited Jonathan Aldrich, a member of ACM Publications Board, for a Q&A session to keep our SIGGRAPH members and contributors informed and updated. Additionally, I am excited to announce that ACM SIGGRAPH will be hosting a webinar with Jonathan and Scott Delman, the ACM Director of Publications for our members to hear about this transition directly with ACM Publications and ask questions. This webinar is scheduled for Thursday, 27 June 2024, at 5 pm Eastern Time. 

To learn more and register to attend the webinar by following this link.  

Thank you for accepting my invitation to discuss ACM’s transition to Open Access publishing, Jonathan. Could you please elaborate on ACM’s reasoning and objectives behind this change to an Open Access model?

ACM’s mission includes advancing the science of computing, serving the professional and public interests by fostering the open exchange of information (https://www.acm.org/about-acm/mission-vision-values-goals).  Open Access fosters the open exchange of information, because now anyone will be able to freely access the knowledge that is published in ACM conferences and journals.  Furthermore, Open Access increases the impact of scientific work, because anyone can easily find it, read it, and build on it, regardless of affiliation or ability to pay for a subscription to a digital library.  In view of these benefits to science, various forms of Open Access are also required by a number of funding agencies, including the European Research Council and the US National Science Foundation.

What are the primary advantages of Open Access publishing for authors, and how might they be affected during and post-transition? 

The primary benefit is increased visibility and impact of author’s work: ACM’s data also shows that articles published in the ACM Digital Library on an Open Access basis are on average downloaded 2-3X and cited 70% more than articles published behind the paywall.

Many authors are already benefiting from the transition to open access, because for the past several years ACM has been offering a new kind of digital library subscription to institutions, called ACM OPEN.  While traditional digital library subscriptions allow members to read articles in a digital library, ACM OPEN is a “read and publish” subscription: it covers the cost of Open Access publishing articles so that all articles written by corresponding authors at a subscribing institution will be freely available to the public.  Approximately 1,370 institutions worldwide have already subscribed to ACM OPEN!

One thing that will become important is for authors to accurately identify which author is the corresponding author of a paper.  This author is responsible for communication with ACM about the paper, and is usually either the primary or senior author of the paper.  ACM OPEN only applies to a paper (thus waiving any APC charge) if the corresponding author is at an institution that subscribes.  ACM’s systems automatically identify author affiliations based on the email address provided, so if you are at an ACM OPEN institution, be sure to use your institutional email when you submit a paper.

As of June 2020, ACM has initiated this transition in phases. Could you update us on the progress and the current extent of Open Access content in the ACM Digital Library?

ACM has already made all content published prior to 2000 freely available in the digital library.  Many more articles are available Open Access because the corresponding author was at an ACM OPEN institution when the article was published, or because the author voluntarily paid an APC.

Since January 2024, all articles published in ACM’s International Conference Proceedings Series (IPCS) series are also published Open Access.  This is free to corresponding authors at institutions that subscribe to ACM OPEN, while corresponding authors at other institutions must pay an Article Processing Charge (APC).  The IPCS series is for conferences organized by an external entity that is using ACM as a publisher, so it doesn’t affect conferences organized by SIGGRAPH yet.

Once the transition to Open Access is complete, what publishing options will be available for authors, and what can be expected in terms of Author Processing Charges (APCs) for those whose institutions do not join ACM Open?

Starting January 1, 2026, all articles published by ACM will be made Open Access.  We anticipate that 60-65% or more of authors will be covered by ACM OPEN agreements by that point.  But authors whose institutions do not join ACM Open will have to pay an APC when they publish a paper with ACM.  Current APCs for ACM members are $700 for a conference paper and $1300 for a journal paper.  The rate is higher ($1000/$1800) for non-ACM members, but an ACM membership only costs $100 for a year so everyone should join the ACM if they are going to publish a paper!

How can individual authors mitigate financial implications after the shift to a Pay-to-Publish model?

Many researchers who get grant funding can ask for APC coverage as part of the grant; funders are generally happy to support this as it increases the impact of the work (and may even be mandated, as mentioned above).  But ACM realizes that not everyone has funding that can cover APCs.  APCs are waived for anyone in low-income countries (as determined by the World Bank) and there is a 50% waiver for authors in lower middle income countries.  In addition, any author without funding can apply for a discretionary APC waiver if they truly have no applicable funding source.

Could you discuss any potential changes and/or implications for conference publications and proceedings as a result of the transition to Open Access?

In general, conference publications and proceedings should not be greatly affected by the transition to Open Access.  It should be a good thing for most conferences by increasing the availability and impact of the papers they publish!  One thing to keep in mind, though, is that if a conference draws from a large number of people at institutions that do not subscribe to ACM OPEN, it may affect submissions to the conference.  We therefore encourage conference organizers to get the word out about ACM OPEN and have conference attendees lobby for ACM OPEN adoption at their home institutions.  I’ve attached a presentation that can be used to communicate this.

Our organization intends to support the SIGGRAPH community and conferences during this transition.In what ways can we contribute to making this process as smooth as possible for everyone?

We hope you can let people in your community know about the benefits of Open Access and about ACM OPEN subscriptions, and about the APCs that will be charged starting in 2026 for non-subscribers.  Encourage everyone in the SIGGRAPH community to advocate for their institution to join ACM OPEN.

Do you have any additional comments or information you would like to share with the SIGGRAPH community regarding the transition to Open Access and its potential repercussions?

ACM’s transition to Open Access was planned in response to an ACM member-led petition in 2000 to open up the digital library.  This is something that the community cares deeply about, and we believe it will have a transformative effect on the impact of ACM in the broader community.  We ask for your support in making this transition a success!

* For more background and detailed information on Open Access, please visit ACM Website: https://libraries.acm.org/subscriptions-access/acmopen. To learn more about Open Access please register to attend the webinar with Jonathan Aldrich and Scott Delman by following this link. 

Chair’s Corner – Chair’s Welcome Essay

Oct 22, 2022 |

Having come from a background of primarily low-level GPU software development, the “why” of the specific stream of requests being sent to the software I was writing never really occurred to me.  For example, I could poke registers and issue commands to make a red triangle appear at a specific location on the screen but not understand why that red triangle needed to be there right at that moment in time — fleeting milliseconds. This notion that everything is about storytelling is one tangible idea SIGGRAPH has imprinted on my thinking of what I do professionally. Sitting in a SIGGRAPH jury room with artists and other creators deliberating conference submissions crystalized this concept. I previously had glimpses into partial explanations of the “why” — e.g., because there is a red car in the scene — but that experience led me to strive for the complete “why.” What story is being told that not only places the red car in the scene, but all of the other objects too? What unfolds over time? The whole point is the story!

We are a community of storytellers. Our entire organization, its members, as well as the artists, researchers, animators, and developers who attend ACM SIGGRAPH sponsored events are storytellers. The members of the SIGGRAPH community support one another with peer expertise and resources to empower each member to tell their story. We often feel it most when we are attending one of the many wonderful ACM SIGGRAPH events, whether it is SIGGRAPH in August or one of the more specialized conferences throughout the year. We are first and foremost a community, a community that strives for inclusion … in the words of my predecessor Elizabeth Baron, “SIGGRAPH is for everyone!”

The ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee (EC) is the steward of our community. The EC has a strategic vision with three fundamental pillars — volunteerism, membership, and online events. Elizabeth Baron has covered these extensively in her last essay, and I recommend reading it. In short, we view our current and future membership, our volunteers, and our events — in-person, hybrid, and virtual — as the crucial pieces to the health and stability of our organization moving forward. That has been the EC’s position over the past year or two, and I have no plans to alter that course. My goal is to further these efforts rather than introduce new strategic initiatives. Community building around the design and digital twin spaces is a new initiative that directly supports the current strategic pillars. I encourage everyone to please check out the year round ACM SIGGRAPH programming and see what inspires you. Maybe even sign up to volunteer with one of the committees that shepherds the efforts around them.

While ACM SIGGRAPH was around for a bit before we started sponsoring events, this August  is a very special anniversary for the SIGGRAPH Conference.   We are looking very forward to the 50th SIGGRAPH Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2022 will be held in Daegu. This will be a great opportunity for participants to experience Korean culture. The keynote speaker is Dr. Luc Julia (CSO, Renault Group).

Thank you all for being a part of our ACM SIGGRAPH community!

Jesse Barker,  

ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee Chair