John Long Comments on Festschrift Published Papers
In my own contribution to the Festschrift (Some Celebratory HCI Reflections on a Celebratory HCI Festschrift), I celebrated ‘the Festschrift papers themselves (both accepted and rejected), their authors and their reviewers’. I also went on to write: ‘My natural instinct is to peer review the papers. Space and my honoured status forbid such a review. However, I hope to do this elsewhere (I owe it to the authors and myself)’. The elsewhere has arrived and is now here.
However, on reflection, to peer review the Festschrift papers now seems inappropriate. They were peer reviewed before publication and are unlikely to be re-published, at least in their present form. Nevertheless, I would still like to respond to the papers (‘what I owe myself’) and to contribute to the ideas, expressed in them (‘what I owe the authors’). My ‘response’ and ‘contribution’, then take the form of a commentary – a set of comments on the ideas put forward by the authors. The comments are wide-ranging from simple clarifications to complex suggestions as to how the ideas might be developed further. The comments are intended to be constructive, even when critical. They are my way of expressing my thanks to the authors for their contributions to the Festschrift. I hope they find my comments both interesting and useful.