ksbooth@watcgl.UUCP (07/24/87)
In article <1229@byzantium.swatsun.UUCP> rice@swatsun (Dan Rice) writes: > > Is it possible for non-attendees to purchase SIGGRAPH notes (not >proceedings)? > Not easily. SIGGRAPH course notes are available at the conference to anyone who wants to purchase them (subject of course to stock on hand). For a number of reasons (I hope obvious) the print run for course notes is carefully estimated to cover the needs of the conference attendees and the advance orders prior to the conference for full sets of course notes. Complicating factors in attempting to sell notes after the conference are: copyrights to the material (some of it is obtained expressly for the course notes and is not supposed to be further distributed), royalties (there are none paid because the course notes are only for the conference), handling charges (the ACM Order Department charges SIGGRAPH $5 per order plus shipping charges to the purchaser), and the time factor (some, not all, of the course notes have a useful lifetime of only a year or so because the next year's edition is bigger and better). Three Ways to Gain Access to Course Notes: #1 If you are a member of a SIGGRAPH local group that is active, the local group will receive a free full set of course notes at the conference if the proper forms were submitted a few months ago. #2 If you are at or have access to an educational institution where computer graphics is taught, a full set of course notes is being sold -> to the institution <- by SIGGRAPH if the institution is listed in the SIGGRAPH Educational Directory and the proper forms were filled out a few months ago. The advance educational price is "at cost" (it's cheaper than the on-site price for a full set). #3 Failing the first two, you can of course ask someone who is going to the conference to buy the course notes for you. Shipping facilities are available at the conference (at your expense) for partial or full sets of course notes. Full sets (only) may always be ordered in advance of the conference using the registration forms. Shipping is not included, so you will need to make arrangements with someone to ship them to you from the conference. SIGGRAPH is not in a position to provide shipping because of the incredible hassles created by people who bounce checks, give wrong addresses, work for the US government and expect us to accept purchase orders that aren't honored for months, send checks for the wrong amount, order notes that they subsequently decide the don't want, etc. We do the best we can. #1 was introduced for two years ago. #2 is being tried this year for the first time. Next year there will probably be yet another mechanism for distributing the course notes. SIGGRAPH believes the notes are a valuable contribution to the computer graphics community. We try to make them as widely available as we can without unduly stretching our resources. If you have comments or suggestions regarding ways in which SIGGRAPH might make the course notes available, please send me e-mail. This is probably not a good topic for general discussion in the new group. If something new happens for next year, I will post an announcement. Kelly Booth SIGGRAPH Chair
webber@brandx.rutgers.edu (Webber) (08/21/87)
In article <194@caeco.UUCP>, john@caeco.UUCP (John Rigby) writes: > in article <469@uoregon.UUCP>, markv@uoregon.UUCP (Mark VandeWettering) says: > > ... > > By the way, a much more complete bibliography appeared in this years > > Siggraph course notes on raytracing. If you can get a copy of the > > Introduction to Raytracing notes, by all means do so. They are an > > EXCELLENT introduction to raytracing. > > Is there any way that I can get a copy of these notes??? The Siggraph course notes are not publications, but are actually meant as ``course notes,'' i.e., notes handed out by a teacher to supplement a lecture. By being such, they take on a different aspect under copyright law and other agreements. There is a printing of the notes that is then sold to interested people who attend the conference. Many of the notes sell out at the conference. I have heard that sometimes leftovers have become available on some sort of spot market. If you want to investigate the possibility that there were leftovers, then you should contact the ACM SIGGRAPH organization who recently sent a news message containing the following: Mail sent to siggraph@waterloo.edu will be forwarded to the appropriate person within ACM SIGGRAPH. Usually a direct response will be provided if the message is forwarded, so you know that someone is processing the request. They should also be able to put you in contact with the people who did that particular course who are probably on the net and doubtless also not in the business of printing off such notes. Best of luck in your quest (and in the parallel quests of countless others whose hypothetical existance is the reason this was posted to the net). ------------------------ BOB (webber@aramis.rutgers.edu)
ksbooth@watcgl.UUCP (08/23/87)
Most of the SIGGRAPH course notes were sold out on site this year. The few that remained are being pirated to make full sets to fill orders that were oversold (a few notes will be reprinted, but only enough to fill outstanding orders). A posting last month gave details on ordering full sets of course notes in advance of the conference. A similar posting will appear for next year's conference, this time sufficiently in advance to allow more institutions to take advantage of the opportunity.