CHI4Good or Good4CHI

This paper is a commentary on the place of social good within the context of human-computer interaction, specifically the CHI community. I propose three ways of looking at recent CHI research in this space -- application research, crossover work, and community-centric research, and suggest that the structural constraints of the CHI conference impact these differently. Tracing the history social-good-related research at CHI, I contextualize this to the construction of the designer and the technology industry as driven by a social mission. In conclusion, I propose that Good4CHI is a better characterization of the direction of value than conference themes such as CHI4Good.