SIGIA-L Mail Archives: RE: SIGIA-L: Virtual Architecture
RE: SIGIA-L: Virtual Architecture
From: Brad Bergh (BBergh_at_doublestarinc.com)
Date: Sun Apr 23 2000 - 11:44:39 EDT
I'd like to second this point. Architects "..specify..". Construction Crews
"...make it real." Each contributes a different value. Each requires a
different skill set. I believe this distinction to be at the heart of the
difference between the Information Technologist and the Information
Architect. Furthermore, I feel a case can be made that many IT projects have
disappointed the expectations of their sponsors because this difference was
not understood.
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Merholz [mailto:peterme_at_peterme.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2000 12:47 PM
To: sigia-l_at_asis.org
Subject: Re: SIGIA-L: Virtual Architecture
> > If the signage on the directory is clear and informative, we
> > can find which floor / suite the office we are looking for is in. We
can
> > all agree on certain architectural conventions, such as the up and down
> > indicators on an elevator.
>
> You just described signage conventions, not architectural conventions.
> Architecture is the building of the building, not the drawing of the
> map. They're related, certainly, but they're not the same.
To be even more nitpicky, those are wayfinding conventions.
http://www.libfind.unl.edu/casetudy/456/sharon.htm
The Web analog of wayfinding is, to state the obvious, 'navigation', usually
some type of visual landmark on the top of the page, and a list of available
paths either across the top or down the left side.
And to nitpick further--architecture is not the building of the building.
Architecture is the planning. The specifying. The drawing up of blueprints.
Architects don't build things. Contractors do.
Here, an architecture analogy holds. I don't build web sites. I specify
their structure and how they should function and then hand that off to a
contractor to make it real.
--peter
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