November 29, 2001
An Informal Advisory Board

I'm quite thrilled to report that a few brave souls have volunteered to provide guidance to the info-arch.org initiative:

Michael Angeles
Andrew Dillon
Matt Jones
Victor Lombardi
Gary Marchionini
Beth Mazur
Jess McMullin
Peter Merholz
Peter Morville
George Olsen
Whitney Quesenbery
Paula Thornton
Christina Wodtke

Posted by Louis Rosenfeld at 12:13 PM

November 19, 2001
Today's Progress Report

One week into this idea, and lots of good ideas and efforts are already under way. And some incredible discussion of who we are (yet again) and what we should be doing have permeated SIGIA-L. Anyway, here's where we are as of today:

New Ideas

• Deliverables exchange: A place where we could share (and critique) the work we do. Great idea from Jess McMullin, who seeks others to help get it off the ground. Happy to offer some space on info-arch.org.


• IA FAQ: A bright idea from John Paul Fullerton, who has gone ahead and set up an area on the IAwiki.

Project Updates

• Mailing List Archive: Volunteers (Andrew McNaughton and Karl Fast) are already working hard on capturing a new version of the SIGIA-L archive using HyperMail, and we're hopeful that it will be available in the coming weeks. Once this basic version is up and running, there are many great ideas for more futuristic improvements. What would you like to see in a mailing list archive? This is a good time to post your thoughts on the blog.


• Professionals Directory: A more scalable approach than the IAwiki's would likely require a backend database. Gordon Montgomery and Andrew Hinton/Symetri have expressed interest in investigating what it might take to get this set up.


• Employment Area: A little surprising that few have expressed interest in working on this; aren't we all looking for jobs right now? ;-) Once again, the intrepid Gordon Montgomery has volunteered to explore this idea, and is open to merging the data model with that of the Professionals Directory.


• Promoting the Field: Terie Clement and Nick Finck have generously offered to get involved; I'm hoping I can persuade them to develop a working group mission and start on a marketing plan. :-)


• The Library: Building a scalable distributed library of IA content is a challenge certain to draw the interest of a doctoral student, and we've hooked one: Todd Wilkens has already posted some provocative thoughts on how we might use the Epinions model. Another interesting idea: sharing our own bookmarks using a tool like Backflip or Gossamer Threads. In any case, my goal is to begin connecting Todd and others who've expressed interest in building a shared library for IA.


• The Journal: If you didn't know by now, a high-powered team is about to launch Boxes and Arrows, as "the definitive source for the complex task of bringing architecture and design to the digital landscape". Which is pretty danged exciting; I can't wait! In the meantime, this blog has managed to hook up more volunteers to the B&A effort.


• The Calendar: Not much to report here, just a question: is there a calendar program (perhaps ASP-based) which would allow some sort of distributed event-entry and management? Something that's a cross between a blog or wiki and a calendar interface? One I've heard of (but know little about) is WebEvent; anyone familiar with it?


• Book and Article Reviews: More volunteers directed toward the Boxes and Arrows effort.


• "Local" Chapters: Until there is a more formal venue, this blog might be the best place to discuss and share thoughts on how to set up and maintain local IA chapters. Also consider getting yourself added to the ACIA Community page.


• Education: Dan Brown is working on a draft mission statement for an IA education working group; stay tuned! Also, an interesting tidbit from Matt Jones: "the British Computer Society are thinking of running an accreditation scheme for user experience designers. They are seeking comments". Go to their site for more information.


• IA Professional Association: Some great comments on SIGIA-L and here on the blog.


• Relationships and Partnerships: Great ideas on SIGIA-L last week from Marc Rettig, whom I'm trying to strongarm into helping think up partnering models with other disciplines and their organizations. Productive phone conversation with Dave Robins, who is taking over as SIG-IA chair. And an offer to volunteer from Susan Witter.

The blog has benefitted from all sorts of technical help, blog improvements, and other general wizardry this past week, courtesy of:

• Jared Folkmann


• Christina Wodtke


• Eric Scheid


• Karl Fast

Posted by Louis Rosenfeld at 12:53 PM

November 14, 2001
The Day After...

First, I'd like to quote something wonderful that Christina said yesterday:

"This new medium should no longer be a shanty town. It's time for architects to step up and help build a mature information city, doing what we do best."

Amen, sister. On that note, there's already been a reasonably good response from members of the community who want to build that city. I'll summarize and publicize who is interested in which projects; if nothing else, I'm hoping to play matchmaker between projects and volunteers. If you're interested in getting involved in a specific project mentioned at http://www.info-arch.org/infrastructure, don't be shy; chances are that you won't be the only volunteer. Or suggest your favorite project that's not listed on the site and I'll put out a shingle for it.

Finally, a question for everybody: Do you know of good examples of communities that have invested effort into getting useful information and tools onto the Web? Who did the work, and how were they organized (or not)? Do you think it's a good model for the IA community (and why)?

Posted by Louis Rosenfeld at 03:28 PM

November 11, 2001
Tech Glitches

There are sure to be many problems that will come up, and I hope you'll comment here when you find them.

Most obvious technical glitch can be found on pages like this one: if the left column is shorter than the right column, the right wraps under the left. Goofy. Don't know if I have the technical ability to fix this, and so... any volunteers? :-)

Posted by Louis Rosenfeld at 06:44 PM

Ready to Roll

Well, after much cutting, pasting, and prayer, this site should be launchable. Yay!

Special thanks to Christina Wodtke, who is truly an angel in information architect's clothing.

Posted by Louis Rosenfeld at 06:43 PM