IAI Newsletter #2.5 May 2007

May 01, 2007 06:50 PM

The Information Architecture Institute (IAI) Newsletter features news about IAI and our partner sites: Boxes and arrows and IAwiki. We've also added a list of conferences, workshops, F2Fs, and job postings at the end, so scroll down!

In this issue:

* IAI News
* New UX Management Email Discussion List
* Volunteer Opportunities at IAI
* IA Global Spotlight
* What's New with Our Partners?
* Upcoming Conferences and Workshops
* Job Postings

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IAI NEWS - http://www.iainstitute.org

Dear fellow IAI members

In preparation for writing this months 'message-from-a-board-member' I read back through the IAI newsletters for this year. Reading all the newsletters together was an amazing experience - I realised just how much we achieved in the first four months of this year. We planned for, looked forward to, and had a great time at the IA Summit. We worked madly to prepare the website and soft-launched it a month ago. We bought our own Island on Second Life and are starting to fit it out. We continued work on infrastructure and strategy at the same time.

In the past month, we have started to see many lights at ends of tunnels, and some new tunnels opening up (hmmm...not the best metaphor I could come up with).

The website team continued working hard - getting the website structure back-end solid, fixing bugs, editing copy and much more (more on this below).

Planning for the IDEA conference is well underway. A venue is almost booked and dates almost ready to announce. The program team is starting to work on the theme and potential speakers. Watch this space for final details as it will definitely be a conference not to miss.

We have a new lead for our mentoring program. Chris Chandler has the skills and energy to take our mentoring program to the next level. As always, if you are interested in being a mentor or protege, please contact operations@iainstitute.org. And if you signed up at the IA Summit but haven't heard from us, we will be contacting you soon.

If you sometimes live in Second Life, make sure you visit the Info Architecture Island (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Architecture/35/96/23). Every time I visit there are new things to see and think about - today I discovered a movie screen (with great instructions on how to use), a slideshow player at the amphitheatre and a meeting recorder inside the building. And there are still some free t-shirts available.

Donna Maurer
Marketing/Comms
IAI Board of Directors

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UX Managers Community Group

At the 2007 IA Summit, a group of user experience managers came together at workshop facilitated by Mags Hanley (http://www.iasummit.org/proceedings/2007/ux_management_developing_and_g). The group totally ignored Mags' slides and focused on helping each other, providing ideas and support for the problems and issues that arose during the day. It was a great success!

Out of this workshop, the IA Institute has provided the space and facilities to set up the UX management email list and we invite all interested parties to join!

http://lists.iainstitute.org/listinfo.cgi/ux-management-iainstitute.org

The UX Management email list is a list dedicated to the discussion of management issues, problems and interests of User Experience Managers. Please feel free to contact Mags Hanley (mairead at yahoo DOT com) if you would like to know more about the list.

Information on IAI email lists is available on our website at

http://iainstitute.org/pg/ia_institute_email_lists.php

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VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT - http://iainstitute.org/pg/volunteer_opportunities.php

Great new volunteer opportunities at IAI!

**IDEA event coordinator and website manager
IAI will hold the second IDEA conference this fall in New York City 2007 and needs motivated volunteers to lead the effort. Great experience and opportunity, read more at http://iainstitute.org/pg/volunteer_opportunities.php

Volunteer positions will continue as we get closer to the event, so if you’d like to help in any capacity please contact volunteer AT iainstitute DOT org.

**Organization research lead
The Board of Directors is also seeking a volunteer to lead a research study of professional organizations. Study will offer board mentorship to volunteer and results will help inform and improve services to IAI members and IA practitioners. Read more on our website: http://iainstitute.org/pg/research_organizatons_2007.php#000614

**Make the new website come alive
The new website will debut soon and we need your help! Web volunteers are needed to work on content, code, or features. So if you want IAI to have an innovative and highly useable website, donate your skills and ideas! Or if you encounter any bugs or issues when you explore the new site, you can email webmaster AT iainstitute DOT org and let us know!

Contact Melissa at volunteer AT iainstitute DOT org to sign up for any project.

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IA Global Spotlight

Who: Karen Loasby leads a team of information architects working in the BBC's Future Media & Technology division. We work on www.bbc.co.uk, our mobile sites, and interactive television services.

Where: London, United Kingdom

What would you like to tell us about IA in your part of the world?

The London IA community is pretty developed but things are a bit quieter outside London. I'm still waiting for an IA job to appear in the Yorkshire Dales.

The London IA group has 475 members but there was debate recently about whether the mailing list was just for job postings and why practical IA issues weren't being discussed. Some responses suggested that the international mailing lists covered this just fine hence the focus on local jobs and training courses.

It is sometimes suggested that the European IA community does though have different interests than IA in North America. There seems to be greater emphasis on multi-lingual issues, mobile technologies, and some specialisms like topic maps are popular but the differences are less marked in the UK - although at the BBC we do have to support Welsh.

London has a busy and competitive job market at the moment and it feels like IA as a profession is thriving, if dominated by roles at digital agencies. There's a book group taking shape and sporadic meet-ups in London's many pubs. We could do with more IA related training and most UK conferences are only tackling IA at a quite basic level, although it looks like there will be some interesting stuff at the Ergonomics Society's conference Create 2007.

What most excites you about IA in the future?

Funnily enough I'm fixated with the information architecture of television and radio programmes at the moment. When I joined the BBC 6 years ago the website was really all about text and was massively dominated by news stories. In some ways it wasn't particularly significant that the website we were working on was part of this massive broadcasting organisation.

That has all changed with the growth of audio and video content on the site. The web is fast becoming a significant route to programming. It doesn't yet support a true "sit-back" experience like the TV in your lounge but it has other great advantages, particularly around the ability to surface connections between programmes and introduce you to new ones (and old ones if we can get the archive content up there). We're also beginning to explore the user experience across and between our platforms - how does the linear tv experience hook up with the interactive tv experience, the web experience and the mobile experience?

Why do you belong to the IA Institute?

I signed up the BBC team as a group for practical reasons (conferences discounts, access to mentoring) but also for the philosophical reason of supporting them becoming part of a global IA community.

Where can we find you?

www.iaplay.com

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WHAT'S NEW WITH OUR PARTNERS

ASIS&T Bulletin, Boxes and Arrows, IAwiki, and Web Indexing SIG

ASIS&T Bulletin - http://www.asis.org/bulletin.html

The April May issue of the Asis&t Bulletin is available online with the special IA column: Digital Libraries on the MUVE: A Virtual Adventure by Lori Bell, Kitty Pope and Tom Peters. The article focuses on librarian’s adventures in Second Life – a great read for anyone interested in or looking to get involved in Second Life as an information professional.

Check it out at http://asist.org/Bulletin/Apr-07/bell_pope_peters.html

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Boxes and Arrows - http://www.boxesandarrows.com
The definitive source for the complex task of bringing architecture and design to the digital landscape

Measuring the Success Of a Classification System
by Iain Barker

The design of complex information systems often calls for early validation of the proposed classification schemes. Iain Barker offers an evaluation method that may help.

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/measuring-the

Enterprise IA Methodologies:
by James Robertson

Information architects working within enterprises are confronted by unique challenges, relating to organisational culture, business processes, and internal politics. James Robertson pulls the strands of situational spaghetti to get to the root of the project.

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/enterprise-ia

March Conference Showdown (Or How I Spent My Spring Break)
by Christina Wodtke

After sweeping through both SXSW and the IA Summit in March, Dame Wodtke reflects on the benefits of going wild.

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Web Indexing SIG: http://www.web-indexing.org

The Web Indexing SIG is sponsoring a pre-conference workshop at the annual conference of the American Society of Indexers in Philadelphia: Workshop 4: Creating Website Indexes, to be held 8:00 am - 12:00 noon on Thursday, May 24.

This half-day workshop presented by Heather Hedden instructs participants on how to create hyperlinked back-of-the-book style indexes on web sites or intranets. The presentation content, examples, and exercises come from the full 13-week series online courses that have been offered by Hedden Information Management since 2005. Indexing experience is not necessary, but a basic familiarity with the concepts of subentries, double-posting, and cross-references is assumed. Indexing techniques and tools specific to web site indexing will be presented.

Information is at http://www.asindexing.org/site/conferences/conf2007/preconfworkshops.shtml

**Workshop cost is only $135. This is in addition to the conference registration fee.You may attend the pre-conference workshops only, and not the conference, for an additional $100 workshop-only registration fee, which may also be applied toward attending an afternoon workshop as well. The continental breakfast and mid-morning refreshment break are included with this fee. Registration is available online at the ASI conference page site.

The American Society of Indexers announces a new book on how to created web site A-Z indexes: /Indexing Specialties: Web Sites/, written by Heather Hedden, will be available for ordering through Information Today, Inc. by the beginning of June at http://books.infotoday.com/books/IndexSpecWebSites.shtml More information about the book is available on the author's web site: http://www.hedden-information.com/book.htm

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IAwiki: http://www.IAwiki.net
A collaborative discussion space for IAs. Anyone can contribute; no registration required.

Always a great place to keep up with a global web of IAs professional, the Professional Directory is updated frequently by IAwiki visitors:

http://www.iawiki.net/ProfessionalsDirectory

Check out the many other useful articles, list, facts and fun at http://www.iawiki.net/.

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UPCOMING CONFERENCES

Enterprise Search Summit
Solving your Findability Dilemma
May 15-16, 2007
Hilton New York, NY, USA
http://www.enterprisesearchsummit.com

**DISCOUNT for IAI members

ENTERPRISE SEARCH SUMMIT is a highly intense, in-depth, 2-day conference that covers how to develop, implement and enhance cutting-edge internal search capabilities. If you are an information manager or IT or search professional, ENTERPRISE SEARCH SUMMIT is where you will learn strategies and build the skill sets you need to make your organization’s content not only searchable but "findable."

As the official association sponsor of the Enterprise Search Summit, IAI has negotiated a discount for its members. All IAI members can register for Enterprise Search Summit for $200 off of the full conference price. Members can also receive significant discounts on the pre-conference seminars.

Contact Melissa at membership AT iainstitute DOT org to learn about the IAI member discount!!!

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

Special Seminars this Spring!

Enterprise Information Architecture with Lou Rosenfeld & Steve Krug's Usability Workshop "Don't Make Me Think."

Discounts for IAI members at Krug and Rosenfeld Spring 2007 seminars in Atlanta and Portland, OR:

Enterprise Information Architecture Seminar (with Lou Rosenfeld)
Portland, OR: May 10, 2007
Atlanta, GA: May 31, 2007
More info/registration: http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/eia

Don't Make Me Think! (with Steve Krug)
Portland, OR: May 11, 2007
Atlanta, GA: June 1, 2007
More info/registration: http://www.sensible.com/workshops.html

Discounts:
* After registering, IAI Members can receive $100 off each seminar by emailing either workshops AT sensible DOT com or seminars AT louisrosenfeld DOT com
* Discounts are also available for early registration, when registering for both Lou's and Steve's seminars, and for groups of three or more.

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IAI JOB POSTINGS
The IAI Job Board lists job postings related to information architecture, as well as information design, interaction design, user experience, and HCI.

The following are a sample of recent postings:

Information Architect, Partners Consulting, Philadelphia, PA, USA:
http://iainstitute.org/jobboard/jobs/job.php?id=2974

User Interface Designer, Recruit Media, London, Richmond, GBR:
http://iainstitute.org/jobboard/jobs/job.php?id=2973

Enterprise Content Management Strategist, Aquilent, Laurel, MD, USA:
http://iainstitute.org/jobboard/jobs/job.php?id=2959

Lecturer (Information Management), RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, AUS:
http://iainstitute.org/jobboard/jobs/job.php?id=2933

You must be logged into the IA Institute website to view job descriptions. Job board newsletter archives are available at:
http://lists.iainstitute.org/listinfo.cgi/iai-jobs-iainstitute.org

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Thanks for reading and we'll be back with another newsletter in about a month!