July 11, 2003:  Where Have All the IAs Gone?


I have a theory, and I wonder if it can be proven.

I've talked with a lot of people who feel that there are fewer information
architects today than there were during the dot com peak.  And in terms of
visibility outside the field, that perception is quite understandable.

Back in 2000 and early 2001, there were scads of design firms and agencies
with the budget to prime their publicity pumps.  Naturally this benefited
the information architects who worked for those companies, who, like their
colleagues, received some attention in the industry media.  And back in
those days there still was budget to attend plenty of conferences.

I think that information architects back then were primarily outside
consultants.  We hadn't been around long enough to be recognized much inside
bricks and mortar environments, much less gainfully employed in those
settings.  I'm a big fan of the 80/20 rule, and I'll bet that 80% of
information architects worked for agencies back then.

During the ensuing long march, I think that ratio has flipped.  Something
like 80% of us are in-house, and 20% are, uh, "out house".

Which is great, if you ask me.  It means that information architects have
been recognized as important and valuable enough to have at least one around
full-time and permanent.  The flip side is that perhaps we're not as visible
at conferences and in industry media, so it feels like there are fewer of us
around.

My theory is that there are at least as many of us now as there were two or
three years ago, maybe more.  It's just that we're quietly working away in
drab cubelands devoid of the Nerf basketballs, cappuccino machines, and
other trappings of the cool agencies where we used to punch in.

What do you think:  has there been a mass migration of information
architects in-house?  Are there more, fewer, or the same number of IA
positions now than there were in early 2001?  And how might we prove or
disprove any of these theories--is there a way do to a reasonable census of
information architects and the places they work?


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000188.html

LINK MENTIONED
My take on the 80/20 rule ::
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000122.html

July 14, 2003:  The Undeath of Yahoo!? and more


Just read in today's NY Times that Yahoo! is acquiring Overture.  Assuming
the numbers crunch properly, this seems to be a great move for Yahoo!; they
get to combine what's left of their original directory with Overture's
keyword service, which actually makes pretty good sense for
consumer-oriented directories.  Making decisions based on the biggest ad is
how yellow pages users often do it; similarly, bidding-based placement seems
like it should be appropriate to Yahooligans.

Overture up 12% today; Yahoo! up 3 cents to $32.28.  Hmmm.  Suddenly
Internet stocks are getting interesting to watch again.

Hmmm.

And to think, eight years ago I was predicting Yahoo!'s demise.  Well, the
directory's, at least.  This is the first time I've felt that prediction
might be wrong.


In other news:

* AIfIA's initiative to translate IA texts has gone live.  It covers seven
(count'em) languages:  Nederlands, Español, Português, Italiano, Japanese,
Français, Dansk.  Pretty cool.  Kudos to Peter van Dijck and team for their
great work!

* Speaking of international IA, Peter Morville's latest SemAntics column
finds "all sorts of idiosyncratic reasons why information architects should
reach across borders."  Enjoy!


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000189.html

LINKS MENTIONED
NY Times article ::
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/14/business/14CND-NET.html?hp
The Untimely Death of Yahoo! ::
http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1995/sep/last.html
AIfIA :: http://www.aifia.org
AIfIA Translation Initiative :: http://aifia.org/translations/
Peter Morville's column ::
http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000012.php

July 18, 2003:  From UX to DC to the White House


Some tidbits for a lazy Friday.

The DUX 2003 conference's case studies are now available from the AIGA web
site.  Lots of great stuff; my favorite was John Armitage's "And Another
Thing... The Current Site is in German":  The Final Project in an
International Digital Business Consultancy.  John's presentation at DUX was
funny as hell, and informative to boot.

Speaking of conferences:  those of you who are fools for metadata, Dublin
Core fanatics or just DC-curious should check out this September's DC 2003,
September 28 to October 2 in lovely Seattle.  (Great time of year there
weather-wise.)  Metadata gods Joe Busch and Mike Crandall have assembled a
pre-conference seminar on metadata and search.  Participants include Sun's
Christy Confetti Higgins, Microsoft's Alex Wade, UC-Berkeley's Marti Hearst,
and yours truly.

Finally, another interesting pick from the NY Times:  John Markoff's article
on the user-unfriendliness of the White House's new email system.  The Bush
folks are apparently using a controlled vocabulary based on issues,
requiring users to classify their own postings.  Nice for the folks on the
receiving end; not so nice for the citizens doing the sending.  One
complains "that none of the many categories listed included either
'unemployment' or 'jobs.'"  Ahem.


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000190.html

LINKS MENTIONED
DUX 2003 conference's case studies ::
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm?Alias=2003_case_studies
John Armitage's presentation (.5Mb PDF file) ::
http://www.aiga.org/resources/content/9/7/8/documents/armitage.pdf
Dublin Core :: http://dublincore.org/
DC 2003 Conference :: http://www.ischool.washington.edu/dc2003/index.html
DC 2003 Pre-conference Seminar ::
http://www.ischool.washington.edu/dc2003/preconference-corporate.html
NY Times article ::
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/18/technology/18MAIL.html?hp

July 22, 2003:  Steve and Me:  London, San Francisco, and Atlanta


This fall, Steve Krug and I will be hitting the road again with our
alternating day-long seminars.  Steve will teach "Don¹t Make Me Think: The
Workshop" (http://www.sensible.com/workshops.html), and I'll be spouting off
about "Enterprise Information Architecture"
(http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/seminars/eia/).  Here's the
schedule:


London, UK
   September 4, 2003:  "Enterprise Information Architecture"
   September 5, 2003:  "Don¹t Make Me Think: The Workshop"
   Early registration deadline:  August 11

San Francisco, CA
   October 20, 2003:  "Enterprise Information Architecture"
   October 21, 2003:  "Don¹t Make Me Think: The Workshop"
   Early registration deadline:  September 22

Atlanta, GA
   November 3, 2003:  "Enterprise Information Architecture"
   November 4, 2003:  "Don¹t Make Me Think: The Workshop"
   Early registration deadline:  October 6


You can attend Steve's, mine, or get a discount for attending both.  And a
volume discount when three or more people sign up from the same organization
(or, as they say in the UK, organisation).

So get those chequebooks ready, and please spread the word.  Hope to see you
this fall!


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000191.html

LINKS MENTIONEED
Don¹t Make Me Think: The Workshop :: http://www.sensible.com/workshops.html
Enterprise Information Architecture Seminar ::
http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/seminars/eia/

August 27, 2003:  Keeping Up with the Best New Stuff


A couple months ago, still new to the iPod, I naively asked you loyal Bloug
readers to tell me how you learned about new music.

Wow.  Ask and ye shall receive.  Over 20 thoughtful responses at last count.
Folks, there is plenty to chew on here, and I've only just begun sampling
your advice.  Thank you very much.

But I read too.  I like various varieties of art.  I watch the boob tube on
occasion.  I even understand that there are other interesting media out
there.  And I want to learn more about the new, cool stuff in all of them.

So what about this idea:  we grapple with a number of variations on the "how
do you keep up with...?" question right here on Bloug?

I envision an informal series where we share our Internet-Age tips on
learning about new fiction, blogs, poetry, recipes...  Whatever the medium
or genre, to goal would be to suss out techniques simply for keeping up.

Maybe some enterprising sort could gather these together into a useful
series of edited guides or even a book (not me; too busy).  Well, that's
getting ahead of the game; first, let's get started with something new:

What are the best ways to learn about new magazines?  There are a zillion
out there, and new ones all the time.  Even in with limited shelf space,
Borders blows me away with its selection, and yet there are clearly many
more out there.  So how do you find out about magazines?


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000194.html

LINK MENTIONED
Discovering New Music discussion ::
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000183.html

Aug 28, 2003:  Get Sloshed at our London Happy Hour

Steve Krug and I are hitting the seminar trail again this fall (London, San
Francisco, and Atlanta).  He's doing his excellent "Don't Make Me Think: The
Workshop," while I'm the Captain Kirk of the USS "Enterprise Information
Architecture" seminar.

As always, booze is involved.  With sponsor RedEye ("the eCRM experts who
can show you how different types of customers use your web site"), we're
organizing a happy hour in London this Thursday, 4 September.  The location
is Soho pub "The Picture and Piano" (69-70 Dean Street), and we'll be there
from 6-8pm.  Lots of great networking opportunities, so we hope you'll join
us.  But you'll need to RSVP with RedEye to hold your spot:  email
bertie.stevenson@... or call 0207 627 9300.

Hope to see you at the seminars, the pub, or both next week!


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000195.html

LINKS MENTIONED
Steve's seminar :: http://www.sensible.com/workshops.html
My seminar :: http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/seminars/eia/
RedEye :: http://www.redeye.com/

August 29, 2003:  Various News and Notes

Peter van Dijck's "Information Architecture for Designers" is due out any
minute now.  I've had a sneak preview, and I highly recommend it.  It's a
highly visual book and as such would be worth buying for your designer
colleagues.

On the other (back) end of the spectrum, you can now get certified in
content management.  The University of Washington's iSchool is offering a
Content Management Certificate Program.  Bob Boiko, author of the "Content
Management Bible," is involved; that alone makes this a program of
distinction.

Personal stuff:  I'm headed to the UK today to teach my Enterprise IA
seminar (and hook up with Steve Krug, naturally).  Speaking of the UK, Ann
Light has run an interview with me in UsabilityNews.com.  Boxes & Arrows
published "(Not) Defining the Damn Thing," a short rant of mine about the
futility of trying to label ourselves (lots of really good comments, BTW).

Ah, labeling:  Mary Jean and I are trying to come up with an appropriate
descriptor for a new information architect who will be arriving on this
earth some time in late December.  It galls me to have to label the kid;
makes me feel like such a hypocrite...


BLOUG PERMALINK
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000196.html

LINKS MENTIONED
Information Architecture for Designers :: http://iabook.com/
U. Washington's New CM Program ::
http://www.extension.washington.edu/extinfo/certprog/ctm/ctm_gen.asp
Content Management Bible :: http://67.40.4.246/cmdomain/
Enterprise IA Seminars ::
http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/seminars/eia/
UsabilityNews Interview :: http://usabilitynews.com/news/article1242.asp
Boxes and Arrows Rant ::
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/not_defining_the_damn_thing.php

September 9, 2003:  IAs from SMEs


An interesting question came up during a conversation with nPower's Paul
Nattress at the post-seminar happy hour in London last week:  will future
information architects start out as subject matter experts?

Seems like most of us come from a "industry neutral" background; perhaps
we've studied graphic design, like Paul, or library science, like me, or
technical communications or some other field that is focused on the creation
or communication of information, regardless of setting.  We're interested in
the information itself; its origin and topic don't matter so much.
Conversely, I don't typically run into IAs who started out as, say,
materials scientists, mortgage brokers, or specialists in medieval British
history.

But it's not hard to imagine someone starting out at a utility company,
maybe down the corridor from Paul, with a civil engineering background.
After a few years as a researcher, she becomes interested in how to better
organize the company's growing collection of technical reports.  Soon she's
delving into search tools, metadata, task analyses, instead of writing
reports.  She gets hired to do this kind of work at an energy publishing
company.  A few years later, she's an information architect with an
insurance company.  No more civil engineering; besides changing industries,
she's transmogrified from SME to IA.

Do subject specialists specialize precisely because they're not terribly
interested in any topic besides their own?  Or is the scenario I described
above increasingly commonplace?

If SMEs are going to move into IA, perhaps their journey is bit longer than,
say, people with backgrounds in human factors or journalism.  So I'll wager
that those entering IA five years from now might have significantly
different backgrounds than the newly-minted information architects of today.
It'll be interesting to see what impact that has on our field.


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000197.html

September 15, 2003:  Another Labeling Exercise


What does the term "enterprise" mean to you?

Yeah, I know that your first impulse will be to crack some joke that has to
do with Kirk, Picard, or Seven of Nine.  "OK, so a Romulan, a Ferengi, and
an entire Borg colony materialize into a bar..."

But seriously, folks, I'm struggling with a labeling problem here.  I've
been teaching a seminar series called "Enterprise Information Architecture:
Because Users Don't Care About Your Org Chart".  The "enterprise" I'm
talking about is a large, decentralized, messy organization--could be a
multi-national corporation, a government entity, an academic institution.
Whatever form they come in,  enterprises cause headaches for information
architects:  too much content, too many user audiences, and what information
architecture there is reflects the org chart, not users' needs.

I'm convinced that the enterprise setting is where the IA jobs are and will
be for years to come; all those CMS, search engines, and portal
installations are absolutely crying for help from information architects.

But I'm just not sure the term "enterprise" is the right one.  Does it speak
to you?  Would you make more money and gain more respect if you said you
were an *enterprise* information architect?  Or would you just get blank
stares in return?

I wonder if there's a better term; any suggestions would be appreciated.


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000200.html

LINKS MENTIONED
EIA Seminar Series :: http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/seminars/eia/

September 16, 2003:  San Francisco Seminars

Quick and crassly commercial note:  the early registration deadline for
Steve Krug's and my San Francisco seminars is September 22, just around the
corner.  The seminars take place at The Exploratorium October 20 and 21; all
the details are here:

   http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/seminars/eia/

Related, fun note:  on October 20, our friends at Adaptive Path will be
sponsoring a happy hour for attendees and for anyone in the IA/UX/usability
communities; 5:30pm at Final Final, 2920 Baker Street (at Lombard).  Hope to
see you there!


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000201.html

LINKS MENTIONED
Seminars :: http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/seminars/eia/
Adaptive Path :: http://www.adaptivepath.com

Sep 23, 2003:  IA Summit 2004 Call for Papers

This February, the fifth IA Summit will take place in Austin, Texas.  Each
year, these get better and better (and as the chief programmer for the first
two, I'd say the first ones were pretty good to begin with!).  The content
is great, the price is low, and the social vibe is always outstanding.  Even
if you find the conference somehow not to your liking, Austin is a great
place to kill a weekend.

The BBC's Margaret Hanley is chairing this one, and her call for papers is
appended below:


--------

IA Summit '04 -- Breaking New Ground
Hilton Austin, Austin, Texas
February 27-29, 2003

CALL FOR PAPERS

Scope of the Conference Some of us in the IA field are solidifying the IA
foundation, digging deeper, while others are pushing the boundaries working
with other fields and platforms. In both cases, we are "breaking new
ground". The ASIS&T IA Summit 2004 is seeking submissions from information
architecture practitioners and researchers that support this theme. If you
are developing the IA practice in your organisation by documenting methods,
applying IA principles to new platforms and devices like interactive TV or
handheld devices, using techniques from related disciplines in your day-to
day work or researching the latest ways to connect people and content, we
want to hear from you.

We are open to contributions from people with solid and relevant ideas,
including areas that may be considered ancillary or outside of Information
Architecture. If selected, we simply ask that you put in the time required
to create a solid and professional presentation for the conference
attendees.

We encourage submissions by students, developers and designers, work of a
specialised nature, work concerning new features, design elements, methods
or processes, controversial topics, and work in progress. We are especially
interested in receiving submissions from speakers in our field who have not
presented at the Summit in the past, including academics, professionals in
related fields and information architects who have not yet had the
opportunity to share their knowledge. We want to invigorate our conference
with new thoughts. If you have a solid idea and proposal, but aren't an
expert speaker, we can help. Our planning committee has experienced authors
and presenters who can give a hand in fine-tuning your ideas and
presentations.

How do you know if you have an idea worth pursuing? Imagine that you
traveled out to Austin to attend the conference and sat in on your
presentation? Would it hold your attention? Would it give you new focus or
insight that you could apply to your work? Does it provide fresh perspective
to what you think? If so, great. Go ahead and send along your proposal idea.
Don't be shy...

The Summit seeks proposals for:
Case Studies: specific examples showing the use of IA in completed projects
Presentations: talks that discuss principles and ideas, or provide
insightful analogies and mind-opening explorations to open the minds of
information architects
Tutorials: opportunities for information architecture practitioners to
discuss and develop a topic for a half-day
Panels: differing opinions and discussion on the topics of the day lead by a
moderator
Posters: illustrating a concept from research or practise


DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS

The submission deadline for case studies, presentations, tutorials and
panels is October 31st 2003. The submission deadline for posters is December
5th 2003.

Go to the ASIS&T web site for more details on submitting your paper:

   http://www.asis.org/Conferences/IA04/index.html

-- Margaret Hanley
    Technical Chair
    IA Summit 2004

--------


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000204.html

LINK MENTIONED
IA Summit 2004 Submissions ::
http://www.asis.org/Conferences/IA04/index.html

September 24, 2003:  AIfIA Tools Initiative


The folks at AIfIA have assembled content on useful IA tools.  According to
AIfIA press guy Gene Smith,

"...the Tools are a collection of model templates and deliverables that can
be used by information architects to help sell IA services to clients.

"The initial "toolkit"--which includes a sample creative brief, design
review checklist and process map--is available for free from the AIfIA
website at http://www.aifia.org/tools.  The IA Tools are available for
anyone to use.

"(If you have templates and documents that you would like to share with the
community, contact iatools@... . An AIfIA volunteer will work with you
to "cleanse" your submission(s) of proprietary logos and language and add it
to the IA Tools page.)"

Kudos to Erin Malone, Austin Govella and Jason Pryslak for their hard work!


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000205.html

LINKS MENTIONED
AIfIA Tools Initiative :: http://www.aifia.org/tools

September 25, 2003:  Enterprise IA Roadmap


Hi all; as part of my seminar series on enterprise information architecture,
I've developed what I'm calling a "roadmap" that describes which aspects of
the enterprise's architecture should be developed and when. My goal is to
show that there are certain aspects of a site's architecture that are worth
tackling right away for quick wins, others that you'll get around to later,
and others that you might never reach in a distributed, highly politicized
enterprise environment.

My hope is that this helps to break down a large and daunting challenge into
smaller, digestible, manageable pieces that can be addressed over time.
Many IAs are feeling overwhelmed by the scope and size of the architectures
they've been tasked with, not to mention the vagaries of the enterprise
environment.  This is at least a straw man to react to, if not follow
literally:

   http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/images/EIAroadmap.pdf
(45k PDF file)

All comments welcomed; after all, it's one of them "living documents".  And,
naturally, if you want to know more, come to one of my seminars on
enterprise information architecture...


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000206.html

LINKS MENTIONED
Definition of "enterprise" ::
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000200.html
EIA Roadmap (45k PDF file) ::
http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/images/EIAroadmap.pdf
EIA seminar series :: http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/seminars/eia/

September 25, 2003:  Supporting Local IA Groups

More AIfIA news:  we're looking for feedback on how AIfIA might support
local IA groups.  To that end, a very easy, very brief survey:

   http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=77192278042

Please take a moment to complete it, and feel free to share the URL with
other information architects and fellow travelers who might be interested.
Many thanks!


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000208.html

LINKS MENTIONED
AIfIA :: http://www.aifia.org
Local IA groups survey :: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=77192278042

September 29, 2003:  October 3 IA Event in Tokyo

I'm headed to Tokyo, where Sociomedia is hosting a forum on information
architecture this Friday.  Sociomedia's Manabu Ueno and I will be giving
talks, followed by a panel of Japanese information architects.  The day
wraps up with networking activities that include an AIfIA F2F (face-to-face)
meeting organized by Nobuya Sato.  If you are a Tokyo information architect,
please join us.

BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000207.html

LINKS MENTIONED
Sociomedia :: http://www.sociomedia.co.jp/
IA Forum :: http://www.sociomedia.co.jp/seminars/20031003_forum_e.html
AIfIA :: http://www.aifia.org

October 13, 2003:  IA Networking Events in the Bay Area


A couple of Bay Area networking opportunities coming up over the next week:

* This Wednesday (October 15), I'm hosting an AIfIA face-2-face at 6:30pm in
the hotel bar at the Westin Santa Clara Hotel (5101 Great America Parkway).
Many of us will already be there to attend the KM World/Intranets
conference, but you don't need a conference ticket to enter the hotel.

* On Monday, October 20, Adaptive Path is sponsoring a San Francisco happy
hour immediately after my "Enterprise IA" seminar.  This event takes place
at "Final Final," 2990 Baker Street (at Lombard Street); people will start
showing up about 5:30pm.

Naturally, I hope you'll consider attending my seminar as well as Steve
Krug's "Don't Make Me Think:  The Workshop," which takes place the next day,
October 21, also at the Exploratorium.  There are still some spaces
available.


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000210.html

LINKS MENTIONED
AIfIA :: http://www.aifia.org/
KM World/Intranets conferences :: http://www.kmworld.com/kmw03/
Adaptive Path :: http://www.adaptivepath.com/
Enterprise IA seminar ::
http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/seminars/eia/
Don't Make Me Think seminar :: http://www.sensible.com/workshops.html

October 14, 2003:  What Would MachIAvelli Do?


I really enjoyed Jeff Lash's latest column in Digital Web, "Soft Skills for
Information Architecture".  As usual, Jeff hits the nail on the head:

"While much of one¹s success or failure depends on the skills specific to
information architecture‹like diagramming, documenting,  organizing--an even
greater indicator is soft skills:  dealing with conflict, negotiating, and
communicating."

One particularly critical piece of advice from Jeff is to let other people
do the work for you.  I wish he'd have devoted a bit more to this topic,
because it's deliciously Machiavellian.  Many of us are defensive and
anxious in our interactions with our colleagues, but if IA is truly
strategic to our companies' success, we're a bit more powerful than we
realize.  Why not abuse that power a little, as long as the ends that
justify the means are positive and no one puts out an eye in the process?

For example, lately I've been counseling my clients to be a bit more devious
in their dealings with colleagues around their companies.  Negotiation, as
Jeff points out, is good, but horse-trading is much better.

For example, you know that you're going to lose plenty of battles, like the
one with the irksome VP whose irrelevant department absolutely must be
featured in the site-wide navigation system.  You know it doesn't belong
there.  But you also know that if he gets his way, it'll be only a minor
annoyance, and probably won't have a significant impact on the user's
experience (especially when so many users forego site-wide navigation
altogether in favor of the "back" button).  You also know that the VP could
also help you--perhaps he has influence on an important management
committee, or he could donate a few hours of his benched IT folks' time to
one of your IA projects.

So go into the discussion with a combination of bluster, knowledge that it's
both probable and acceptable to lose this battle, and, most importantly,
what you're going to receive in return for acceding.  Trust me, you'll find
that you walk out of those meetings with something, and something's better
than nothing.



BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000211.html


LINKS MENTIONED
Jeff's article ::
http://www.digital-web.com/columns/ianythinggoes/ianythinggoes_2003-09.shtml

October 15, 2003:  Presentations on Enterprise IA


I've put up a couple of fresh presentations on my site for your
enjoyment/perplexment.  They're both for the KM World/Intranets 2003
conferences taking place this week in Santa Clara, California:

* The first condenses some issues related to designing the enterprise
information architecture.  This expands a bit on the "enterprise IA roadmap"
that I made available recently.  I'm trying to come up with a big picture
and rough prioritization of which pieces of an enterprise IA to develop and
when.

* The second is a description of an "enterprise information architecture
framework" that covers issues which need to be addressed to develop an
enterprise IA strategy.  Think of the seven issues I mention as a model for
the table of contents of an enterprise IA strategy document.

Of course, if you really like this EIA stuff, come to one of my upcoming
seminars on the topic... :-)


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000212.html

LINKS MENTIONED
KM World/Intranets 2003 conferences :: http://www.kmworld.com/kmw03/
Enterprise IA Design talk ::
http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/031013-KMintranets.ppt
Enterprise IA Roadmap ::
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000206.html
Enterprise IA Framework talk ::
http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/031015-KMintranets.ppt
EIA seminars :: http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/seminars/eia/

October 16, 2003:  Support for Local IA Events


AIfIA is at it again:  this time we're offering financial, logistical, and
marketing support for local and regional IA-related events.  AIfIA is trying
to help information architecture get a foothold around the world, and this
support is just one step in that direction.

You can learn more about the program and how to participate from the news
release or from the program's complete details.


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000213.html

LINKS MENTIONED
AIfIA :: http://www.aifia.org
Program press release :: http://aifia.org/news/000250.php
Program details :: http://aifia.org/pg/ia_events_sponsorship.php

October 17, 2003:  Knowledge Management, Information Design, and IA


Judith Lamont's article on information architecture ran in September's
KMWorld magazine.  Brief overview and coverage of a few case studies, and a
positive take overall; nice to see IA get some exposure in the knowledge
management world.  Thanks to Peter Bogaards' wonderful InfoDesign site for
the tip.

On another note, JoDI (the Journal of Digital Information) just put out a
call for papers for a special issue on information design models and
processes.  The submission deadline is December 15.


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000214.html

LINK MENTIONED
KMWorld article ::
http://www.kmworld.com/publications/magazine/index.cfm?action=readarticle&ar
ticle_id=1581&publication_id=1
InfoDesign :: http://www.bogieland.com/infodesign/
JoDI CFP :: http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/calls/infomodels.html

October 19, 2003:  The Enterprise Metadata Nut:  Cracked?


In my take on enterprise information architecture, enterprise-wide metadata
development is the most ambitious, "way off" component of the architecture.
It's Really Hard to get different business units to agree to a single
metadata schema.  It's Really, Really Hard to get them to then populate
those metadata attributes with semantically consistent values.  I've already
yammered on this topic in a past Bloug entry, so I won't get into it further
here.  However, I can at least offer you a simple diagram to explain the
enterprise metadata situation as I see it (URL below).

But some really smart people I know, including Joseph Busch, Bob Boiko, and
Michael Crandall, seem to be fans of SchemaLogic's SchemaServer product.
According to SchemaLogic's site, SchemaServer offers:

* "Support for shared schema and local variations via a generalized model
* "Vocabulary management enables conceptual interoperability and cuts system
management workload
* "Change management enables data stewards/stakeholders to track
dependencies and ensure availability
* "Distributed collaboration accelerates problem resolution and improves
responsiveness
* "Synchronization of new or changed schema across target systems cuts
cycle-time and maintenance expenses"

Sure sounds nice, but is it the solution to the enterprise metadata
headache?  Who knows, but diagnosis is half the battle, and at least their
copywriter seems to understand our pain enough to articulate it well.

Bonus points for SchemaLogic:  they seem to at least be aware that the field
of IA exists, addressing "enterprise information architects," among others.
That's more than can be said for most vendors.

Oh yeah, other vendors:  Context Media seems to be competing in the same
space.  Their Interchange product "facilitates discovery and access to
unstructured content through the portal by normalizing diverse taxonomies."
Again, sounds great, but...

Is anyone really making their metadata attributes interoperable *and*
merging the semantic aspects of their metadata values in an enterprise
setting?  Anyone successfully using these products or something else?
Applying them to semi-structured text (not data, which is a simpler
challenge)?

If this sounds like you, you can pass go, collect $200, and enter the
Information Architects Hall of Fame, temporarily housed in a lovely corner
of my recently rebuilt basement in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Just be sure to
tell us how you did it, ok?

If you did pull off this amazing feat, how long did it take?  What kind of
metadata attributes did you develop and apply?  The relatively easy ones,
like audience labels, or the more-painful-than-a-visit-to-the-dentist ones,
like subjects?  The content:  how much and what kind?  How many business
units supplied said content?  And when did you get released from the nice
white padded room?


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000215.html

LINKS MENTIONED
My take on enterprise metadata challenges ::
http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000172.html
Enterprise metadata diagram ::
href="http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/images/031019.pdf
SchemaLogic :: http://www.schemalogic.com
Context Media :: http://www.contextmedia.com

October 28, 2003:  Behavioral and Structural Modification


CMS Watch points to "The Missing Link," an excellent column by Thomas R.
Davies in Governing.com.  Just as in the private sector, government agencies
are flummoxed by the silo problem:

"...apparently, government leaders would rather tackle the challenges of
failing schools, rising health care costs and finding money for homeland
security before taking on the information-sharing bugaboo.  Can it really be
more difficult to get everyone to disseminate data among themselves than to
eliminate billion-dollar budget deficits?"

(Clearly, government agencies need the services of a good enterprise
information architect or two.  Or sixteen.)

Davies goes on to reference Donald Marchand's work on "information
orientation" (IO).  To paraphrase Davies, IO-savvy organizations can:
1) manage IT applications and infrastructure;
2) manage information over its life-cycle; and
3) instill and promote behaviors and values for the effective use of
information.

This last point is perhaps the most important of the three, and is yet the
least understood.  Summarizing a study by Marchand, Davies notes that:

"...the exchange of information--between individuals on a team and across
functional and organizational boundaries--is one of the critical information
values that senior executives need to instill in their organizations.
Values and behaviors such as information sharing are, the book suggests,
just as important to increasing organizational performance as is having the
latest and greatest technology."

IO appears to be a measure of, among other things, how well an
organization's employees value and engage in information sharing across
organizational "silos".  Of course, information architects come at this
problem from a different direction:  we try to develop structures that
enable access to that information across silos, whereas IO seems to fit the
knowledge management (KM) approach of capturing information despite its
origin within separate information structures.

Sorry.  Where the heck am I going with this?

I'm not a KM expert, and this concept of IO is new to me (one of Marchand's
books now sits in my ever-mushrooming "to-read" pile).  But I'm wondering:
are these two approaches--IA and KM--are at odds with each other?  Or is
there some appropriate mix of behavioral modification that a senior manager
might implement (the KM approach), and structural modification that
information architects might bring about?  Seems like a combined approach
would have the best chance of increasing the flow, access, capture, and
management of information across silos.

Any of you out there involved in enterprise projects that combine IA and KM?
Are these two fields colliding or uniting?  Do they even know about each
other?  Is it time for a KM/IA Summit?


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000217.html

LINKS MENTIONED
CMSWatch :: http://www.cmswatch.com/
Davies' column :: http://www.governing.com/articles/8tech.htm
Governing.com :: http://www.governing.com/

October 28, 2003:  IA and Usability Networking in Atlanta, 11/3


Hi all, another set of Krug/Rosenfeld seminars is fast approaching (the last
one of 2003, actually).  I teach my Enterprise IA seminar Monday 11/3, and
Steve teaches Don't Make Me Think:  The Workshop on Tuesday 11/4, at
ZooAtlanta.  Still a few spaces open if you're interested.

After my Monday seminar, we're organizing an open happy hour for all in the
IA/UE/UX/whatever-you-call-it community.  If you're in or near Atlanta, drop
by the Rose & Crown in Buckhead (288 E Paces Ferry Rd NE) around 6:30pm for
some meet and greet, booze and stumble...


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000219.html

LINKS MENTIONED
Enterprise IA seminar ::
http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/seminars/eia/
Don't Make Me Think! seminar :: http://www.sensible.com/workshops.html
Rose & Crown Pub ::
http://atlanta.citysearch.com/profile/2994838/?cslink=cs_boc_lw_2_4

October 29, 2003:  Italian IA


Come posso tornare alla homepage?  Cosa significa questa label?  These and
other important questions are answered in "Information Architecture," the
first IA book I know of to be originally written in Italian.  The authors
are Laura Caprio and Beatrice Ghiglione, two of the people behind the site
InformationArchitecture.it, "il primo sito italiano sull'Architettura
dell'Informazione."

Congrats to Laura and Beatrice!

Related note:  as part of its "Translating IA" initiative, AIfIA has made
Italian translations of various IA materials available.


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000218.html

LINKS MENTIONED
Information Architecture by Caprio & Ghiglione ::
http://www.informationarchitecture.it/news/out_2003-10-20.shtml
InformationArchitecture.it ::
http://www.informationarchitecture.it/index.shtml
AIfIA :: http://www.aifia.org/
AIfIA's Italian translations :: http://aifia.org/it/

October 31, 2003:  It's a Floor Wax and a Dessert Topping


In Boxes and Arrows, a hugely useful article by Karl Fast, Fred Leise, and
Mike Steckel:  "Controlled Vocabularies:  A Glosso-Thesaurus".  It does
double duty as both a glossary of terms related to controlled vocabularies
and "an illustration of what a controlled vocabulary looks like".  Well done
guys.


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000220.html

LINK MENTIONED
The article in B&A ::
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/controlled_vocabularies_a_glossothesa
urus.php

November 7:  Who Says IAs Don't have a Sense of Humor?


Check out this poster which uses the metaphor of dating to explain
information architecture.  Ah, if only it was so simple.  Dating, that is...

The poster accompanies a paper presented at CHI 2003, "Dating Example for
Information Architecture," presented by Ray Henderson, TaRan Wilson, and
Miyuki Shimbo.

Thanks to noted UX humorist Dean Karavite for the pointer!


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000221.html

LINKS MENTIONED
IA and dating poster ::
http://www.miyukishimbo.com/documents/dating_poster.pdf (617Kb PDF)
CHI 2003 paper :: http://www.interactionary.com/files/IADating.pdf (284Kb
PDF)
Miyuki Shimbo's site :: http://www.miyukishimbo.com/shell/index.html

November 11:  Search Log Analysis Tools


On November 19 I'll be giving a short talk on search log analysis at the
Southeastern Michigan UPA meeting here in Ann Arbor.  (It'll be followed by
an AIfIA F2F meeting; come to both!)

I'm usually pretty surprised at how few UX people are aware of search log
analysis, so I'll introduce it as a user research technique and will run
attendees through an exercise.  If you want to come, it's free for members,
$8 for non-members; 6:30pm at Soar Technology (3600 Green Court, Suite 600);
RSVP to uid@....

I'm pretty ignorant about what are considered the best tools for generating
search log reports.  I've asked the opinion of one of the world's leading
experts, Avi Rappoport of SearchTools.com, but she's pretty frustrated by
what's out there, which makes me pessimistic.

But before we send up the white flag, it'd be nice to ask around a bit more.
I'd love for people to comment on what reporting tools (remember, for
*search* log analysis) they love, like, or tolerate; perhaps we can collect
some communal knowledge.  I'll also be poking around, and will share what I
find here.


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000222.html

LINKS MENTIONED
AIfIA F2F meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan ::
http://aifia.org/calendar/000259.php
SearchTools.com :: http://www.searchtools.com/

November 15:  Interaction Design Coalescence


At the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, Italy, Molly Steenson has been
hard at work developing The Hub, a resource and discussion site on
interaction design.  Looks like a great resource!  It's ambitious, and
scalability will be tough, but Molly invites participation in the Hub's
blog; perhaps that will help feed the useful collection of resources on
interaction design and related fields, like information architecture.
Hmmm... except that there's no section on IA.  Hey Molly, what gives?

Speaking of interaction design, a group of Very Smart People led by Challis
Hodge have started an interaction design exploratory group.  This grew out
of Bruce Tognazzini's recent wakeup call for some sort of coalescing among
interaction designers.  The group is still trying to determine whether it
should stand alone as an organization, a la AIfIA, or join forces with an
existing organization.  Whichever route they go, I wish them the best
success.  I've always felt that interaction design and IA are distinct and
quite complementary, so it's great to see a similar coalescence among the
interaction designers.

Apparently there is even more coalescence going on.  According to their
recent press release, "The International Council of Graphic Design
Associations (referred to as Icograda) and the International Council of
Societies of Industrial Designers (referred to as ICSID) are pleased to
announce the formation of the International Design Alliance IDA.  In a major
step for the global design community, Icograda and ICSID have committed
themselves to forming 'one powerful voice' for all disciplines of design
through the creation of IDA."

Sounds like a good thing, though it's also a little frustrating to see so
few *design* disciplines actually represented in this partnership.  Aren't
there other types of design besides graphic and industrial?  I'm hopeful
that IDA will see this "major step" as a first one.


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000223.html


LINKS MENTIONED
Interaction Design Institute Ivrea ::
http://www.interaction-ivrea.it/en/index.asp
The Hub at Ivrea :: http://hub.interaction-ivrea.it
Interaction design exploratory group :: http://www.interactiondesigners.com/
Tog's call :: http://www.asktog.com/columns/057ItsTimeWeGotRespect.html
AIfIA :: http://www.aifia.org
Icograda press release ::
http://www.icograda.org/web/news-display.shtml?pfl=www/news-single-recent.pa
ram&op2.rf1=164

November 17, 2003:  New Online Card Sort Tool; Other Notes


Andy Edmonds, a human factors masters student at Clemson, is developing a
new online card sort tool.  uzCardSort (currently in v0.9) provides
exploratory data analysis and a rudimentary clustering algorithm.  It
"produces a tab-delimited similarity matrix," and v1.0 will support "a full
hierarchical analysis and hopefully a Flash based dendogram."  Check out the
site; Andy has some sample screen shots to give you a good sense of how
uzCardSort works.

Great to see the emergence of these tools to support IA and similar work; I
just wish search log analysis tools would catch up...

Other notes:  Abe Crystal and Paula Land were kind enough to assemble a trip
report from the Dublin Core 2003 "Metadata and Search" pre-conference
workshop.  It was an excellent, informative workshop; kudos to organizers
Joseph Busch and Michael Crandall.  I'd been wondering why the heck I was
going to DC2003, but after the day was done, I was glad I'd participated;
you might consider attending DC2004 if you can make it to Shanghai...

Oh, and the Polar Bear now speaks Polish (go to my site for a cover image if
you're so inclined).



BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000224.html

LINKS MENTIONED
uzCardSort :: http://uzilla.mozdev.org/cardsort.html
Search log analysis tools discussion ::
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000222.html
Metadata and Search DC2003 workshop notes ::
http://dublincore.org/groups/corporate/Seattle/
Metadata and Search DC2003 workshop ::
http://dc2003.ischool.washington.edu/preconference-corporate.html

November 21:  Let's Have a Content Management Party!


What if we threw a party for content management community, but didn't invite
the CMS vendors?  Who would show up?  And what would they talk about while
tucking into the crudités, Doritos, and cheese balls?

I've been a fly on the wall for many conversations about content management..
Invariably, people are vexed by Vignette, irked by Interwoven, dissed by
Documentum.  Although these are gripe sessions, the griping is all about
products.  CMS vendors have been so successful at setting the agenda for the
content management world that they dominate practitioners' discussions, and
even though perceptions of CMS are often negative, all publicity is
ultimately good publicity.

But there's clearly more to content management than CMS technologies.
Content managers have to figure out all sorts of non-technical stuff, like:
* Adapting to and modifying content workflow and publishing processes
* Metadata development
* Content modeling
* Content integration
* Marketing and acceptance
* Staff training and documentation
* Cultural and political issues
* Relationships to other areas such as authoring, information architecture,
interaction design, visual design, usability, change management, business
modeling...

These issues generally can't be addressed by CMS technologies.  They require
human expertise and a high degree of local customization.  Some CMS vendors
offer some professional services in some of these areas.  But these services
are expensive and simply can't scale to meet the needs of the many
organizations implementing CMSs.  So the responsibility falls to some poor
in-house souls who try their darnedest to tackle the dirty work of solving
internal content management problems.

If you're one of the unfortunate, where do you find the expertise you need?
There are some wonderful books on the market from folks like Boiko, Rockley,
and Hackos.  There are a few great sites like CMSWatch, not to mention a
smattering of content management-related conferences.  But there seems to be
no communal venue for sharing expertise, war stories, techniques, and good
ideas.  That's because content management is not a community or a field,
it's an industry.  And it's an industry because vendors dominate the agenda,
and unintentionally squash the wisdom that only a community can accumulate.

So a modest proposal:  what if everyone involved in content management--the
publications, the web sites, the meetings and conferences--banned CMS
vendors for, say, one quarter?  No vendor exhibitions at meetings, no
product mentions on discussion lists, no purchases, no nothing.  Just
discussion about all there is to content management *besides* the
technologies.

At the end of this very exclusive three-month long party, I'll bet dollars
to donuts that many of the nastier content management issues will be a
little less nasty, if not solved altogether.  And practitioners will be a
lot better at selecting and deriving value from their CMSs.  Which wouldn't
exactly be so terrible for the vendors in the long run, would it?

Hey CMS vendors, are you listening?  How about taking a vacation for a few
months?  Really, it's ok; we'll be fine on our own for a little while.
Cancun is nice this time of year, and you can get special deals on long-term
stays, so don't worry about us; we'll be just fine.

Ah, well, wishing is free...


BLOUG PERMALINK & COMMENTS
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000225.html

LINKS MENTIONED
CMSWatch :: http://www.cmswatch.com