[Sigia-l] Another tunring point (was: Chicago IA Learning Hour, New Midwestern Topic)

[Noel Franus]

At 12:56 PM -0600 4.18.02, Donna Marie Fritzsche wrote:
>Hi Everyone,
>
>After reading recent posts to the list, I realize that our topic 
>choice for the next meeting:  "The Role of Paper and Electronic 
>Prototypes in the Design and Development Process" is clearly old 
>school.
>(West coast old school - that is - Noel Franus said that they 
>covered that topic at least four months ago!)


Hmm, I've been a bit of a lurker lately, so I don't think it was me 
who said that on any list. However, I am drawn to having the 
perceived power to speak for the entire West Coast. I'm happy to 
consider bribes from anyone who wants their opinions represented by 
me.

However, I do would like to comment on your "revised" breadth of 
topics for your local cocktail hour, and think it's worth bringing up 
out in the open; we're in the midst of making some changes in the 
cocktail hour over here in San Francisco, for many reasons, but one 
of them is that we've achieved a maturation point of our own in 
getting together.

You see, when it all started over here, we more or less just wanted 
to see other faces who did similar things, to poke and prod, to 
network, to see if we did share some of the same languages, and to 
see where we had some common ground. It was interesting, but yes, we 
have certainly moved beyond some of the fundamentals of IA and we're 
opening things up to incorporate the larger user experience as a 
whole, as well as completely unrelated things, too.

And it sounds as though that's happening with other cocktail hour 
groups, too. Which is a notable turning point. The Fred and Andres 
show may sound like loads of fun related to, well, not much. And 
that's a Good Thing worth noticing -- we're no longer worried too 
much about who we are, really, about defining ourselves, because 
we're at a point where we know what the playing field more or less 
looks like. There are multiple flavors if IA, but most of us know 
what those flavors are. We're able, now, to discuss something other 
than who we are, as IAs, and sometimes to discuss things not related 
to IA at all.

We've reached another maturation point in the respect that we no 
longer concern ourselves, as groups, with consantly defining IA. I 
think that's a subtle but significant step.

Actually, the first very noticeable sign of this, to me, was the 
launch of Boxes and Arrows. It's an IA (and perhaps UE) publication 
that makes no apologies for its existence; it's a stake in the ground 
focused on evolution, rather than an initial definition.

The second sign of this maturation, it seems to me, is the one 
Peter's brought up regarding the fact that we mostly do things more 
or less the same way, which I agree with, in a broad sense.

And the third sign, I'm now realizing, is that the cocktail hours 
have reached a maturation point of their own; those that have met 
together more than a few times, it seems, have moved into areas far 
beyond the Defining IA hassle. If you've actually come to a point in 
your local groups where you're having a book swap or a chat on the 
identity of cities, congratulations! Go celebrate, I say. You've 
moved far beyond the embryonic stage.

I think a lof of these reflections are really old ones we've heard 
before. I've really just pieced them together for now because, yes, I 
think it's worth marking and celebrating. The present and the 
future...damn this is a good time.

N


>
>So, keeping to topics that all Chicagoans are comfortable with: Food 
>and Religion, I announce our April meeting speakers:
>
>Fred Leise will present his talk titled:
>"Ann Arbor - A Midwestern City.  Have you tried the food at Zingermans?"
>
>In order to fully appreciate his discussion, Fred requests that you 
>completely digest the material at: http://www.zingermans.com/.
>
>Our second speaker will be Andres Sulleiro from St. Louis, Missouri.
>His talk will be titled:
>"St. Louis - A city with no Buddha Nature.  Is it Southern, 
>Midwestern, or both?"
>
>If you know the answer, Andres requests that you show him how you 
>arrived at your solution.
>
>Please join us!!  Don't forget the meeting is Monday, April 29, at 
>the Shedd Aquarium, along the third coast.
>
>Donna Fritzsche
>Consulting IA, etc.
>
>P.S.  Start preparing now for May's meeting.  The  topic will be:
>"Creating maps of the US so that Chicago appears west of the Mississippi."
>
>P.P.S.  If you haven't been reading sigia-l posts lately, please 
>ignore my ramblings!  : )
>
>P.P.S.S. Yes, I know that Zingerman's is a NY Style Deli, but they 
>sell Wisconsin-made cheese and I don't remember any other 
>restaurants in Ann Arbor. : )
>
>--


noel franus  ::  noel at carboniq.com

     Carbon IQ user experience group   <http://www.carboniq.com>
     tel: 415 824 7090   cel: 415 235 5094   fax: 415 824 7087
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