[Sigia-l] IA and medium

[Andrew Hinton]

In the comparison below, that Christina is responding to, Dewey and LOC
classification systems are described as "architectures"... But isn't that
just using Architecture as a metaphor? It seems to me it's more precise to
call them classification systems. IA seems much larger, more like "real"
architecture. 

I agree it's not specific to the medium. (If you can call the Internet a
medium. Frankly, I think it's a new dimension.)

What if IA is about creating spaces from ideas (represented by electrons
rather than whole atoms? "Information" Architecture as opposed to "Concrete"
Architecture?) I got into this discipline assuming that was the definition.
I was almost talked out of it for a while, but I'm finding myself coming
full circle. I find myself explaining my work thus: "I'm an architect of
shared *information* spaces." That normally needs no (or very little)
explaining. 

But what I'm yearning for still is a WORD that really says what I mean.
Digital? Binary? Virtual? Cyber-? Idea? Experience? English just doesn't
have the right word for it. So I've been lobbying to keep using Information,
but to expand it to mean "that which is pure idea, given form by electrons,
removed from physical structure." I'm still not happy even with that.

I wonder if IA really has more to do with anthills and heartbeats than
faceted hierarchies?

I wonder if MUSH's, MOO's and Multiplayer Quake already took Information
Architecture as far as it'll ever go, and we're just trying to get
business-driven IA to catch up?


::cwodtke at eleganthack.com::wrote on 5/13/02 10:00 AM:

> 
>> Of course IA is not medium specific!  What about
>> Melvil Dewey's classification system, or the Library
>> of Congress classification system, or Dublin Core?
>> Those are all architectures for information.
> 
> As I said, it is applicable to other mediums, but is it in it's most
> realized form in the web/internet? The classification systems you mention
> were neatly seen to by librarians. Is an IA only a librarian with a fancy
> title? What makes an IA not a librarian?
> 
> I know it sounds like a duh, but I think it is more complex that that.

-- 
Andrew Hinton 
work: ahinton at symetri.com // symetri information architecture
pers: andrewhinton at mac.com // www.drewspace.com