[Sigia-l] Re: IA Standards

[david_fiorito at vanguard.com]

>> Personally I see the need for standards at the company level not at the
>> level of the profession.

>That's a smidgen of progress.

Actually its not because that is where I started.

>> Architects design the structures and spaces where we live work and 
play.  They
>> do not make movies that are shown in the theaters they design, or make 
the art
>> that goes on the walls of the galleries they design.

>Are you simply unaware of the great tradition of architects
>designing/manufacturing furniture, utensils, sculpture, fabrics, 
typography,
>etc for millennia?

... yes I am aware of that but when an architect designs a piece of 
furniture they are not working in the capacity of an architect - they are 
working in the capacity of a product designer.  If I was the owner of a 
furniture company and needed a designer I would not advertise for an 
architect. 

>> But we "information" architects cannot be said to have such clear
>> boundaries to the work we do.

>It's only you who erroneously thinks that all other professions are
>simplistically defined by single words.

I am not looking for simplistic - just clarity.

>Are "programmers" kernel programmers, device driver programmers, web app
>programmers, three-tier programmers, GUI programmers, procedural
>programmers, OO programmers, interpreted-language programmers, etc? What 
a
>compiler or kernel programmers does is worlds apart from, say, what a
>scripting programmer does.

All of those things are variations of the task "write code".  The skills 
listed on the resumes of IAs do not have that kind of clarity.

>Are "designers" print designers, motion graphics designers, icon 
designers,
>web designers, 3D designers, editorial designers, UI designers, etc? What 
a
>3D special FX designer does is vastly different than, say, what a
>pixel-level icon designer does.

Again, each of those is just a variety of "practical application of 
creative skill".  Each of those types of designers has a clear set of 
skills that match the job they do.  Again, IAs do not have the same kind 
of clarity with our work.

>I'm having a hard time deciding if you're naïve about these things or you
>are having a difficult time with the complexity of the world around you.

Complexity has its place.  I feel that the definition of what an IA is, 
what Information Architecture is, and how an IA works within an 
organization should be complex but should not be as ambiguous or anarchic 
as it currently is.

>> What is the harm in narrowing our field so that when a business has the 
need
>> for our expertise they automatically know to call an information 
architect?

>Because the world has ceased to be such a neatly defined, simplistic 
place,
>oh, right about 1950s.:-)

Does it not strike you as ironic?  IAs classify, define, organize, and 
categorize yet we cannot seem to do those exact same things to our own 
profession?  Why are some of us so unwilling to say "IAs should do this 
but not that", or define the boundaries of our own discipline?

Dave