[Sigia-l] moving beyond first principles: how?

[Richard_Dalton at Vanguard.com]

Jess McMullin wrote:
> Jesse wrote:
>
> > "I submit that this field will never make any significant progress if 
each
> > newparticipant insists on dragging us back to first principles."
>
> I know he was pressed for time, or he would have written more. But while 
I
> agree that we must move beyond basics, it seems that each new 
participant in
> the IA practice will (by definition) be dealing with first principles. 
So as
> ASIS&T, AIFIA, and others evangelize IA and user experience, there is a
> constant influx of people who need support with first principles.

(at the risk of being flamed to dealth by the "we don't need a definition" 
society ;-)

Although what Jess McMullin writes is true, there is a bigger problem. You 
can't teach what doesn't exist! There is little agreement as to the scope 
or definition of "Information Architecture", if there were we wouldn't 
have people with widely differing responsibilities and jobs all calling 
themselves the same thing. Although my knowledge of building architecture 
is limited, I very much doubt that interior designers or general 
contractors call themselves "architects" or vice versa, ditto with the 
Medical profession, ditto with the majority of the IT industry, the list 
goes on.

(and just for reference, i'm a relatively new contributor to these lists - 
not to the profession)

 - Richard Dalton