[Sigia-l] RE: tenets, principles, standards

[david_fiorito at vanguard.com]

Scott,

You said:  "i don't think you'll ever define Information Architecture as 
it's own role on all but the largest projects"

Fine by me.  In small teams a single person can be the project manager, 
programmer, IA, and designer.  I recognize that and welcome it but my 
world is the world of the large project and all of these Braveheartesque 
speeches about freedom from definition do not help in organizations like 
Vanguard.  Here the projects are big and complex and the people that work 
on them rarely have more than a single well defined role.

For this discipline to move forward we need to dump the Swiss Army Knife, 
Cowboy, Renaissance Man image and become a discipline with a focused skill 
set used to meet a specific need.  In smaller companies there will be 
people who integrate IA with their other skills but why should that stop 
us from building a clear definition of what Information Architecture is 
and what it is not?

Cheers,

Dave







Scott Nelson <scott at penguinstorm.com>
01/07/2004 05:37 PM

 
        To:     david_fiorito at vanguard.com
        cc:     sigia-l at asis.org
        Subject:        Re: [Sigia-l] RE: tenets, principles, standards





On Wednesday, January 7, 2004, at 01:43  PM, david_fiorito at vanguard.com 
wrote:

> I am of the opinion that the term "Information
> Architect" and "Information Architecture" need to be clarified and 
> better
> defined so "our discipline" can move forward.

I sense another silo under construction here.

Definition is good; restrictive definitions are, well, restrictive.

I know many creative directors who think that they do Information 
Architecture; I know many Systems Architects who do Information 
Architecture; they all do, a little bit. i don't think you'll ever 
define Information Architecture as it's own role on all but the largest 
projects. (I feel similarly about Project Management, btw: if your 
project is not enormous in scale, having a dedicated project manager is 
overkill and creates budget creep rather than prevents it; much better 
to assign project management as a role to someone who understands the 
project.)

Having said that: I think that Information Architects SHOULD rule the 
world: Creative Directors are focused on creative, not users; Systems 
Architects are focused on systems, not users; Information Architecture 
should - by definition - focus on users first and this is where EVERY 
technology project should start.

Technology can do anything you wan it to; getting it done so that it's 
useful is a whole other thing. That's what Information Architects 
should focus on.
--
Scott Nelson
scott at penguinstorm.com