Special Section

Information Architecture Practice: An Introduction

by Irene L. Travis, editor, Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science

As a follow-up to the ASIS Summit on Information Architecture (IA), which focused on defining the field, something practice-oriented seemed appropriate. More specifically: Who are information architects, anyway? What do they do? How do they do it?  In this special section of the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science we get answers from five IA's who responded by e-mail to a series of questions. I am grateful to them for the time and energy they put into their very interesting answers and to Lou Rosenfeld for suggesting this approach and recommending most of the interviewees. Of course, he wound up being one of the victims himself, but no good deed goes unpunished. The five interviewees are

Vivian Bliss, Microsoft

Gayle Curtis, Modem Media/Vivid Studios

Seth Gordon, ZEFER

Steven Ritchey, Sapient

Lou Rosenfeld, Argus Associates, Inc.

For information on the new SIGs in IA and Knowledge Management, an ASIS IA conference proposed for the West Coast before the end of the year, and IA activities planned for the Annual Meeting, please see the ASIS home page at www.asis.org. Subscribe to the SIGIA-L listserv or its digest at www.asis.org/Conferences/Summit2000/Information Architecture/listserv.html