Information Architecture Summit

by Richard Hill

ASIS' first summit, Defining Information Architecture, April 8 and 9, 2000, in Boston, was a tremendous success by all accounts. Close to 400 people attended, with a rewarding number of those being new to ASIS. The levels of enthusiasm and energy were palpable, with attendees passing up cocktail receptions to continue conversations while sitting on the floor.

We want to formally thank the conference chairs, Lou Rosenfeld, Gary Marchionini and Victor Rosenberg, along with every one of the speakers (see list of speakers and URL below for speaker backgrounds and many presentations). We also want to express our appreciation to Zefer Corporation for sponsoring a lunch, to Sapient Corporation for sponsoring a cocktail reception and to iXL Corporation for sponsoring a coffee break. The interest, energy and enthusiasm expressed at the ASIS Summit led quickly to creation of a list discussion group (sigia-l, instructions are below) with almost 500 subscribers and will lead to the creation of a Website. A Special Interest Group (SIG/IA) is being formed right now. Discussion on the list has already led to efforts to organize a book from the meeting (Ed Houseman and Craig Battrick, co-editors) and either/both a special issue (or perspectives issue) of JASIS or a series of articles in JASIS.

Speaker biographies are available on the meeting Website, www.asis.org/Conferences/Summit2000/Information_Architecture/index.html and many participants have also provided their presentations or other materials.

One of the purposes of the sigia-l listserv is to provide a meeting ground between those working in the newest fields of the Web and those who have been dealing with similar issues as theoreticians or information scientists. The conference was a great opportunity to meet and exchange views, and it showed that we all have a lot to learn from one another. There were disagreements, which is only to be expected when those from somewhat different cultures meet to share views. However, a better understanding and appreciation for all the different concerns was evident by lunch on the first day. Collaboration was well underway by the end of the meeting, and it continues.

The following people have volunteered to kick off organization of the new SIG: Marla Gunasegaram, Stephanie Heacox, Edward M. Houseman, Debora Karpuk, Molly Fournier Krill, Adam Polansky, Marion Summerville, James Weinheimer, Brian Arbogast de Hubert-Miller and Richard Williams.  Other volunteers are welcome.

Sigia-l

Sigia-l is unmoderated and open to all. ASIS membership is not required. Statements appearing on ASIS-IA are the responsibility of the authors alone and do not imply the endorsement of the American Society for Information Science or the forum owner.  If you have problems or further questions send a message explaining the situation to the sigia-l moderator and, if possible, forward the correspondence you sent to and received from the list server.  The owner will be James Weinheimer <jamesw@Princeton.EDU>.

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• David Blair, professor of computer and information systems, University of Michigan
• Lee Buck, chief technology officer, Extensibility, Inc.
• Gayle Curtis, creative director, vivid studios
• Andrew Dillon, professor of information science, Indiana University
• Jennifer Fleming, experience architect, SquareCircle Solutions
• Andrea Gallagher, customer experience architect, Scient
• Seth Gordon, principal of experience design, ZEFER
• Richard Greenfield, head, Bill Digest Section, Library of Congress
• Alison Head, principal, Alison J. Head & Associates
• William Horton, president, William Horton Consulting
• Mark Hurst, founder and president, Creative Good
• Paul Kahn, president, Dynamic Diagrams
• Matthew Koll, AOL fellow, America Online
• Patrick Lynch, design director, Yale University School of Medicine
• Karen McGrane, senior director, Information Architecture, Razorfish, North America
• Peter Merholz, creative director, Epinions.com
• Clement Mok, chief creative officer, Sapient
• Peter Morville, chief operating officer, Argus Associates
• John Phillips, director of cataloguing, Survivors' of the Shoah Visual History Foundation
• Marc Rettig, director, UX Center, Cambridge Technology Partners
• Steven Ritchey, senior information architect, USWeb/CKS
• Louis Rosenfeld, president, Argus Associates
• Roy Tennant, Digital Library Project Manager, The Library, University of California - Berkeley
• Jeffrey Veen, executive interface director, Wired Digital