As probably the longest standing board member here, I thought I'd join in Greg's testimonial thread here and place my own thoughts out there.
Being a leader of this nascent organization has been a ton of hard work, but has always been a labor of joy and has returned its value 10-fold. I put in hours (way more than the 3 required) a week into IxDA, especially now with the conference looming. Here's what I have gotten from this experience over the last 4 years. Visibility in the design community, which has opened me up to positions professionally that I could not have had occur without this visibility. It's a very different world when people come to you instead of you trying to track them down. My career has sky rocketed over the last 4 years. The education I've received from this community should be accredited. Whether it is from the list, from face-to-face groups, or the many mentors (more on this) I have learned so much about design, design management, research, etc. Access to all types of mentors has just been tremendous. It is the primary reason I got into "this biz" and it is probably the most successful outcome for me. But there is more than the selfish; there is the altruistic. I am deeply passionate about interaction design. Forget for a moment all the politicking around titles, organizations and education systems and what-not. I deeply believe that interaction design is THE design discipline of this century that more than any other will space our lives and worlds. This is why I have devoted so much of myself into leading and growing this organization. I have always thought big about what and where IxD can do and I have always thought big about IxDA's role in how to make that happen. The journey is just at its very early beginning, and there is so much to do and we need dedicated impassioned individuals to take us there: * Codifying our practice * Creating an eco-system of career development from education through management including viable continuing ed. * creating a lexicon of semantics and syntax * creating venues for more opportunity for sharing, networking, and inspiration * bridging the divide that still today we have through language and distance that keeps practitioners apart from one another and a host more ... There is so much to do and so much to be gained. -- dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=23481 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
