A few years ago, at a lunch table at the 2006 IA Summit, a few of us hatched the idea of the Arctic Challenge. While it seems decadent in today's market, allow me to share some of the philosophical undercurrents. 1. If you meet the polar bear, kill the polar bear... The seminal work for many IAs is the polar bear book. Around the table that day, we talked about leaving behind the old, and charging forcefully into the battle to bring in the new, the next. What is IA beyond the polar bear? Borrowing from the Zen koan "if you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha", we thought it was time to crash through. Going to the Arctic is a way to immerse ourselves in a polar bear-laden environment. Perhaps, some wandering IA/IxD would, in a fit of hallucination and frostbite, would indeed slay a polar bear during an outdoor event. (And, since we're on the IxDA list now, imagine the bragging rights if someone who self-identifies as an IxD and _not_ an IA were to slay the first polar bear.) Some of us, might take this on as a jaunt through the wilderness, where the Challenge is completely out-of-doors and the need to kill our professional Buddha will find its destiny in Svalbard.
2. Conferences are nice, but it's time for a challenge. The Challenge. We were all having fun at the IA Summit, as many of you likely have had fun at Interaction|09. We new that ahead was the return to the professional world where things are not fun, but constantly and sometimes uncomfortably challenging. So, why go into a softer environment to develop our skills? We figured it's time to have a place to go that is more challenging than work. A place where you go and are so challenged in the company of your peers that returning to work to deal with non-UX folks would be easy. I, for instance, knew that I would return to bureaucracy and politics that presented vigilant opponents to advancing User Experience practice. I, then and now, want a place where I am challenged by my peers and those who are peerless to gain so much confidence and experience that taking on those VPs of Resistance to Change would be a minor challenge. We figured other people would be ready for a challenge too. Perhaps the 'save the world and make a difference' is a new flavor the Scandinavian planners have added. I can tell you, I don't remember it in the first conversations. But, if you need to make the business case, shine the veneer of your proposal with that. See you there, Jay -- ------------------------------------------------------------ Jay A. Morgan Director, UX at Gage in Minneapolis twitter.com/jayamorgan google talk: jayamorgan skype: jaytheia ------------------------------------------------------------ ________________________________________________________________ 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
