[Thanx Dan for that good analysis. I just can't resist to adding what I wrote before I read it.]
IAI focus is information and on the web IxDA focus is behavior and across all mediums IAI is a closed memberbased organization IxDA is an open organization (I think there are more issues to this than just the ones you mentioned) AND there is nothing stopping "scholarships" within an open organization. Hell! we've done it already in IxDA with volunteers getting free passes and sometimes even travel expenses to the conference. IAI is NOT. And I repeat this NOT rooted in design. IxDA is very squarely rooted as a design discipline. Here's a nice ironic thing ... IAI has not committed to participating in UXNet IxDA has from its very 1st day. So in my mind it is a painter vs. a sculptor thing. For some they will move fluidly between the 2, but for others they will focus on single mastery. There will always be a place for it. If the IxDA is not working for you, I suggest you build something that make sense for you. Seriously, that's not a bad thing. Maybe the leadership of the IxDA will see that as a model that THEY can follow. "Build it and they will come". 1) Stop asking permission 2) Start doing 3) Respect differences instead of trying to minimize them 4) Look for avenues of cooperation that do not mean unification 5) Overlap is not the same thing as redundancy 6) I think people seeing an overlap in membership is actually not accurrate. Looking at the a few stats: a) Overlapping memberships show that IAI is not even more than 50% of IxDA membership b) Conference attendance at IxDA was NOT more than 50% of IAI membership. Many could care less about IA. Many could care less about the web. 7) acknowledge that a lot of this is centered in practice and BOTH organizations are supposedly about the disciplines and NOT practice. 8) If you feel torn, don't presume others do. I have spoken to many IxDA members who feel that IAI just doesn't fit them. I have spoken to fewer IAI. But I have heard some say that IxDA doesn't fit them either. (less so admitedly). I've been here since the beginning I would say (of IAI and IxDA). I've been at the center of dialogs with ALL the big UX Orgs (which brings up the thought why is this about IAI and IxDA; where's CHI and UPA?). UPA is especially relevant as they already think of themselves in their mission and leadership as a UX organization. Maybe there's your answer! Conjecture re IAI (that will get me in trouble): I see that IAI has a problem. NOT IxDA or that UX is some sort of solution. IAI has not created a vibrant home for all its members and its membership model increases the tension. Maybe this isn't about IxDA and unification, but more about the growing irrelevance of IA to the real practice of web design/architecture professionals. That isn't to say that IA is not a piece, but it is growingly a smaller part of the focus of most solutions people are working on today. Lastly, You did it! IA is now so well understood and its patterns so well defined that doing that aspect of the work is just not as difficult as other aspects. THAT's a success metrics if you ask me not a bad thing. Last negative thing on IA. Maybe IAs grounding as a discipline focused on deliverables has caught up to itself, and like UPAs goal of moving beyond utility and efficiency hasn't worked, IAI has not been able to move beyond deliverables and categorization. So folks who spilled blood and sweat building IAI (admirable and important) have a vibrant community set up around something that doesn't require it. That doesn't mean that it requires a merger, or even a merger is in someone else's best interest. -- dave ps. to @richard of course there is common ground and I think those are easy to articulate mostly around user/human/people-centeredness. What more do you need? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40597 ________________________________________________________________ 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
