I would also like to add to Christian's comments. Christian is absolutely right! There are a lot of things going on right now between the IAI and the IxDA that people aren't seeing, but they will have very positive results in the future. Since many of the members of one are also in the other, we find synergies that complement and make both organizations stonger.
For example: Half the IDEA09 Conference team is on the Interaction10 team and we will be working together to make both IDEA09 and Interaction10 amazing conferences. They are not the same type of conference, but they complement each other VERY well. The IAI and IxDA have different mandates, but are now finding balance. Does not mean they have to merge, and not should they. I do not believe one big organization with one big conference is the answer. That is simply my opinion. If anything, I would like to see some of the other orgs work together when it comes to putting on conferences. IDEA and Interaction work quite well together. We also can't expect people to come to a conference just because it's happening. I'm not going to go to the IASummit just because It's the IASummit. I'm going to go if there is value. Having multiple conferences also give us the opportunity to compete and people usually benefit with increased competition because we're trying to put on better events. We have good leadership at the helm of both the IAI and IxDA, and with the next generation of leaders coming soon, it looks even more promising. Contrary to what some people may think, we're in a great place, there's lots of excitement happening, and the future looks amazing! Things like itsjustux.org don't really solve anything. Whatever you call yourself, people outside our space are going to give you the Homer Simpson blank stare. We solve this problem by concentrating on our work and trying to build better experiences and by educating those OUTSIDE our field as to the benefits by promoting not only within our own companies, but others as well. When people take notice, it takes off. Industries like music, advertising, television, automotive, as soon as one makes a big splash, everybody jumps in (boy bands, forensic dramas and SUVs folks). I know why you're worried. Listen to what the market wants and give it to them. That's what we have to do. ... and why do we have to keep talking about "things that are broken". Let's go out there and keep working at changing the world. -- Mario Bourque Web: www.mariobourque.com Email: [email protected] Twitter: www.twitter.com/mariobourque On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 4:44 PM, Christian Crumlish <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 12:30 AM, Richard Dalton <[email protected] > >wrote: > > > Dave, since you've been fairly close to both orgs, could you give us > > a comprehensive list of how they've worked together over the past > > year or so? > > > > Richard, from my perspective, the IAI and IxDA have spent the last year > taking "baby steps" in an effort to establish productive, amicable > relations. Some of the personal animosities that drove wedges between the > orgs in the past have become bygones, and the current generation of > leadership at both orgs have taken various steps to form personal and > collaborative ties. > > The most concrete result of this so far is the fact that the IxDA was a > sponsor of IDEA and the IAI was a sponsor of Interaction09. None of this > consider this to be the zenith of cooperation, but instead a valuable first > step. (I referred to it a while back as an example of "confidence-building > measures.") > > We have also been comparing notes on a number of process-oriented things, > such as organizational infrastructure problems and solutions. Being > slightly > younger, the IxDA is now beginning to encounter some of the issues that the > IAI has been grappling with for a couple of years, and we have been more > than happy to compare notes and pool learnings. > > Representatives of both groups attended the UXnet meeting at the Summit and > I believe we are all interested in looking at ways that we can factor out > some of the infrastructural underpinnings of groups like ours and the > professional social networks they model and foster. There's no real good > reason for us each to independently solve our membership, communication, > and > service-delivery problems in a vacuum without being able to profit from > each > other's efforts. > > (I was only partly joking when I suggested we put up a Github-type > repository and build the 21st century professional org user experience > together, perhaps benefiting the entire spectrum of orgs outside of our UX > & > design universes, and simultaneously demonstrating the value of our > practices.) > > -x- > ________________________________________________________________ > 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 > -- Mario Bourque Web: www.mariobourque.com Email: [email protected] Twitter: www.twitter.com/mariobourque ________________________________________________________________ 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
