Jesse takes on the big question: who are we as IA’s. Are we the role, or the job? Are we our specialty, or all the fine stuff that goes into getting the job done.
Jesse and I have argued a lot on this topic– he has always in the past championed the difference between information architecture (organization of information for retrieval) from information architects (who do that + interaction design, information design, and maybe some project management, code, business analysis and so on). I’ve always held that information architecture is architecture in the information space, and must embrace content architecture (a.k.a. little or narrow IA), interaction design and information/interface design, and the architects are those who practice and excel in those arts.
We do always agree that something must be done about the state of the web– a lack of thoughtful premeditated architecture results in sites that are difficult to navigate, difficult to use, unprofitable, unrealized and generally stinky.
I look forward to part two….