09/05/2001 Minutes

The University of Texas Information Architecture Group (UTIAG) promotes the education and practice of Information Architecture through a client interaction format.

• IAG Volunteer Opportunties: This is a STUDENT group. And there are various opportunities for the students to participate in the group's activities.
  
  • Peer Training - we will be looking for people to volunteer to do secondary (i.e., "library") research on various topics of interest, and report back to the group. This will supplement presentations we'll solicit from information architects, et al., in industry.
  • Electronic Librarian - The IAG needs one! Should it be YOU?
  • QMC - Rhonda reported on a meeting Amy had with the organizers of this program. David had gone to the organizational meeting and offered some more information. David agreed to write a short paragraph on the program, and put that paragraph and a link to a web site on the IAG web site.
  • Co-leader - Amy Degner had hoped to help Rhonda with the leadership of the IAG this year, but has had to step down due to work constraints. We need someone else to help. Kayla opined that it would be good to have a first-year student serve in this role, to facilitate continuity from one year to the next. So, who will volunteer to help steer this IAG ship?
  • Webmaster - Violet agreed to do this. Hooray! The web site is http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~iag/

Chris also mentioned that there might be a need for someone to serve as chauffeur for Lou Rosenfeld during his September 24-25 visit.

• Criteria for Proposals: The centerpiece of the IAG is a real-world information architecture project for the students to tackle. (Per the aforementioned ". . . practice of Information Architecture through a client interaction format"). We will need to select a new project (or projects) to work on this year. Randolph said he thought it was important to have a set of objective selection criteria, to avoid any hard feelings, or conflicts of interest, as proposals came forth. Those with opinions about what those criteria should be should send them to Randolph (randolph@austinusability.com).
• Nominations for Proposals: Anyone who would like to nominate a project for the IAG to work on this year/semester should be prepared to offer it up at the next meeting. ("Hmmmm. Bring the proposal, and THEN we'll tell you what the selection criteria are." OK, that sounds like a trap. We will welcome proposals after this week, as well. I expect that the selection criteria will say something like "must be a non-profit agency" and "if you want to work on a project, feel free to" - or words to that effect.
• Meeting Time: We agreed to look for another meeting time. We have agreed on Wednesdays, noon to 1:00. Randolph has reserved room SZB 464 for the rest of the Wednesdays of the semester (thank you to Sandy and Kathleen in the GSLIS office!). Please feel free to bring your lunch.

Chris agreed to help Violet and Rhonda gain access to the IAG web site.

We talked about expanding the scope, and inviting grad students from other UT schools. This idea was received favorably. Don suggested we advertise in the Graduate Student Newsletter.

Chris Ewing, IAG Group Leader Emeritus, has just gotten a job as a web specialist with the medical library at the U. of Southern California. Way to go, Chris.

Rhonda agreed to send these minutes around to various pertinent distribution lists, in hopes of getting the word out to all who may be interested.

If you have potential interest in participating in a graduate student-led organization interested in real-world experience in information architecture, please join us
- Wednesday, September 12,
- from noon to 1:00,
- in SZB 464.

Respectfully submitted:
Randolph G. Bias, Ph.D.