Research and Education in IA
The REG-IA (Research and Education Group in Information Architecture) is an international volunteer initiative of the Information Architecture Institute (iainstitute.org). Started in January 2008, comprised of academics from Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Poland and Norway.
The basic premise behind the group is that although IA is a well-established profession and a thriving community of practice, it is not yet a fully recognized academic discipline and it is not, with a few notable exceptions, an acknowledged course of study in most of the world. That situation means very little communication among institutions, no common perspective(s), no shared understanding(s) and a constant need to reinvent the wheel.
Even though this scenario seems to be slowly changing, we think a little help and perspective is needed to avoid loss of momentum and fragmentation, and the group believes this help and perspective are the responsibility of the people currently researching, teaching and practicing IA. As such, the group’s main purpose is to provide the basis to establish IA as a full-fledged academic discipline and bridge the two camps of professional practice and academia for the common good, as we believe they are both equally needed for the field to grow and mature.
Key Initiative Projects
IA Curriculum: The Higher Education in IA project seeks to provide an IA curriculum framework for academic institutions.
Journal of Information Architecture: Issue 0.0 released at the 2009 IA Summit in Memphis in March 2009. The Journal seeks to provide a peer review process for delivery of important Information Architecture research and practices.
Schools Teaching IA: We have compiled a listing of current degree programs and courses throughout the world that cover Information Architecture and related disciplines.
IA Glossary: IAI is working to establish a standard glossary of information architecture terms. The glossary is intended to foster a shared vocabulary within the discipline and should work in concert with the development of the IA Taxonomy.
IA Taxonomy: IAI seeks to establish a standard IA vocabulary for the field of information architecture. The purpose of this structured vocabulary is to establish a common language for IA practitioners using terms found in common usage within the discipline that describe objects, concepts, people and places that are important to the field of information architecture. The vocabulary also defines terms for related disciplines under the Experience Design rubric.
Initiative Volunteers
Andrea Resmini is on the Board of Advisors of the Information Architecture, Institute, chairs the Italian Information Architecture Summit, is a founding member of the European IA Network, and coordinates REG-IA, the Research and Education Group in Information Architecture. Andrea was a recipient of the IA Institute 2008 Progress Grant in Information Architecture. He can be reached at root@resmini.net.
Dr. Katriina Byström is an associate professor at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås, Sweden. She chairs a joint program between business informatics and library and information science at the University of Borås. She can be reached at katriina.bistro@hb.se.
Dr. Dorte Madsen is an associate professor and program director at Copenhagen Business School, where she teaches IA. She will be serving as the Journal of Information Architecture's first Editor-in-Chief. She can be reached at dm.inf@cbs.dk.
This page was last modified on April 18, 2013 09:11 AM.