INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE INSTITUTE
(IAI) BUSINESS PLAN 2006-2007
The IA Institute is an international, non-profit, member-driven
association. Through education, advocacy and services, we:
* Promote and support the discipline of information architecture
* Promote and support members, business and organizations in
practicing IA
* Promote excellence within our field, and
* Build bridges to related fields and organizations.
At heart, as a volunteer organization, the Institute's primary purpose is to keep its members happy.
OUR OPPORTUNITY
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1. People designing and building shared information spaces benefit from
a place where they can share and grow with others.
2. People and organizations have information space issues that can be
helped by effective information architecture. These include
* Virtual (eg software, websites)
* Physical issues (eg built environments like museums, libraries,
hospitals); and
* Procedural issues (eg flows of information in work processes).
OUR MISSION
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Through advocacy, services, and education, the IAI serves to:
* support a global community infrastructure connecting people, ideas and
tools.
* advance the design of shared information environments
* demonstrate the value that information architecture methods and
philosophies
provide in our increasingly complex information world
* promote understanding that *wherever* there is complex information,
information architecture practice can be put to good use
++SO, HOW WILL WE KNOW WE ARE SUCCESSFUL AT AC
HIEVING THIS MISSION? +++
CURRENT KEY STATS
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* Over 1000 Members
* 50+ Member countries
* Active Events program:
- IA Retreat October 2005 (around 40 attendees)
- MAYA Workshop December 2005 (around 30 attendees)
- Pre-con at IA Summit March 2006 (around 40 attendees)
- IDEA 2006 October 2006
- IA Retreat in Chile November 2006
METRICS
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- Membership
- Participation in events
- Participation in initiatives
- Web site traffic (key pages, downloads of key resources)
- Member satisfaction
Currently we track the first three, but not the last two. We will develop systems to track all five better.
Two metrics warrant explicit goals:
- Membership
By December 2007 we hope to have a membership of 2,000, and increase
the number of countries to 70.
- Member satisfaction
In April/May 2006, we instituted our very first member satisfaction
survey. That will act as a baseline for future surveys.
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President Peter Merholz would like to thank the board, the advisors,
and the meta list for their input, and Adam Griffiths for help in
shaping the layout/presentation of the Plan.