Main conference presentation

Real information architecture – new mighty deeds

Margaret Hanley, Lisa Chan, Tom Coates and Matt Biddulph

Sunday March 25 2007, 11:15 - 12:15PM

"Far back in the mists of ancient time, in the great and glorious days of the former Galactic Empire, life was wild, rich, and largely tax free.

Mighty starships plied their way between exotic suns, seeking adventure and reward among the furthest reaches of Galactic space. In those days men were real men, women were real women, small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri and Information Architects were real Information Architects. And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before - and thus was the Empire forged." Richard Dalton in homage to the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Today real information architects’ mighty deeds are moving from macro-organisation of one web site for one organisation, to the micro-organisation of information creating a web of data.

“A web of data sources, services for exploring and manipulating data and ways that users can connect them together”

It allows many sites and applications to build upon not one but many organisations’ intellectual property and therefore making the whole experience of the Internet much richer.

In this panel, we would like to explore this idea of a web of data further and it’s implications for information architects creating the next generation of web sites.

In particular we are bring together

• Mags Hanley who will moderate the panel and provide an interactive introduction to the subject (think human lego)
• Tom Coates talking about the components of the web of data; the specifics of building a site or service with data reuse taking the wider ecosystem into account, what that ecosystem is likely to be like and why on earth IAs want to engage with it in the first place
• Matt Biddulph on how this web of data is being used in APIs, and RDF and how they relates to traditional IA deliverables; and what this means to IAs working with developers
• Lisa Chan who will talk about her recommendations for IAs interested in developing their skills in this areas

The aim of the panel is to open the eyes of the IA community to how we can set the data free; how this will affect our clients and organisations, and the skills we develop ourselves.