We Believe in Community

I was browsing through Donna Spencer’s blog posts when I came across a post- Oz-IA 08 discussion on whether the IA community in Australia was a clique.

After reading through these comments I can see how some might think that the IA community is a clique. There are definitely a few notable IA personalities in Australia who seem to all get around together, both for business as well as pleasure. They have their own particular loves of food and drink as well as their in-jokes and geek-speak. To some outsiders or fringe dwellers such a strong bond between these people might at first seem intimidating and exclusive.

I do know, though, how important community is to IAs — spreading what they know, openly sharing with others, and listening to how others think, and constantly searching for ways in which they can improve the IA domain through reaching out to others who are not IAs. I recall how Eric Reiss said in his presentation at last year’s IA Summit that, as IAs, we would be foolish to assume that we know everything there is to know about information architecture. I also love how the talented Diana Mounter reflects on this in her theme for the Local Government Web Network conferences — “We Believe in Community”.

In October this year, Oz-IA will open its arms up to embrace Australia’s IA practitioners and ALL those who are interested in the organisation of information by people for people. Whether BA, Librarian, Records Manager, User Experience Engineer, Developer, Web Manager or Project Manager this is definitely a great community event.

I hope to see you there

M