Louis B. Rosenfeld

Networked information retrieval and organization: issues and questions

The creation of guides to resources on the Internet specific to particular subjects have raised a number of interesting questions and issues. These issues fall into two broad categories: The Internet environment (its culture, virtual communities and netiquette ; agency and authority ; the nature of publication ; the importance and lack of standards ; and searching tools and processes) and the process of guide construction (the importance of people ; the nature of resources on the Net ; intellectual property ; levels of connectivity ; and time). Some conclusions are drawn regarding the future and evolution of information professions in this environment.

Information architecture: looking ahead

It may be a bit strange to consider where the field of information architecture (IA) is headed. After all, many would argue that it’s too new to be considered as a field at all, or that it is mislabeled, and by no means is there a widely accepted definition of what information architecture actually is. This uncertainty hasn’t crimped the discussion, however; unlike Gertrude Stein’s Oakland, there certainly is a there there. Practicing information architects probably number in the thousands, and this vibrant group is already building various forms of communal infrastructure, ranging from an IA journal and a self-organizing “library” of resources to a passel of local professional groups and degree-granting academic programs. Most importantly, there is no talk about the field disappearing in the face of the current economic downturn. Information architects, often working in “new economy” settings, have certainly felt the bite of the recent layoff mania. However, many employers have finally begun to realize that many of their key business problems are actually information problems, and that there are now a class of professionals—information architects—who can help address these problems. Information architects themselves are showing both resiliency and strong optimism regarding the long-term demand for their services. So the profession has achieved a beachhead that will enable it to stabilize and perhaps even grow during these difficult times. So, the field is picking up momentum. But what kind of field will it become? A best-guess answer may come from looking at history. When have other fields come together quickly, why, and what did they become? And can these past disciplinary lifecycles work as predictors for the evolution of information architecture? There are many candidate fields to consider, but the one that may ring truest is the emergence of management a century ago. Professional management arose in response to a revolutionary event: new transportation and communication technologies that enabled the rapid growth of multinational corporations. Where management often had been concentrated in the hands of a single individual, with the reigns passed from father to son, the multinational corporation demanded a class of management professionals with different yet complementary areas of expertise. Modern management, as an applied field, drew from many disparate professions, ranging from manufacturing to law to banking, and integrated these practices in new ways. Today’s MBA programs provide what is ultimately an interdisciplinary education, integrating practices and perspectives from areas as diverse as psychology (embodied in organizational psychology and marketing) to engineering (management information systems) to mathematics (accounting and forecasting).