About the Information Architecture Institute

The Information Architecture Institute is a 501(6)c professional organization, operated by a dedicated, multi-national group of people. Volunteering our own resources, we aspire to build bridges to related disciplines and organizations. We invite you to join us in advancing the state of information architecture through research, education, advocacy and community service.

We live in exciting times. As the information age rolls forward, our businesses, markets and societies are being transformed into adaptive, connected networks. The Internet of today only hints at the ubiquitous communication infrastructure of tomorrow. The construction of this brave new world requires a new kind of architecture, focused on digital structures of information and software rather than physical structures of bricks and mortar. As we spend more time working and playing in these shared information spaces, people will need and demand better search, navigation and collaboration systems.

We are working hard to build an international membership that connects people with diverse languages, cultures and perspectives. So far, we have over 1400 members from 80 countries. Our Board of Directors and Board of Advisors are comprised of individuals from six continents. Our Translations Initiative and Local Group Program serves to promote and extend our services to all corners of the world.

Read our Annual Report (2005-2006) (PDF) to find out what we accomplished in our third year of operation.

Read our latest Letter from the Board of Directors for up to date news on the Institute's activity.

Global Initiatives

The Institute sponsors volunteer initiatives in the areas of research, education, advocacy and community service. As a member, we hope you will consider joining or leading an initiative, or contributing directly to the management of the organization.

Our public initiatives are directed at developing awareness of the practice of information architecture and connecting like-minded professionals to each other. One of our most important initiatives is the Translation of IA Articles. Our global team of information architects has gained permission to translate many seminal IA articles into other languages for the benefit of a worldwide audience. We currently have translations in seven languages and are working on more.

To foster our global reach, we have developed a Local Groups initiative to help IAs find each other where they live, share tools, plan events and collaborate on local projects. We have even created a new Second Life initiative to explore the information architecture of virtual worlds. These and other public initiatives such as our blog "iaSlash", the IA Library and Tools initiatives and developing an Educational Curriculum bring information architecture thought and action to a worldwide audience.

Since we are a member organization, we have also developed initiatives that directly benefit members. These initiatives include a Job Board, Mentoring Program and our Member Directory. The Job Board displays postings for open positions and is an excellent source of information on typical job descriptions and experience requirements for various IA roles. The Mentoring Program matches experienced members with protégés who seeks to learn the craft of IA. The Member Directory is open to the public in the form of our "Geolocate IAs" map to allow potential employers and business partners to contact information, yet offers expanded directory information via our members-only interface.

To read more about our active initiatives, go to Find a Project.