Networking Guide
We have created a networking guide to help people interested in the field of IA and IAI members answer questions about...
- Who practices IA?
- What's behind local groups?
- How do IA pros network and collaborate?
- What initiatives are currently running?
- How can I join in the initiatives?
- What's the workflow of the translation initiative for example?
- How do existing Tools and platforms support me in network and collaboration?
[download] 
Volunteer Spotlight
"I'm a big believer in Information Architecture as a community of practice, and I also believe it's good for such a community to have a "home base," especially if they're a virtual organization spread all over the globe like ours, which is why I got involved with starting the Institute in 2002."
Who: Andrew Hinton
Company: Vanguard
Title: Senior Information Architect
Most recent IA project: Various Vanguard sites.
Working on: Second Life Initiative, Local Groups Initiative
Learn more about me at: www.inkblurt.com
Volunteer Opportunities
The IA Institute is a group of multinational of volunteers who supply the ideas, initiative, and energy it takes to provide services to the IA community. Join that effort by taking on a volunteer role today. Learn more about our volunteers here.
The Institute can provide assistance for volunteer initiatives with expert review, infrastructure, and money.
Please contact us at volunteer [at]iainstitute[dot] org if you are interested in learning more about any of our projects or have you an idea of how you can help. Or choose an already defined project from below:
Current Volunteer Projects
Website Developers
IAI is looking for volunteers with php skills and experience with Moveable Type to help publish some exciting new language sites, content, and pages. Join the website team and get a chance to help a great global project launch on the web.
Website Content Designers
Not so technically inclined? We are also looking for people to review and improve our website content for an upcoming content update project. If you have a knack for analysing and illustrating user processes and scenarios, let us know. Wolf Nöing's Networking Guide is a fantastic illustration of how IA pros meet and interact through the IA Institute. We need similar diagrams outlining how to get or become a mentor, how to create a local group and how to apply for a grant.
Photographers, Amateur and Otherwise
The IA Institute is about people meeting people, informally and at planned events. If you have any photos from IA Institute related activities, send them to us at operations[at]iainstitute[dot] org
Translations Team Members
Join a language team! Teams need assistance with translation, navigation, and moving translated content into the new website framework. If you aren't able to translate the words but have html/css knowledge, you can still make a great contribution to the web development. Many sites are translated and ready to go, we only need a few of your hours to bring them to the public.
If you don't see your language or if your language site seems to be a bit low on content, we'd love to have your help! We have a list of articles waiting to be translated from English to your language. In fact, we would love to find out what is going on in your area and provide details to our members in your language. If you have news, events or articles you would like to submit, we can add them to your language site. We can also add articles translated to English to bring thought leadership to a wider audience.
On-Going Volunteer Projects and Initiatives
Help Improve IAI Website
Volunteers with Movable Type and HTML/CSS experienced volunteers are needed for a sitewide redesign. IAI's new design and features will add great value to members and IA fans. We welcome volunteers at all skill levels. Let us know if you are interested in performing any of the following roles:
- Find the bugs
Tell us what needs to be fixed, written, or added to the new website (http://www.iainstitute.org/en/), write to webmaster [at]iainstitute[dot] org with every little thing you find. - Prevent dead links
Help us avoid dead links when people access the old site via bookmarks or external links. We need someone to write a 404 script that will compare the entered URL to a database and return the updated page or a friendly and appropriate Page Not Found message.
Local Groups
- Be a Local Leader — Local Group leaders needed to organize local IAI groups, including local summits, presentations, cocktail hours, etc. This is an ongoing commitment of a few hours a month to organize and attend meetings of your group's choice.
Education
- Be a Mentor — Share your experiences with beginning and seasoned IA professionals who are looking to develop their knowledge. We are especially looking for people who can guide new IA pros through job changes, and help people moving from corporations to freelance or from freelance to the corporate setting. Visit our mentoring page for more information.
- Help Educate — Use your web research skills to update our IA related course listings and programs and web pages with the most current information. Collect data on current non-credit programs as well as professional development, web-based and other educational delivery methods. Project is open now and would be a 1-3 month time commitment depending on your schedule.
All volunteers make an impact. If you're interested in any of the above opportunities, or if you would like to suggest a project, please contact volunteer [at]iainstitute[dot] org.
If you don't have time to volunteer right now but know of tools and resources that our members may benefit from, please let us know:
- The IA Library is a repository of information about Articles and Papers, Blogs, Columns and Journals, Books, Organizations, Conferences and Mailing lists, Presentations and Web Sites and Resources. Submit library resources here.
- IA Tools include document templates, process map posters and other tools to help you in your practice. Submit your tools to iatools [at]iainstitute[dot] org.
This page was last modified on May 14, 2009 09:41 PM.