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Info Architecture, Going Beyond Pages

As Web 2.0 becomes more than a buzzword, many information architects are being asked to go beyond organizing the structure of today’s websites and page layouts. Such a shift has been well recognized and explored in Lou Rosenfeld’s latest update to Information Architecture for the World Wide Web.

If you’re of the info architecture ilk and love Las Vegas (who doesn’t!), then this month’s IA Institute conference and the pre-conference workshop — Designing with Structured Data — is the place to be.

According to IA Institute, information architects are increasingly being required to:

• Design the detailed structure of content for content management systems
• Re-use content at different levels of detail and on different devices
• Syndicate data via RSS and other feed mechanisms
• Design data to be shared using APIs and microformats
• Design sites and services using other people’s structured data
• Design rich, flexible interfaces to complex data

As polar bear fans will know, this type of work certainly requires a different set of information architecture skills. It requires deeper content analysis, more data modeling perspective and understanding, and a better understanding of what’s happening behind the scenes in the layers of server-side technology.

The 2007 event is the 8th IA Summit and will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada at Flamingo Las Vegas from March 22nd to the 26th. A series of pre-conference workshops hosted by the IAI will take place on March 22 and 23, followed by the IA Summit from March 24 to 26. Last year’s IA Summit attracted over 500 attendees, including beginners, experienced IAs, and people in a range of related fields. Pricing starts at US$ 500 for IAI members and US$ 600 for non-members. If you’re a starving student, have six fingers on your left hand, or can single-handedly put away a 48 ounce steak, we think you’re entitled to a discount.

The Designing with Structured Data workshop will set you back another 550 clams and runs on Friday March 23rd, which if you think about it, lends yet more plausible deniability cover for your real desire — spending an extra 24 hours digging deep into the depraved coeur of the American dream.

Oh how we do miss Vegas.