Announcing the Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture! If you are a reader of design::writings and were wondering why the postings on there were so sporadic over the last several months this is why.

Our official launch is today.

The Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing and promoting information architecture. We're working on creating resources for information architects, information about promoting IA and the benefits of IA, and we're creating a framework that can support research and advancement of the discipline.

One of the initiatives I am personally working on is the creation of tools for in-house IAs. Having dealt with these issues myself, I know how frustrating it can be to "sell" your work to your own people. Tools, process maps, ROI studies, research on effectiveness, case studies, elevator pitches and other things that you can use, will make your life and mine easier. When we can spend our time "doing" our work instead of "justifying" it we will all be better off.

We need help from the community to make this vision a reality. That support could come in the form of membership -- http://aifia.org/pg/get_involved.php -- volunteering, or even just helping us out with a link on your blog and sending some traffic our way.

Our official launch is today.

Join us.

Become a member:
--> http://www.aifia.org/signup/index.php

Find an Initiative that you want to help volunteer for:
--> http://www.aifia.org/pg/initiatives.php
--> http://aifia.org/contact/index.php?type=vol

Plan on attending our leadership seminar:
--> http://aifia.org/calendar/000053.php

Sign up for our newsletter:
--> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/aifia-announce

Help promote AIfIA (and IA):
--> Post a link to http://www.aifia.org on your site
--> Pass the URL on to friends and colleagues
--> Discuss AIfIA on this or other mailing lists