IA book club - waiting list

Bizarre. There's now a waiting list for the book club.

All hail the IA Nerds.

IA Book club - FULL UP!

Amazingly, what i thought would be the world's most boring idea, an IA book club, has actually proven quite popular.

We've got 15 people coming now, and i think that's probably enough so I'll have to cap it there.

We'll see if this is too many and it needs to be smaller, or whether it can cope with more in the future.

I'd better get reading...

(p.s. my new colleague, the lovely Kamila, has already dissed the book. After i was enthusing about it, she had a look at it and said "the research he cites is good, but the thesis is intellectually weak". She's much cleverrerererer than me so i hope when i read it again i don't find out it's actually a load of rubbish. s'a good starting point for the book club discussion though)

all the ias

I don't really use or particularly get ziki.com, but it does have a useful blog aggregator (i'm sure there are loads of other better ones, let me know if so)

anyhoo, i've created a feed with a bundle of IA blogs on it, good if you want to keep up with whatever IA people are saying from all round the world without having to add them all to your rss reader.

The ziki is here

The list of blogs that i've added is here. I tried to get all of them that i could from ia wiki, but frankly got a bit fed up. There's plenty there, and if you want to be added, just drop me a line or a comment with your blog address.

IA book club - it's on

A mere month and a half after mentioning it here, and nearly 2 years after first mooting the idea.
I have, in typically efficient fashion, finally sorted out an IA book club.

There's been quite a lot of interest from the london-ia list, and Leisa's mentioned it here.
Hopefully should be good.

We'll be talking about this:


what: London IA Bookclub
where: twentysix London, 1 Dorset street, London, W1U 4EG
(more directions)
when: 7 Feb @ 7pm
Nibbles & Libation provided.

I'm hoping we can have them at various different agencies so that we get an opportunity to mooch around each other's offices.

Email me or leave a comment if you're interested in coming along. Be great to see you.

OFFER: If you don't want to buy it, I am also offering to get a couple of Loan copies for people, one has already been claimed. If you want the other one, let me know. In return you have to write a review of the book (500 ish words) and say something terribly clever at the meet.

BJ Fogg on social networking

Whilst delighting in the publication of this book justifying my innate untidyness, i came across this great blog reviewing it.

Also on it was a really interesting article about BJ Fogg's (he of persuadability fame) latest comments in New Scientist.

"If you offer people a chance to gain status, they will work for it

Fogg and his colleagues analysed hundreds of such sites and identified three stages to their success, which they called discovery, superficial involvement and true commitment."

The fun bit is trying to think up interesting ways that you can let people both give and assign status.

Islandoo (created by the lovely chaps at mintdigital) initially had a problem when they launched. They were relying on a 'friendship' relationship. Ie, a user could declare themselves a 'fan' of another user. The users with the most 'fans' rising to the top. But, much like myspace, people simply spent hours trawling round 'fanning' everyone they could see, requesting that they returned the favour. The most popular were the most persistent, not the most interesting people.

Instead they created an idea of a 'magic penny' which is a more limited rewards system. You are given one when you create your profile, and once you've given it away, that's it, until someone gives you one, which you can then pass on again.

There are also smaller different awards that can be given out like 'drinks' see this profile with some pennies and a drink on it.

The Horror of 'Passionate' people

I'm checking out a lot of CVs at the moment as we try and recruit a few people. (Any interesting and interested IAs who for some reason are reading this, drop me a line if you fancy a chat). And I'm starting to hate anyone who is 'Passionate' about something in their CV.

I am 'Passionate about interaction
xxxx is Passionate about usability
I am passionate about creating compelling experiences
I have a passion for online.

For goodness sake. This is surely an overstatement of your views? I'm passionate about my wife, I'm passionate about winning the final goal at table football with my mates in the pub. If you're passionate about information architecture, where do you go for the other bits of your life?

I confess. I am not 'passionate about creating compelling experiences'. I like doing it alot, and I can do it pretty well, but let's get some perspective.

here's some that pop up with a quick blog search:
"Passion for UCD principles with an understanding of human factors, usability heuristics and methodologies, industry best practices, and social research methods"

"Absolutely top class award winning global interactive marketing agency is looking for an experienced online information architect with a passion for creativity."

"Passion for design and eagerness to collaborate with other creative people Passion for and commitment to the profession of visual communication"

"Showcase your creativity, strong work ethic and passion for web design at a company where your talents and career can thrive!"
"We are looking for people who have solid research or industry background on information retrieval and extraction, are proud of their contributions and have a passion to apply their knowledge to a consumer product."
" As a Web Strategist this is a passion topic to me"
"We are looking for candidates with a passion for security"
"User experience is your passion: you can predict and describe user behavior"

I think Teachers are allowed to be passionate about their jobs, maybe doctors. But when people start having a 'passion for network architecture' it's just wrong.

bah.

blogging about blagging it

I'm always amused chatting to people about their jobs, and finding out how many are absolutely terrified of being 'found out'.

These are senior people. Heads of this, directors of that, managers of the other. All of them intelligent, thoughtful people who've worked hard and pretty diligently.

Yet all of them are often sure that they've only done it by pulling the wool over other people's eyes. That it will only take one person to notice their invisible emporers clothes and life will suddenly come crashing down. What a relief! No more pretending!

Even people at the 'top' like Russell Davies have little tricks on how to keep the curtain from falling.

It seems like the people who appear to know the most, are the ones who are most comfortable with how very little they know at all.

Whenever i read a book about something new, at the end of it I have a few minutes of feeling slightly cleverer, then almost immediately a crushing sense of how little i know - by learning a little about a subject area, suddenly you realise there is a whole new vast world of knowledge that you didn't even know existed, and by discovering it, you've made your current level of knowledge proportionately smaller.

It's funny, when you're a teenager, you know everything and no-one listens. When you're a 'grown up' people listen to you, actually pay you for your views, and you're starting to realise how little you know.

I can't think of two occupations more susceptable to this than IA & Planning, as from what I've seen people who do these jobs live in 2 states. 1) admitting "it's not a real job, but it's loads of fun so i hope no-one realises too soon." or 2) frantically trying to convince people of how essential and valuable it is.