Boxes And Arrows : The Design Behind the Design

I think this is an excellent idea. As an Information Architect and IBM, I am currently battling the various interpretations of the role within the same department, across brands, and throughout the entire corporation. I would find it very interesting to both share what IBM considers an IA, and learn what other companies do with the role. I think discussing potential career paths and roadmaps for education would be a second, very useful article. Perhaps you have the start of a mini-series here?

I can't comment on the program personally, but one course that is fairly new and offered in Australia is a Graduate Diploma and Masters in Information Architecture at Charles Sturt University, Australia. The course is available in distance education mode as well. Info on the course is at http://www.csu.edu.au/courses/pg/sci/m_ia/

Not to toot my own horn too much here, but we (Delphi Group) have training sessions that we've been doing for 4-5 years now, on Information Architecture, Taxonomy, Search, Portals and Content Management. The next one coming up (as of this posting) is March 7-9, 2006 in Boca Raton, Florida - and it is called, the Proving Ground on Information Architecture and Taxonomy. More details at http://www.delphigroup.com/pg - I'm the co-lead in this practice area, and happy to discuss this more online or offline. I have been involved in this area for 4-5 years formally, and more informally, for roughly a decade. Also, as an IAI member (Information Architecture Institute), I know that there has been quite a bit of talk about this very topic on the IAI-list. I would recommend anyone interested in IA and steering the conversation join up, and help to make it happen - see http://iainstitute.org/ for more details there. Actual degrees and diplomas are still somewhat rare from what I have seen, but that is changing as IA is (more or less) being defined and understood by degree granting institutions. This is all evolving awfully fast though, so to really "be" an IA, my opinion is that you have to be out there doing it to get the constant evolution of the real world in your blood, while having a foundation to refer to, through training/research/learning of some sort.

There's great interest in seeign this article, but who wants to write it???

Not me! It is simply moving too fast--makes my head swim! Whoever does run with this should probably also cover HCI and IDT/new media masters-level tracks at schools like Georgia Tech and Carnegie-Mellon. Some really good thought leaderhip is emerging from Univesity of Michigan's (and others') library science/information design programs, too. Plus, MFA programs are constantly updating their new media programs with curriculum in IA and ID--even expanding in to user research a bit. One cannot ignore programs in instructional design and industrial design, too! We are, after all, developing products--not just interfaces.