Design Matters

On the way to Minneapolis! 

Greetings Information Designers and Architects, can you feel the excitement building? I can! I can’t wait for the opportunity to hear from my peers and friends…participate in interesting sessions…hear what STC has been up to this past year and where it will be going in the future…attend networking events and meet fellow SIG members and others from around the world. I hope you are all as excited as I am (if so, submit a comment!) and let me take this opportunity to invite all you out there in the blogosphere to participate in the conference online. 

Visit this blog throughout the Summit (May 13-16) read about what the SIG is doing and where we are going. Hopefully there will be photos as well so you can see some of us in action. Look for a post inviting daily comments from SIG members. 

David 

A short summary of the Information Design Conference 2007 has been posted.

Summary from the site:

The Information Design Conference 2007 was held in Greenwich, London on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th March. There were about 110 participants, including 22 speakers, from about 20 countries including UK, USA, Brazil, Mexico, The Netherlands and Belgium, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, Portugal and Spain, Qatar, Hong Kong. Many participants work across national borders: Brazilians in the US and UK, Brits abroad, Germans in the Netherlands and so on. And many had heard of the event from the InfoDesign-Cafe list, or its sister list, the announcements-only InfoDesign list.

One of the important effects of conferences is that it is easy to make contacts, initiate activities and test ideas. The available posters are an easy start to achieve this. Furthermore, students are introduced to potential employers, researchers can discuss their work with practitioners, practitioners find common ground for co-operation, and approaches from other specialisms can be picked up and applied to personal situations.

It is likely that audio recordings and slides of several of these talks will soon be available from the IDA website.

Related link: InfoDesign

If you are a member of the ID/A SIG and will be attending the Annual Conference in Minneapolis, please consider volunteering to help us at one of the following events: 

Welcome Reception SIG Table: 7:30-9:00 PM in the Expo Hall
Spend 20-30 minutes at the SIG table, talking about the SIG and passing out buttons and pens promoting the SIG website. Good chance to meet other members!

SIG Luncheons: Monday and Tuesday @ Lunch
3-4 volunteers to sit at the ID/A SIG table…stir discussion…talk about the SIG’s activities…pass out SIG buttons and conference roadmaps etc. 

SIG Business Meeting: Monday May 14, 7:00 AM.
Mezzanine 100E - Convention Center
Come meet members of the SIG leadership team and hear more about the activities planned for the coming year.

To volunteer for any of these activities,
please send David an email dcaruso@cdc.gov 

In an effort to conserve the funds of the organization, the ID/A SIG is looking for a company or individual willing to sponsor the purchase of a vinyl banner to be used at SIG events, starting with the 2007 STC Conference in Minneapolis.

I anticipate the cost of the banner to be around $150.00 from Kinko’s (indication of sponsorship could be arranged). If you or your employer are interested in this opportunity or have the ability to produce vinyl banners in-house and want to off-set our costs, please contact David L. Caruso dcaruso@cdc.gov or call 412-386-6473 no later than April 12, 2007.

** Hotel reservations must be made by April 13.  Book today for your stay!  http://www.stc.org/54thConf/lodging/index.asp **
Fewer than two months and counting!  Have you registered yet for the Annual Conference?  Have you told co-workers and associates to register too?  You still have time…  May 4 is the deadline to take advantage of the advance member rate of $795 (USD).

Whether you attend to learn new skills, explore hot topics, or network with the best, this year’s Conference features something for everyone, including:

At the upcoming conference in Minneapolis, the ID/A SIG will be quite active so here is a list of some of the things you can look forward to participating in should you join us in the Twin Cities:

• Leadership Day – Want to be a future leader, this is your day!
• Opening Evening Social Event
• SIG Table featuring information and an as yet undetermined giveaway (or 2)
• Food
• See friends from conferences past and make a few new ones
• SIG Booth – STC will have a permanent space throughout the conference next to the hospitality desk where volunteers from all the SIGs will be on hand to talk about the SIG experience and encourage more members to become active in the virtual communities. (watch this site for more information as to when you might see some of the ID/A folks there)
• SIG meeting – Yes, one of the mornings (bright and early) we will all get together and see each other face-to-face. This will be both a business meeting, membership recruitment opportunity and social all rolled into one.
• ID/A Social Event – On Monday evening we will venture out into Minneapolis for a social event of unidentified origin (stay tuned for more details or look for flyers at the conference). Just ask anyone who went with us to the Star Trek Experience last year in Vegas…hanging with the ID/A SIG is the place to be!
• Progression – Please stick around for the Wednesday sessions for the progression of the ID/A SIG: Designer-ly Ways of Thinking: Progressions of the Information Design and Architecture Community  (DD 11E)

Wednesday 1:30-3:00 PM
Format: Progression
From “New Architecture of Printed Documents” to “Do I Need a CMS?” this roundtable session provides participants with an opportunity to explore a variety of topics of interest on information design and architecture.
Presented by members of STC’s Information Design and Architecture Community.

FITC ‘07 (originally ‘Flash In The Can’), Toronto April 22 - 24, 2007. http://www.fitc.ca/ 

Several people have asked about the newest version of the SIG charter. Here it is!

The early bird gets the worm, and in this case a discounted conference rate!  Register by February 28 to take advantage of the low member price - $645 (USD).

Last week, the STC office mailed the preliminary program.  Why wait to receive your copy in the mail?  Go to www.stc.org/54thConf today to check out the latest information about the conference, registration, and accommodations.

Hello,

With this post we’d like to give you a brief update on the activities of the Information Architecture & Information Design SIG leadership team. The first and the most important news: we are establishing a leadership team that has worked on the following:

• Several months ago, we published the SIG charter (see http://stc-on.org/id) and got it approved by the STC board.
• We redesigned the website.
• We issued a call for volunteers for the open positions. We are getting a group of enthusiastic volunteers together and are really looking forward into the next steps!

The current leadership team consists of:

• Membership and Marketing Manager: Dan Wilcomb
• Conference Manager: David Caruso
• Website Manager: Sean Cleary
• SIG Editor: Christina Bottomley
• Expert CMS: Scott Abel

We still have the following positions open:

• SIG Treasurer
• Various expert positions (see Charter)

Note that you don’t have to volunteer for a specific position – if you just want to do something from the list in the charter or you have your own ideas – let me know and let’s do it.

The leadership team has regular monthly calls where we coordinate our activities. Let me know if you want to participate.

Our current tasks are:

• Designing and preparing SIG activities for the STC Summit in 07.
• Developing a sponsorship model for the SIG members to participate at the conferences.
• Recruit more volunteers to cover the expert roles.
• Acquiring articles and ideas for articles both for the SIG website and for other STC publications.

Call for Articles

We’re looking for your input for articles to include on our website. Please contact christina.bottomley@gmail.com if you:

• Have a request for topics you would like to see covered.
• Are an STC (or other related group) conference presenter who would like to write an article based on your presentation.
• Have a research paper or study (professional or academic) you would like writing or editing help for the purposes of publishing on the SIG website, STC conference proceedings, Intercom, or STC Technical Communications.
• Otherwise, have information or experiences related to the SIG that you want to offer.

Thank you for any offers or suggestions. The SIG leadership team is looking forward to creating a valuable resource and publishing opportunities for members.

Thanks again!

SIG manager, Bogo Vatovec