Be a GeoMentor!

Amy Jeu sent me this announcement. If you love mapping and love mentoring kids, don't miss this opportunity:

The Geographic Information Sciences (GIS) software company ESRI has partnered with National Geographic to recruit GIS professionals to mentor students. In true GIS form, they present a map of who is mentoring where. So far, no one has volunteered in NYC (as of Nov. 5). Participation is a great way to kick off GIS Day, which is November 18, just a few days away. Also, see details on Geography Awareness Week, which begins next week.

Please use the http://www.geomentor.org/ website to sign up for the GeoMentor program.

The 2009 IA Institute Salary and Benefits Survey Opens

The 2009 IA Institute Salary and Benefits Survey is now open at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=rnk5PuDVMuIRC1QwwS9PtA_3d_3d

The survey takes only a minute or two to complete, so we hope you'll stop by and contribute.

We have made slight edits from last year including a much simpler matrix of responses for IA related tasks, a more normalized breakdown of salary ranges and a further refinement of job titles and experience levels. I enjoyed reviewing last year's comments regarding medical benefits especially in light of current debate over US healthcare, but because we are an international organization, we went for simple this year and made only a few minor changes.

As in previous years, the survey will remain open through October, and we will post the results on the IAI website in late November/early December.

Re: Mentors and Heroes

(Originally posted in comments to Whitney Hess' blog, Pleasure & Pain)

My favorite mentor story is about a psychology professor I worked for during my senior year at Columbia. He ran the Vision Science Laboratory with three or four graduate students. I showed up on my first day and he threw me a small red book, called Programming in C, and told me to learn it so I can help "reprogram the stimulus on the Techtronix monitor and rewire the input box" for his latest experiments. Oh and then write a script or two to analyze the results.

I sort of freaked, because I had no idea what he was talking about. There were wires and metal button boxes and a huge TV monitor with several computer components connected to it. Behind was a box loaded with little switches and more wires. Somehow I was supposed to write a program that would make it all work. I hadn't taken a programming course since Apple Basic in 10th grade. The graduate students laughed at me a lot, but I read the book, got the hang of it and ended up having the most fun that year.

Second semester, the same professor challenged me to take another semester of Calculus. I hadn't taken the first semester Calculus since freshman year but he said I could do it. Well, I failed the first test, which was basically, “name the formula you use to solve the following problems.” But because I had that initial push and a lot of encouragement from a professor who showed me how to teach myself, I realized that I could get through it, though it was indeed a struggle. I ultimately took the pass/fail option and passed.

I always thought mentors and heroes had to be superstars. I admit that I have had my own little quiet conversations with Mozart & Washington a la HClinton & ERoosevelt, but if you do that too much, you end up finding yourself falling way too short in comparison. I don't need to write a symphony or win a country. Knowing I challenged myself and figured out how to get through it by myself was one of the best lessons I've ever learned.

How Did the Internet Change Networking?

In response to a LinkedIn discussion thread about how the internet changed networking, I had the following to say:

I'll state up front that I'm in a field (information architecture) that is heavy user of social media and I have been involved in internet technology since I was at the College in the 80s. I have been networking frequently on the internet since 1997. Starting with AOL and Compuserv chat rooms, then Usenet and Yahoo! group type affiliations and then virtual meetups on Fast Company and other social networking pioneers.

The impact of the internet on networking is immediate, cheap and global.

The internet makes it easier to connect, increasingly in real time with tools like IM, Skype and Twitter and related apps built directly within the social networking site. I'm in NYC and with AOL Instant Messenger, I know when a colleague is away from his computer in Panama City. With Twitter, I know what a friend in London had for lunch and whether a group is meeting at a Thai restaurant in Tribeca later this evening. TripIt tells me if a certain user experience blogger I like is planning on attending the IA Summit in Memphis, and if I want I can send her an In-message via LinkedIn to see if she plans to attend a particular conference session.

The internet also makes it cheaper. There has never been so many free ways to contact people. I had a year long project with a colleague in Stuttgart. We connected exclusively on Skype and used online groupware software and FTP to manage the project. If I wanted to bring in another person for the project, I have access to several email lists and social networks.

The internet also makes time disappear in a way that is disconcerting. There is so much online to read, and in my field the most interesting stuff is published online, linked from Twitter or the IAI-members discussion list. It's hard to keep up. And with immediate the feedback of social networking sites, it's hard to pull away.

I do go to conferences and meetups, but I find myself choosing my F2F networking opportunities very carefully, because there are so many interesting opportunities in my field. Sometimes, it's the social networking sites where I find out about a workshop or lecture of interest. At one recent lecture, the speaker made a joke about how we are so tied up with Facebook that we need subway ads for Dentyne chewing gum to remind us how to be friends. But at this same meeting I could point to several dozen people whom I had followed via blogs and twitter, with whom I've had IM conversations very recently. and with whom I could essentially carry on an already ongoing conversation.

It's kind of bizarre. I met my German colleague in person at the IA Summit in Las Vegas, after we had been working together for many months. It was my first IA Summit and I didn't know many people well, so I mused that he was already my best friend in the room and we hadn't even met. It really changes your perspective on the big room full of people. If I'm feeling shy and can't find someone to chat with, I could conceivably twitter my whereabouts and get a response from someone over by the crudité table.

CCW Mentoring Kickoff

From the January/February Columbia College Today alumni magazine:

Columbia College Women held a Mentoring Program launch reception on November 27 in the President’s Room at Faculty House, with about 100 alumnae and students in attendance. Noreen Whysel ’90, who co-coordinates CCW with Alumni Affairs Assistant Director Stella Miele-Zanedis, welcomed the attendees and explained the evening’s program, which included discussions designed for alumnae and students to interact during dinner. Attendees were seated according to alumnae profession/student professional interest.

The 2007 program has matched more than 100 junior and senior women with mentors, who share with the students professional as well as personal advice. Spring 2008 programs will feature "A Women’s Consortium," partnered with Columbia Athletics and the Center for Career Education, as well as "Women in Business," "Women in Sciences" and "Women in the Arts" workshops plus a social networking event.

For more information on CCW or any of the programs, or to join CCW, contact Miele-Zanedis: mf2413@columbia.edu.

Appraisal Reviews and Their Importance

An article on appraisal reviews that I wrote with Jim MacCrate is now available at ssrn.com:

Appraisal Reviews and Their Importance
by James R. MacCrate, MacCrate Associates LLC and Noreen Whysel

Abstract:
Many articles have been written on the art of reviewing appraisal reports by professional real estate appraisers for bank lending and litigation purposes. This article explains why attorneys, Judges, IRS, assessors and other individuals that obtain appraisal reports from third parties should have the reports reviewed by qualified individuals who are professional real estate appraisers. This article explains the review process, the guidelines that should be followed, and the conclusions that can be drawn from an appraisal review. Some of the reasons for divergencies between appraisal reports are discussed, such as fraud, incompetency, human error, and client pressure. The authors introduce some methods that might be employed in order to minimize conflicts, to promote justice and fairness in the appraisal and legal process.

Questions for Prospective IAs

Anders Ramsay, User Experience Designer and a long-time mentor in the IA Institute's mentoring program, wrote down some great questions to think about before you approach a prospective mentor. See his list here:

Questions for Prospective IAs

The Information Architecture Survey for the third edition of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld has been released. View at http://findability.org/archives/000131.php

Taxonomy at The Economist

I am always on the lookout for good articles on taxonomy, because of my interest in the taxonomies of Information Architecture and classic linnean classification of birds. Here are a couple of features from Feb 9 Economist:

Names for sale
Feb 9th 2006
From The Economist print edition
The ancient science of taxonomy might benefit from a little modern marketing
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5494618

Today we have naming of parts
Feb 9th 2006
From The Economist print edition
A global registry of animal species could shake up taxonomy
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5492016

Biomechanics of Way Finding

The March 2006 issue of Natural History Magazine (the magazine of the American Museum of Natural History) has a cover feature called "Learning to Find Your Way," studying the biological pathways of spatial memory.

Not yet available online, but available at newstands:
http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/0306/0306_toc.html

IA/UX Salary Surveys

Based on a recent request on the IA Institute Job Board, I have compiled some IA/UX salary information resources. As soon as the IAI salary survey comes out, I'll post a link here.

Very few of the postings I receive on the IA Institute Job Board have salary information, but a typical salary/rate conversion is:

salary = 2/3 rate times 2080 (40 hours per week for a year)

The 1/3 reduction represents the cost of your medical, vacation and other benefits plus social security taxes that the company pays.

For $75/hour, this equals $104,000/year, which appears to be on the high end for those jobs where I do have salary data. Salary.com shows salary+bonus capping around 110K for most experienced IA/UX type jobs, although their job titles don't conform perfectly to the industry yet.

The IA Institute is supposed to publish the results of the 2005 survey this month. They are a bit behind schedule, but keep looking for the survey at http://www.iainstitute.org.

Some other surveys:

2004 UX Salary Survey
http://www.spiritsoftworks.com/resources/2004-salary-survey.htm

2003 AIfIA Salary Survey
http://iainstitute.org/pg/salary_survey_2003.php

IA Wiki - links to more salary surveys
http://www.iawiki.net/SalarySurveys

Salary.com Salary Wizard
http://www.salary.com/salary/layoutscripts/sall_display.asp

Since Salary.com job titles don't appear to reflect titles used in the IA industry, here are some equivalent job titles:

Interface Designer = User Experience & HCI
Content Engineer = Information Architect

IA processes from Peter Jones

From an online discussion group:

Jones, P.H. (2002). Embedded values in process and practice: Interactions between disciplinary practice and formal innovation processes. 11th International Forum on Design Management Research. Boston, June 2002.

This academic article discussed the problems with structured process, and the types of informal practices that were adopted by internal communities in spite of process to accommodate the needs of projects. In some situations, informal practices also subverted well-constructed processes.

Jones, P.H. (2002). When successful products prevent strategic innovation. Design Management Review, 13 (2).

The research covered the range of process types which affect product design:

Organizational Management, Market Research, Product Lifecycle, Product Management, Project Management, Product Design and Development

Although I did not do an exhaustive survey of processes by name, I covered in-depth cases of software product development companies using 10 case projects. The thesis of the research was:

"As the successful firm embraces more conservative business values over time, they embed into management processes, from market research to human resources, from R&D to sales. As both customer intimacy and margin values unify with everyday project and product management practice, these values become implicit and more resistant to change. The same values that create team loyalty, organizational purpose, and a shared sense of identity also implicitly limit types of work practices, investments, and even customers. With values an ultimate source of decisions, people cannot easily see these constraints, let alone question their impact."

Where we get into conflicts with process:

"In software product companies we typically find creative independence residing with designers and developers more than other functions. As members of expert-based competencies, they represent disciplines educated by professional values, and also their own community of practice values. While innovation values are typically espoused within design groups, research points to the prevalence of values conflicts between design and other organizational functions. The range of conflict manifests from everyday disagreements within project teams to management's reorganization of design groups. The most common conflicts emerge as disputes over appropriate processes for product design, and over ownership of activities in design practice, from customer testing to product interface definition."

I'm a strong advocate of growing your own process, and describe ways of doing that in my book Team Design, which also covers and evaluates development processes, especially those used by teams in collaborative practice.

Peter Jones
REDESIGN RESEARCH innovation insight
http://redesignresearch.com

CMS Tutorials

For an overview of CMS for a non-technical audience, try James Robertson's excellent site:
http://www.steptwo.com.au/

Also try:

http://www.designit.com.au/articles/rebuilding_gradlink

CITI Advanced Training

We will be scheduling a CITI training for CBs and CBOs in Brooklyn this spring. The date is dependent upon the number of participants. Training will include basic GIS principles, GIS desktop software and tips for making your own maps. Contact us at citi@mas.org if you would like to participiate.

Additional information about the CITI Youth program and how to find rezoning areas can be found in the March issue of the CITI Newsletter at http://www.myciti.org/newsletters/2005-03.html.

GoogleMaps

Discussion of GoogleMaps has been lively on my User Interface design lists. Overall ratings for Google Maps are good, but I have problems with the way they locate places based on search.

GoogleMaps
http://maps.google.com/
Posters say they like that you can drag the map and that the directions appear to be more accurate than MapQuest or Yahoo! Maps. To find places on the map, you can use their search boxes on the right or enter a search in the bar above. It wasn't apparent at first exactly how to find groups of things like hotels or grocery stores, which is organized as a layer on Yahoo (click a box marked restaurants). I had to take the Tour to figure that the search bar is the way to do this. Using the search bar you can plot places like restaurants, hotels, etc. based on info on web pages they have stored, which is sort of wild but not always accurate or complete. I prefer Yahoo!'s ability to plot items that are categorized as what they are vs having the word in its name, e.g., if you search for "Farm" you get a lot of State Farm agents.

But one thing Google does well is to tie a particular location to its "more like this" search function. If you click a search result, it will point you to the website of the entity in question or a list of websites of nearby related entities. This is less seeing it on a map than finding what may be nearby. Unfortunately, if you try to use the back button to return to the map search results, you get the default GoogleMaps view.

As for the interface, I had a tendency to reset the map back to the entire US view by accident, while using the zoom function. The Zoom and Reset buttons are a bit close and not otherwise labeled. Reset button looks a lot like "Recenter" to me. Also, if you pan off of the US and try to zoom in, you get a lot of blank images with red Xs. And don't try to find South America, Europe or Russia. The oceans go on forever....

Here are a some similar maps in other parts of the world:

Search.ch Map (Switzerland)
http://map.search.ch/
A blogger recently suggested that Google copied the interface from this site. It uses an aerial photo layer that is fun to zoom into, but probably not entirely necessary for the purpose of the site.

Map My India
http://mapmyindia.com/

from a post on sigia-l:

Although the quality, accuracy and detail [of mapmyindia] isn't comparable but at least in some respects such as download speed and ease of marking major landmarks, it's actually better than Google Maps and Mapquest.

To see how it works, search for Juhu, Mumbai, Maharashtra. You can plot hotels, banks, ATMs etc on the map using the menu on right. One cannot however, link to a particular location without subscription.

The design of the site is led by a 19 years old Stanford sophomore,
Rohan Verma. http://nripulse.com/Archives/Profile_Rohan.htm

Maps Aid Community Decision-Making

February 9, 2005, Municipal Art Society

CITI map technicians Earl Dunn and Marcus Sheftall from Bushwick’s Academy of Urban Planning are becoming celebrities at their local community board meetings. At each meeting of Community Board 4 and its land use committee, the10th graders project large maps on a screen by accessing www.myciti.org with a wireless laptop.

Following the meeting’s agenda, students zoom into areas and properties being discussed and answer questions from board members about local zoning, property ownership and other planning related issues.

Map Technicians at Brooklyn CB4 Marcus Sheftall and Earl Dunn compare a rendering of a proposed new firehouse design for their community with its building footprint and surrounding land uses.

Earl and Marcus were chosen after a month-long application process that included applications, map-making, resumes, cover letters, and interviews Nadine Whitted, District Manager at CB4. “Once they told me I got the job I was very excited, being that it’s my first job,” Marcus says. “Then when I found out that a friend of mine Earl Dunn was employed also, it helped because at least I would know someone else there. We went through training for two weeks, which was fun because I learned a lot.”

The training program for the students and their teachers was designed by the Municipal Art Society Planning Center and the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment, lead partner at the Academy of Urban Planning (AUP), a New Visions school.

“The students really look forward to coming to the meetings and see that they are making a valuable contribution to discussions,” says Meredith Phillips, Urban Planning Coordinator at AUP who has integrated the program into the school’s theme-based activities. “They are learning a lot about community participation – and having a great time in the process!”

After the last CB 4 meeting in January, several members of the board came over and marveled as the students created and queried the maps for information. Even NYPD officers asked for maps to use as reference for their work in the area.

How to Get Involved

The CITI Youth program is expanding into new high schools and community boards next fall and has only 4 spots left for new host schools. If you are a community board member or educator that would like to find out more about the CITI Youth program contact citi@mas.org.

Municipal Art Society
Community Information Technology Initiative
http://www.myciti.org

IA/UX events listings

IA/UX events listings

http://www.adaptivepath.com/events/
http://www.nngroup.com/events/
http://www.uie.com/events/
http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/
http://www.iasummit.org/2005/
http://www.humanfactors.com/training/default.asp
www.usability.gov/events/index.htmlInformation

Mini Conference on Human Factors in Complex Sociotechnical Systems

The South Jersey Chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
will be hosting a mini-conference on April 28 & 29, 2005, entitled
"Mini-Conference on Human Factors in Complex Sociotechnical Systems."
This event will be held at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC), located near the Atlantic
City International Airport, New Jersey.

The mini-conference is an opportunity for researchers and
practitioners in human factors, human-computer interaction, and
related fields, who work with complex sociotechnical systems, to share
their research, designs, techniques, and lessons learned with each
other. This is also a good medium for researchers to communicate
their ongoing research as well as students to get a chance to present
at a conference. This will be the first year of the conference and we
hope the quality of the program will make it a regular event.

The mini-conference committee is seeking submissions for presentations
and posters that would be of interest to human factors researchers and
practitioners, as well as others interested in behavioral science,
engineering, and management. Papers should focus on domains that
involve multiple users with different knowledge levels, abilities, and
task needs, who interact with complex tools and with one another. We
are especially interested in papers related to, but not limited to,
domains with substantial safety, security, or economic implications.
Some examples of these domains are Aviation, Air Traffic Control,
Military, Law Enforcement, Homeland Security, Emergency Management,
Medical Process Control, and Finance and Securities Trading. We
encourage submissions discussing works in progress as well as
submissions from students seeking an opportunity to present their work.

The deadline for submitting to the conference is February 14, 2005 and
the committee has already started accepting submissions. Proceedings
for the conference will be published in a CD ROM format and
distributed to the conference attendees.

For more information please visit www.sjhfes.org

For any questions, please contact: miniconference@sjhfes.org

Send submissions to: submissions@sjhfes.org

AIfIA sponsors metadata practices conference

From aifia.org:

AIfIA sponsors conferences and events helping to build the practice of
information architecture. Learn more about AIfIA's sponsorship program
at http://aifia.org/pg/ia_events_sponsorship.php#000247

***********
September 30, 2004 -- AIfIA will sponsor Metadata for Interoperability
in the Global Corporate Environment, a pre-conference for the DC-2004
International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications.

The one-day pre-conference program takes place on October 10, 2004 in
Shanghai, China, and is expected to attract around 100 people. The
pre-conference workshop addresses the metadata lifecycle -- creation,
management, and use -- as it applies to enterprise applications and
activities, with focus on interoperability enabling international
business. Experts will present case studies about interesting
applications of metadata, and then discuss issues related to metadata
creation, management, and use in the enterprise.

"This pre-conference program will help participants learn how to
optimize the early stages of a metadata program for international and
cross-cultural deployments,"said Makx Dekkers, DCMI Managing Director.
"Support from AIfIA underscores the vital role of information
architecture in developing a metadata program."

"We are pleased to support this important initiative," said AIfIA
President Victor Lombardi. "We believe that information architecture
can help inform the process for aligning business goals to a metadata
initiative."

More details about this event are available at the DCMI conference
website at http://dc2004.library.sh.cn/.

Happy Birthday, STOP Sign

I love finding crossroads where my interests in usability and mapping meet. In Happy Birthday Stop Sign, Eric Reiss discusses the birth and standardization of the ubiquitous stop sign.