From the Early Life of Super IA

Making Stone Soup

Did you ever hear the story of "Stone Soup"? A colleague retold the story to me last week and I keep thinking of it as a metaphor for our IA work among other disciplines. The story goes like this: a guy shows up in the center of town with a cast iron pot. He builds a fire, sets the pot on it and fills the pot with water. The townspeople slowly gather around him and ask him what he's up to. He proudly says, "I am making Stone Soup." The crowd murmurs at the thought of soup made from stone as he pulls a smoothe river rock from his coat and announces, "I will make a delicious soup from this single stone". He makes a production of dropping the stone in the heating water - stirring the water and smiling in anticipation. He plays the crowd and teases them about how good it will taste when it's ready. "When this soup is ready, everyone will want some - of course, if I had a few carrots it would be that much the better!" "I have carrots!", says a woman in the front row. Now you know how this story ends? By the time dusk falls the soup is thick with every vegetable known in that land.

Information Architects make stone soup. It's our job to go to the center of town and start the pot boiling. It's our job to manage the input and have the knowledge of the right recipe. When we are done, the whole town should love "the soup".

For that to happen we need knowledge, research, and a great process. This story is a good reminder for me. I hope for you too.

From Information Architect to Inspiration Architect

The times they are a changin'. Clicks have turned into swipes and other gestures. Companies are building environments that respond to our personal attitudes and styles. Once, the Information Architect was need to unfold information on a 2-dimensional screen based on hierarchy and library science. Boy, has that changed. The new information architect will be called on to orchestrate 3 dimensional space. Humans will walk into rooms and the rooms will adjust to our moods and preferences. All around the world designers and technologists are makeing this so. http://www.rug.nl/cit/hpcv/index?lang=en

Interactive office design in the Reality Theatre University of Gronigen

That means that there is a new and bigger calling for the IA - I think we need to expand our thinking quickly and move from "information focus" to "inspiration focus". As Information Architects we are uniquely positioned among the disciplines and we can help teams find ways to dialog and prepare for coming needs and trends. We are going to have to break down silos (in some cases) to do this, but the IA should be able to weave inspirational thinking in and around day to day projects. The IA should be asking, "What if...?"

I am trying to drink my own koolaid on this and the other day, I had an opportunity to work with the team on our "local page" initiative, here at "Goliath Corp". The local page, by its definition, offers the company the opportunity to experiment with some cross-platform initiatives - like pushing local sports scores to mobile. The idea was not in the BRD, but I put a little cellphone icon on the wireframe and opened the dialog with a cup of coffee. That was last week - and now the ball's rolling just by asking "What if?" Give it a try. Become inspirational. Let me know how it works out.