Setting the Agenda for IA Research

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Setting the Agenda for IA Research

• Don Turnbull
• Asst. Professor
• University of Texas at Austin
• School of Information

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IA in one Research Context
Learning
Information Seeking
Information Architecture
Information Retrieval
Browsing Strategy
Analytical Strategy
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What do we mean by Research?

• Hypothesis Generation
• Controlled Experiments
• Measurement Metrics
• Synthesis of old ideas new
• From other areas
• For IA
• Peer reviewed (double blind)
• Researchers can work with Practitioners to solve
  important IA problems

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Research _at_ IA Summit 2006

• Why do we need research at the IA Summit?
• This panel is the formal beginning
• New, peer reviewed research paper track
• Expected submissions to double for next year
• Why Research?
• Without peer review, academics are less likely to
  participate
• Academic participation means more to learn about
  at the summit

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Some Areas of IA Research

• Classification
• Controlled Vocabularies content analysis
• Taxonomies Ontologies
• Tagging
• Information Seeking
• Searching
• Re-finding
• Browsing
• Metadata
• Semantics
• Design Methodologies

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Boundaries of IA Research

• Human Computer Interface (CHI)
• Information Retrieval
• Graphic Design
• Linguistics
• Management of Information Systems (MIS)
• Classification Organization (LIS)
• We can learn from these areas of research
• What can they learn from IA?

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Journal of Information Architecture

• Open Access (free)
• Web based
• Editorial Board of Academics Practitioners
• Peer reviewed (that means you)
• Content represents research in IA
• Papers at this years Summit
• Panels transformed into papers
• Funded by industry (this could be you)
• Starting right now

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My Current IA Research

• IA Design Development Methodologies
• IA Tools
• Open Source Web page classification system
• Community-based classification verification
  discussion
• Interfaces for classification visualization
  rating
• Behavioral Model of Web Information Seeking
• Web Use Metrics
• Web Information Retrieval Models
• Web Informatics

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IA Research Agenda

• How has search changed the way users interact
  with (digital) information?
• What about Personal Information Architecture?
• Desktop IA
• Personalization
• How do Semantic Web technologies impact IA?
• How has Information Seeking changed in the past
  5-10 years?
• People
• Tools
• What tools are needed for IA?

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Thank You

• Don Turnbull
• donturn _at_ ischool.utexas.edu
• http//www.shadows.com/users/donturn