mywhine: madonnalisa whines here

Where is IA these days? I keep asking myself this over the past 6 months. Just when I thought I was going to ramp up again with the community I had to really step back and take inventory. I was confused and wondering where is this all taking me? Where is what I'm doing taking the community? Where is the value-add when I watch the SIG-IA list almost dissintegrate before our eyes. I'm frustrated and I'm trying really hard to be patient with what I see. I'm burned out and I'm totally out of the loop. Do I want back in? Is it worth it? Is it where I want to be?

...

Is there hope? Will IA survive because of orgs like AIFIA? Will ASIST really be the only home that some would continue on the spirit? I know all I'm doing is whining, but heck this is mywhine.com :)

So here are my crystal ball predictions for 2003 for IA and some of the things many IAs could be involved with:

10. Taxonomies and other controlled vocabularies are the buzz. IA specialists begin to surface and companies throw lots of money into taxonomy projects. Let's see in 2 years if those projects still exist or ever launch.

9. IA continues not to take on the hearts of companies who really need it. They draft your typical webmaster job description from 1996-97 and become satisfied.

8. User research: well, the user doesn't know how to describe what they want, so companies will go back to building stuff because their market research folks thinks its profitable.

7. Content management systems around the world scramble as their clients get lost or unindexed in many of the well-known search engines. Gosh this is already a real issue for many folks out there.

6. XML and web services continue to be the buzz terms used at various metadata and IA get togethers. I believe there's hope, but does anyone really know what it means?

5. Search engines no longer exists as we know them today...they rebrand their identities as "Find It" or "Knowledge Repository" engines. Yes I know this sounds outrageous but I have this feeling..'k?

4. Metadata - yes it's difficult to get good quality, and yes it's difficult to be consistent, but heck who else is going to help pave the way for semantic web to happen.

3. Standards - yes, they exist and no, not everyone uses them...so it shall be written and so it shall be done...not!

2. Microsoft takes over the IT infrastructure of the world...oh wait that's pretty much happening... ;)

1. ROI - "we don't need no stinkin' ROI. Just trust me, this -insert name of product or tool or process- will solve all of your information management needs."