Comments on: Rethinking EIA: Becoming Information Ecologists http://www.robfay.com/2006/04/01/rethinking-eia/ Rob Fay is a user experience architect making sense of an information age. He is passionate about the "I" in IT and strives to evangelize that information is a resource on equal footing with an organization's human, financial, and physical resources. Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:36:14 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Rob Fay http://www.robfay.com/2006/04/01/rethinking-eia/comment-page-1/#comment-1284 Rob Fay Fri, 07 Apr 2006 11:01:51 +0000 http://robfay.com/2006/03/29/rethinking-eia/#comment-1284 Nomad, I think that the SOA framework is promising in that it attempts to remove the "silo" effect by throwing a connecting layer on top of these silos. It promises easier information access, but it doesn't necessarily remove redundancies. After all, you are only as good as your data. It is a cost-effective short term solution, but when do you make the decision to consolidate systems? Should they remain separate? Nomad,

I think that the SOA framework is promising in that it attempts to remove the “silo” effect by throwing a connecting layer on top of these silos. It promises easier information access, but it doesn’t necessarily remove redundancies. After all, you are only as good as your data.

It is a cost-effective short term solution, but when do you make the decision to consolidate systems? Should they remain separate?

]]> By: Nomad http://www.robfay.com/2006/04/01/rethinking-eia/comment-page-1/#comment-1279 Nomad Thu, 06 Apr 2006 20:00:55 +0000 http://robfay.com/2006/03/29/rethinking-eia/#comment-1279 Rob, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on SOA projects like the one I just finished for my job, which seeks to make information from disparate systems available to all systems within the company via a Web Services architecture. This allows anyone to call even information that is NOT document-based, and display it on their website/application/report in whatever form makes most sense to their user based. (SOA = Services Oriented Architecture) Rob, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on SOA projects like the one I just finished for my job, which seeks to make information from disparate systems available to all systems within the company via a Web Services architecture. This allows anyone to call even information that is NOT document-based, and display it on their website/application/report in whatever form makes most sense to their user based.

(SOA = Services Oriented Architecture)

]]> By: Julia Beach http://www.robfay.com/2006/04/01/rethinking-eia/comment-page-1/#comment-1271 Julia Beach Mon, 03 Apr 2006 18:43:48 +0000 http://robfay.com/2006/03/29/rethinking-eia/#comment-1271 Fantastic Rob. As a law firm enterprise IA I have also come to realize how the job involves much more than just designing information access via the intranet or portal. There are many other information points in the enterprise, acting as both sources and places to be published to, including the accounting and work product systems, the firm directory, the library catalog, email contacts folders, etc. Even right down to dropdown lists that display in our travel arrangement software! All these things and more must be incorporated into the plan if we aim to provide a seamless information experience to staff. And in order to get there in the most efficient and practical manner we also have to consider things like the technical expertise of staff creating the information, the marketing value of the information, and the culture of our unique offices and departments. I also really liked your mention of "disposing of" information as part of the IA plan in your diagram. That critical task is so easy to leave out when you're busy designing and building new IA. Fantastic Rob. As a law firm enterprise IA I have also come to realize how the job involves much more than just designing information access via the intranet or portal. There are many other information points in the enterprise, acting as both sources and places to be published to, including the accounting and work product systems, the firm directory, the library catalog, email contacts folders, etc. Even right down to dropdown lists that display in our travel arrangement software!

All these things and more must be incorporated into the plan if we aim to provide a seamless information experience to staff. And in order to get there in the most efficient and practical manner we also have to consider things like the technical expertise of staff creating the information, the marketing value of the information, and the culture of our unique offices and departments.

I also really liked your mention of “disposing of” information as part of the IA plan in your diagram. That critical task is so easy to leave out when you’re busy designing and building new IA.

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