Apr 17, 2002: Happy Birthday SIGIA-L!
At the first IA Summit back in March of 2000, we put out the call for someone to create a discussion list for information architects. Shortly thereafter, ASIS&T stepped up to the plate, and SIGIA-L was born. The first brave posting, from Angela Picard, helped set a positive tone: she contributed some useful content for the benefit of her peers. Two years, 1,918 subscribers, and 8,033 deposits and withdrawals from the Bank of Karma later, SIGIA-L keeps jammin' away, a supportive and surprisingly multi-disciplinary community.
Well, hold on a second: is SIGIA-L really a community? That's up for debate. What exactly is it that distinguishes a community from a group of people talking about topics of mutual interest? Fodder for a future discussion.
Community or not, SIGIA-L is active and is growing. During 2000, we averaged 180 postings/month; in 2001, the number jumped to 389; this year, 581.
The list's posting rates started out at about 4 postings daily on average, and in some recent months have topped 20.
For no particular reason other than wondering if my name ever made it to the list, I've compiled the table below to show each month's most active posters. (No, I didn't make the list.)
| MONTH | # POSTINGS | PROLIFIC POSTER |
| March 2002 | 39 | Ziya Oz |
| February 2002 | 40 | Ziya Oz |
| January 2002 | 61 | Ziya Oz |
| December 2001 | 20 | Ziya Oz |
| November 2001 | 32 | Ziya Oz |
| October 2001 | 20 | David Heller |
| September 2001 | 21 | David Austen |
| August 2001 | 54 | Ziya Oz |
| July 2001 | 17 | James Weinheimer |
| June 2001 | 30 | James Weinheimer |
| May 2001 | 16 | Christina Wodtke |
| April 2001 | 26 | Christina Wodtke |
| March 2001 | 16 | Karl Fast |
| February 2001 | 19 | Dick Hill |
| January 2001 | 13 | Dan Hoffman |
| December 2000 | 5 | James Weinheimer |
| November 2000 | 7 | Ed Houseman |
| October 2000 | 14 | Andrew Hinton |
| September 2000 | 25 | Gordon Montgomery |
| August 2000 | 11 | Gordon Montgomery, Ed Houseman (tie) |
| July 2000 | 8 | Gordon Montgomery |
| June 2000 | 16 | Gordon Montgomery, Chuck Lutz (tie) |
| May 2000 | 10 | Gordon Montgomery |
| April 2000 | 15 | James Weinheimer |
Now come on class, let's not see all the same hands... Meanwhile, can someone help Ziya Oz find insurance coverage for what will likely be one nasty case of carpal tunnel syndrome?
Happy second birthday SIGIA-L!
* Note: May 2000 numbers are incomplete.
Comment: Robert Dornbush (Apr 17, 2002)
Lou, this is of great interest to me as an IA / UI / ID guy. It is equally fun and interesting to track the evolution of SIGIA in comaprison to the evoultion of IA as a practice and my own personal career.
You have been a real guiding light for our community in what can only be described as the storm of uncertain development seas; soak up some rays and feel the love Baby!
Comment: Brian Christiansen (Apr 17, 2002)
Without getting into a "well, define what you mean by IA" discussion, and in relation to the number of members of the list, it makes one wonder how many IAs are there in the US, in the world? What percent are here on sigIA-L? (How many know I need a job in the Boston area? Did I say that outloud? ;-)
Thanks for the stats Lou.
~bc
Comment: Jonathan Heron (Apr 19, 2002)
Regarding whether or not SIGIA-L is a community…
At a Zeriously event [1] last year here in Dublin, the topic for the night was communities and in the course of discussion between the audience and panel the subject of what constitutes a community came up (naturally). One quite good suggestion (that I tend to agree with) is that you can benchmark a community based on the reaction to a significant event, be it to a person on the forum, or something like September 11th.
[1] http://www.zeriously.com/events/z7.asp
I've found this to be a good method of gauging whether or not a forum, mailing list or whatever else, is a community. A quick glance back through the logs of many lists I subscribe to revealed emails back and forth expressing sympathies to members living in the New York area; or checking to see had people been caught in the attack. Yet more discussion went even further OT to discuss te ramifications of 9/11 etc.
So, what distinguishes a community from a bunch of people discussing a topic of common interest? IMHO:
"With a group of people simply discussing a topic of common interest, no attention is paid to the nature, status, or personality of members of the group. In a community, members become living people."
Hmmm that sounded better in my head… but I've been working for 14 hours a day all week, and I'm coming down with the flu. But hopefully I've managed to get my point across =)
Oh, and happy birthday SIGIA-L. And… looking forward to the new book Lou!!
Comment: Andrew Hinton (Apr 30, 2002)
Ok. It's like 11 days later and I just now bothered to read the posting on sigia-l. And lo-and-behold I saw my name there (!) as the top poster in October of 2000! I'm so impressed with myself.
But, alas, there was no prize.
The irony is that I only read the sigia-l list after it reaches about 1500 messages, which is about the point at which it starts to scare me.
Comment: Brad Lauster (May 3, 2002)
Wow...I'm such a data slut. Great post Lou. Thanks!
Comment: Paula Thornton (May 23, 2002)
But since we've now had 3 conferences, I keep saying that we're 3 years old as a discipline (more formally, of course)!
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