Towards standard methods and metrics for evaluating IA

["Livia Labate" <liv AT livlab.com>]

Rashmi,

I foresee many people sending URLs instead of documents. No problem
Wiki-wise (a list of links will be helpfull too), but the copyright issues
vary then. We are about to implement Creative Commons licenses on the TIA
project, but we also have contracts between authors and AIfIA which we
developed (http://tinyurl.com/ixur) -- perhaps something similar would allow
more flexibility (just guessing, not sure what you expect from a contract in
this context).

Also, you'll need FTP access to upload submitted material to AIfIA's site.
We don't have it at TIA, you might want to ask Austin from Webops about this
(austin AT desiremedia.com)

Livia Labate
http://livlab.com | liv AT livlab.com

The Translation of Information Architecture Project
http://aifia.org/translations/



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rashmi Sinha" <rashmi AT rashmisinha.com>
To: <aifia-metrics AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 2:26 AM
Subject: [Aifia-metrics] Proposal for next steps


Hi all,
Below is a proposal for how project might work over the next few months.
Note, this is simply an initial plan that I put together. Every aspect of
it is up for discussion. Hopefully we will get to some of the issues on the
IM meeting Tuesday.


Stage I) Post a call for metrics and methods. Publicize this call, on
mailing lists etc. Give about a month for people to submit materials in
response to this first call.
             -The call should include a description of the project, asking
the community to contribute relevant materials that they want to share.
             -Should also describe what kind of materials people should
submit, what format they should submit it in.
             -Might make sense to develop a short questionnaires asking
each person to describe the purpose of the material, how they have used it,
how to method compares to other similar methods.


Stage II) Review all contributed material. Upload it to the project site
(might make sense for site to be a wiki).

-Form a small committee to review all the material. Review to make sure
each contribution is relevant to project and has been explained well enough
so that others can used it. Ask author for more details if necessary
(Review should not be for quality screening, i.e., we should let all
material go through provided it is relevant and explained fully).
-Upload all the reviewed material to the wiki. Associate some metadata
with each to insure findability.
-Regarding the project site: A wiki might be appropriate.
-We also need to figure out the copyright issues. If authors release their
materials directly into the public domain without any limits then that is
fine. We might also want to look into Creative Commons copyright).


Stage III) Publicize the wiki widely. Ask people to use as needed and
provide feedback.

-Build some features into the wiki which allows us to track what material
is popular (e.g., number of times downloaded?).
-Encourage community to suggest improvements to contributed material. If
they use the material, ask them to describe any changes or adaptations they
might have made.


Stage IV) Few months later, review material. Update material based on
feedback provided. If necessary, ask  original authors to review their own
materials and update materials.
This can also be the point to launch more of a top down initiative.


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