Upcoming Events

Look for me at the following events:

January 18-20, 2012
WebVisions New York, Hudson Hotel, New York, NY
WebVisions takes the show to NYC for workshops and sessions by leading web, mobile, UX, DIY and strategy experts. In addition to the event's Indie/DIY/Maker goodness, WebVisions is kicking off the premiere of the second season of IFC's Portlandia television series.

February 11, 2012
World Information Architecture Day, 1 Day. 14 Cities
World IA Day 2012 is about bringing the Information Architecture community together. We're fostering links within local communities and on a global scale. We're sharing information, ideas and research. And we're doing it through unconventional, exciting and engaging IA events this February. The first ever World IA Day focuses on Designing Structures for Understanding. On February 11, 2012, we're hosting WIAD events in 14 cities across all corners of the globe. Learn from world-class IA minds, network, showcase new ideas and attend events tailored specifically to your community. We hope you'll join us at an event near you this February! Hosting cities include São Paulo, Tokyo, Ann Arbor, Johannesburg, Paris, Malmö, Sydney, Bangalore, Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Rome, Panama City and Bucharest.

March 21-25, 2012
IA Summit, New Orleans
This year's theme is "Experience Across Channels." Mobile and multi-channel are stretching our work beyond the Web. How can the UX community do our best work for experiences across channels? Presenters share ideas, case studies, tools, tips and tricks in New Orleans. My proposal on "Information Architecture of Emergency Response" was accepted. Hooray!

Recent Events

November 18, 2011
Transportation 2030: A Five Borough Blueprint, John Jay College, New York
This conference will bring together thought leaders and experts to examine transportation challenges across the five boroughs, address long standing transportation debates and identify ambitious solutions that will enhance the economy, safety and accessibility of Metropolitan New York. The Conference will also highlight new innovations in transportation technology that promise to make our transit system more efficient and eco-friendly.

November 16-17, 2011
9/11 Geosymposium at Technology in Government 2011, New York
The NYC GeoSymposium: 2001-2011-2021 will mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks by examining the response of the NYC GIS community regarding mobilization of geospatial resources after the event, evolution of procedures, data and technologies since the event and exploring unmet needs for improved emergency planning and response, as well as future challenges posed by emerging social media and enterprise-wide deployment of software and hardware advances that underpin geospatial application development. I've been working with several of my colleagues at GISMO to produce this event, which was co-located with NYC GovTech 2011. We will be launching a GIS design challenge in Spring or Summer 2012. Also, this will be a large part of my IA Summit session in March 2012.

November 11, 2011
NYC Big Apps Hackathon, Pivot Labs, New York

November 7, 2011
Columbia College Women Mentoring Launch Party, New York

November 5, 2011
U.S. Premiere of the Film: Calvet, New York's Documentary Film Festival, IFC, New York
The French painter Jean Marc Calvet recounts his incredible life story as a former Cannes bodyguard who abandoned his family, robbed a Miami mobster, hid out in Central America and overcame addictions by teaching himself how to paint at age 38. That was seven years ago. Now his intricate paintings sell for five figures, but he remains desperate to reconcile with the son he left behind. In conjunction with this DOC NYC screening, Jean Marc Calvet will have a solo exhibition in NYC at the Monkdogz Urban Art Gallery on Fri. Nov. 4 - Tues. Nov. 8, 2011. There will be a special post screening party on Saturday 5th November 7-10pm

October 26, 2011
Columbia College Women Fall Cheers, Union Bar, New York

October 26, 2011
Content Strategy Meetup, New York
Teach for America Rebranding Case Study: When the Teach For America web team set out to redesign the public site in 2010, the organization was simultaneously reconsidering the brand's personality, the core values, and the visual signal. With so much in flux the team might have chosen to delay the project, but that would have been a huge mistake. Kristin Hodgson will explain why a transitional time presents the perfect opportunity to undertake a content strategy implementation.

October 14-15, 2011
Injured Cities: Urban Afterlives Full Conference, Columbia University, New York
Sponsored by the Engendering Archives Project of the Center for the Critical Analysis of Social Difference, this conference is convened on the tenth anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001. In a series of presentations and conversations, an international group of artists, writers, activists and individuals directly affected by urban injury will imagine creative modes of reinvention in response to urban disaster. Together our participants ask, what are the effects of catastrophe on cities, their inhabitants, and the larger world? How can we address the politics of terror with which states react to their vulnerability? What enduring wounds does catastrophe leave on urban life, and how can they be mobilized and transformed in the aftermath of injury to enable the imagination of new modes of social life and to thwart impending forms of social death?

October 15, 2011
New York Anime Festival - New York Comic Con, Javitz Center, New York

October 6, 2011, 2:00-4:30pm
GISMO General Meeting, Fund for the City of New York, New York

October 3-7, 2011
InterOp, Javitz Center, New York

September 22, 2011
AIIM Content Management Bootcamp, Roosevelt Hotel, New York

September 21, 2011, 10-11am
The Power of Many: The STC in the Age of Social Media, Earley Associates' Webinar
Until recently, professional societies like the Society for Technical Communication were the default option for on-going networking and continuing education.

Social media has since provided alternatives to the professional society. Does this make professional societies less relevant? Or perhaps more relevant? And how are professional societies changing to better meet the needs of their members and the profession?

In this Webinar, Society for Technical Communication Vice President Alan Houser and The Content Wrangler's Scott Abel will discuss your options for plugging into social networks and professional societies in the field of technical communication, how you can make the best choices among the available options, and how you can use these relationships to advance your career and contribute to the profession.

September 19, 2011
Institute of Medicine, FHI 360 Conference, Grand Hyatt, New York
What's Next? How Can Countries Lead the Way and Engage Cross-Sectoral Partners in the Control of Noncommunicable Diseases?

September 15, 2011, 6-8pm
Urban Design Week Launch, BMW Guggenheim Labs, Houston Street at 2nd Ave, New York
For its By the City/For the City project, the Institute for Urban Design gathered hundreds of design challenges from New York residents and invited designers to develop proposals addressing these ideas. Now, join the Institute as it launches the first-ever Urban Design Week festival (September 15-20) with the announcement of the By the City/For the City competition winners at the BMW Guggenheim Lab. The evening will also feature the launch of An Atlas of Possibility for the Future of New York, a new publication based on By the City/For the City that presents a collective portrait of how we imagine the city's future.

September 11, 2011, 4-6pm
September 11th Observance, Office of Emergency Management, Brooklyn, New York
Open House at OEM with members of the 9/11 rescue, response and recovery teams. At the time, since I had small children at home, I was a remote recruiter for volunteers from the GIS community. Currently, working with GISMO and OEM friends on developing a 9/11 GeoSymposium and Design Challenge to be launched in November.

August 20, 2011
Architecture for Everyone, BMW Guggenheim Lab, New York
Cities exist to bring people together, but cities can also keep people apart. From "no loitering" signs to racial steering to beach badges, our cities are full of devices meant to disperse and divide citizens along race, class, and age lines. (Reminded me of a downtown mall in Memphis with rules that said "no baggy jeans" among other prohibitions.)

August 18, 2011
NYC IxDA Summer Social, New York
Thursday, 7pm at Shake Shack, Madison Square Park, Manhattan.

August 17, 2011
NYC Arc User Group Happy Hour, New York
Wednesday, 7pm at the Brass Monkey. 55 Little West 12th Str, Manhattan.

August 12-14, 2011
AnimeConSoho, New York
AnimeConSoho Soho Gallery for Digital Art. Manga film, meager snacks, a fairly nice basement bazaar and lots of fun for the kids. Pictures on Facebook.

July 27-30, 2011
VSA Partners, Chicago
IA Institute would like to offer a big thanks to David Zerlin at VSA Partners in Chicago for hosting me during my visit. Following up on some fantastic connections (TBA), and mentoring ideas from my new friend Carlos Manalo. I popped in for the CCIM meetup hosted by Judi Wunderlich. Great to see you, Judi!

June 29 to July 10, 2011
Hawaii!!!

June 4, 2011
Dean's Day, Columbia College, New York
Looking forward to "Are We Ready? Disaster Management 101," with Feniosky Peña-Mora, Dean, The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, and on a similar though perhaps a more remote worry, "Frontiers of Science: Of Dinosaurs and Meteorites: An Appreciation for Rare Events," with Peter deMenocal '92 GSAS, professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

June 6-13, 2011
Internet Week, New York
I was particularly interested in Nicholas Kristof's presentation on June 7, 11am, covering how the Internet and social media have led revolutions and sparked change around the world. The NYC media office's presentation on the Digital Roadmap prompted me to write a blog post about how to address accessibility gaps

June 17, 2011
NYCArc Users Group Symposium, New York
For information about the symposium agenda keep watching the NYCArc User Group on Yahoo!

May 18, 2011
War Horse, Lincoln Center, New York
Gallop NYC has acquired a block of premium orchestra tickets for the smash hit 'War Horse' at Lincoln Center, on May 18th, 2011. Tickets are: $150 each.

May 18, 2011
GISMO General Meeting, New York
Fund for the City of New York, 121 Sixth Avenue, Sixth Floor, New York, NY

Upcoming GISMO Meetings (Wednesday afternoons 2:00-4:30 PM, doors open at 1:45): July 27
September 21
November 30

May 17, 2011
Columbia College Class Day Parade, New York
I will again be representing my college class year at the Columbia College Class Day Parade.

May 10, 2011
Enterprise Search Summit 2011, New York
ENTERPRISE SEARCH SUMMIT is a highly intense, in-depth, 2-day conference that covers how to develop, implement and enhance cutting-edge internal search capabilities. If you are an information manager or IT or search professional, ENTERPRISE SEARCH SUMMIT is where you will learn strategies and build the skill sets you need to make your organization's content not only searchable but "findable" and actionable so that it delivers value to the bottom line. IA Institute Board member, Shari Thurow, and I will represent the IA Institute at this premier conference on enterprise search.

May 5, 2011
LIGIS Spring Conference, Brookhaven National Labs, Long Island

April 13, 2011
NY Metro Infragard Security Summit on Cloud Computing, New York

March 31, 2011
Information Architecture Institute's Annual Members' Meeting, Denver
The IA Institute's Annual Members' Meeting will be held on August 31st from 8-9pm at the Wynkoop Brewing Company, 1634 18th Street, Denver, CO. Come and learn about what the Institute has accomplished in the past year and plans for the future.

March 30-April 3, 2011
Information Architecture Summit Denver, CO
"Asking Better Questions" is an invitation for the community to challenge assumptions about the role of information architecture in how we conceive experiences, create products, study people and understand the world. I helped plan/participated in:

March 29, 2011
Columbia College Women Negotiation Tips Panel, New York
Columbia College Women presents a panel discussing some of the most provocative issues relating to women in the workplace today will be explored by a panel of successful and inspirational women, including:

March 23, 2011
GISMO General Meeting
Presentation by Alan Leidner, Information Exchange Broker for the Northeast Region/DHS Office of Infrastructure Protection (via Booz Allen Hamilton). The DHS Office of Infrastructure Protection (IP) is making data, applications and websites available to state and local government agencies with a public safety mission. THE DHS IP strategy employs geospatial tools to ensure the safety of this Nation's critical infrastructure. Alan will demonstrate DHS Earth and share examples of security studies that show how inter-governmental data sharing yields better analysis and results.
2011 GISMO meeting schedule (Wednesday afternoons 2:00-4:30 PM, doors open at 1:45): May 18, July 27, September 21, November 30

March 10, 2011
IA Meetup, New York
It was a dark and stormy night, but I managed to meet up with four intrepid IA enthusiasts at Sweet & Vicious in Soho.

March 8, 2011
GALLOP Spring Fundraiser, Brooklyn
GALLOP—Giving Alternative Learners Uplifting Opportunities, Inc.—provides therapeutic horseback riding to people in New York City, using interaction with horses to promote the growth of functional and mental abilities in a safe, supportive and fun manner. GALLOP bases its program on good horsemanship, sound riding principles, and therapeutic riding and hippotherapy standards that are approved by the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA).

February 2-6, 2011
IA Institute Strategy Meeting, Reykjavik