Community

I just finished a piece of work I’m quite proud of - a redesign of the Murrumbateman community website (this is my local physical community).

I’ve evolved this site over the last few years, adding in new events as they came up, changing the html structure for each as I built it and other things that were getting hard to manage.

So I rebuilt it with a consistent approach and styles and redesigned the home page and community section.

Next job is to rebuild it into a CMS and hand authorship out to the members…

I am so proud to be a part of WIPA - the Web Industry Professionals Association (of Australia). While we launched the association late last year, today we launched a new website and the ability to join as a member.

Here’s our official announcement:

The new WIPA site was launched today.

The recently established Web Industry Professionals Association (WIPA) aims to foster the development of the Web Industry in Australia and provide forums where people who work in all the different facets of the industry can come together and exchange ideas.

Australian web professionals can now join WIPA through the new site.

WIPA is not just for one web practice or section of the industry. WIPA is for all web professionals in Australia including, designers, content writers, information architects, usability and accessibility specialists, web developers, interface developers, online content producers etc. In short, anyone who works in the business and who has an interest in discussing, promoting and improving the work we do.

WIPA is a not for profit association incorporated in NSW. Although the incorporation is in NSW, the association is committed to promoting and representing the work of web professionals throughout Australia. As a clear demonstration of this commitment, the Association Rules provide for representation on the Management Committee from all States and Territories with more than 5 WIPA Members. Also, the position of Vice-President is reserved for a person who does not live in NSW. The current WIPA Management Committee has members from the ACT, NSW and Victoria.

There is a variety of other web-related groups in Australia including, the Web Standards Group, Usability Professionals Association, Oz-IA, AWIA, Mobile Monday and AIMIA. WIPA aims to work cooperatively with all other groups in helping to develop a cohesive and sustainable web industry in Australia.

For more information about WIPA and to join the association visit
http://wipa.org.au/

So please come join us - I think together we can do amazing things for the Australian web industry.

I’ve been working flat out as program chair for the IA Summit. So much has happened in the past few weeks:

• The new website is up (and looks fabulous)
• The conference program is available (check out the pre-conference workshops too)
• Registration is open
• Hotel booking is open
• The blog is ready to go

And I think it is time to have a rest.

(Of course, none of this is my work alone - just look at how many people are involved.)

Technorati tag: IASummit2007

My other exciting news - this week I was voted on to the board of the IAI (Information Architecture Institute). I’m very much looking forward to this - it is a great organisation full of smart, passionate people and I feel completely honoured to be able to be a board member for the next two years.

Here is some exciting news - a new organisation called the Web Industry Professionals Association (of Australia). At this point in time I can imagine a lot of great things could come from a group like this, particularly if we can manage to harness some great volunteer energy. Congratulations!