Welcome
Why a web site?
I maintain my loyalty to the institutions that support my career but wanted to have a platform for some ideas that did not necessarily reflect the same priorities or emphasis in the institutions. Many of the views that you will find expressed on this site - and in my book Information Architecture with XML - are shared in the European Parliament but do not necessarily reflect an institutional vision.
I have been lucky in that my professional life has been immensely varied, and this has helped to formulate many of my views and hone my commitment to public, open, data standards. Many of the ideas I promote have certainly arisen and evovled as a result of my experiences working with European Union institutions, but they nonetheless are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of these institutions, or indeed engage their responsibility.
This site contains information about my work - professional, academic and personal - and about the themes in which I'm interested. The whole is underpinned by a common theme: that of so-called "Information Architecture".
Why Information Architecture?
In designing this site, I have applied certain principles that I have espoused in my book Information Architecture with XML - A Management Strategy: essentially, that the key to good information design is to concentrate initial efforts on just that - design - and only start working with the technology when certain important policies have been settled.Imagine a house designed by electricians, plumbers and other craftspeople but without an architect. The result will be unpredictable: different crafts have their own idea of what's important and what is expedient. An occupier, on the other hand, will hand to be sure that all wiring and plumbing is out of sight, that safety regulations are complied with, that it is aesthetic and practical. The occupier may not know how to build the house, but will know why and what they want. Something is needed between the expression of the future owner's needs and what is technically possible. That is the role of architecture.
So too, therefore, is it with information architecture. Technologists are expert in their particular fields of technology deployment and use, but they can often fall short in the expectations and priorities of the information owners. Designing for the owners, rather than being driven by the technologies, is the key challenge of information architecture. Read more...