For the price of a cup of coffee you can help IxDA deliver our next-generation platform to serve the needs of the interaction design community. We can’t do it without your help.
Since its inception as a mailing list in 2003, IxDA now supports over 10,000 discussion list subscribers, 80 IxDA Local Groups from around the world, an annual conference (with a regional conference on the way in South America), several budding community initiatives and over 12,000 people affiliated via LinkedIn. Despite our ambitions, our current technology infrastructure is no longer able to support our needs, nor expand to meet our future ones.
You have the opportunity to expand IxDA’s capability to provide the next-generation website that will take us beyond the mailing list of today. We aim to develop a solid, extensible platform for our community of practice to meet and enrich one another and grow the discipline. IxDA has chosen Drupal as the technology framework for our new infrastructure. The Drupal framework will allow the IxDA community to grow and thrive with improved digital communications capabilities, easy sharing and searching of all types of content, local group sites, and member profiles. However, we can’t build the new website ourselves. This is where your financial support is crucial.
I am IxDA. You are, too. Without the generous contributions, participation and support of the interaction design community, IxDA wouldn’t be where it is today. IxDA is a member-supported organization, not a membership-supported organization, so we collect no dues. You are a member if you say you are. It’s that simple. Beyond the generous contribution of volunteer time, financially this means we rely heavily on revenue-generating events like our annual conference and on fundraising efforts such as this, which we haven’t held since 2007.
Our goal is to collect $30,000 over the next four days, until June 26th. Ambitious, I know, but not impossible. Consider this: If 10,000 subscribers contributed $3, a fancy cup of coffee in some parts, we’d be done. Or 1,000 contributed $30, often less than a good book these days. If you gain anything from IxDA, won’t you please give a little back? No amount is too big or small. As a thank you to all that contribute, we will hold a drawing each day and select one name to receive a complimentary registration to interaction’10, being held in Savannah, GA next February! (Note: Each day starts at 12:01 am GMT. No IxDA Board Members are eligible for the drawing. All registrations are transferable but not eligible for cash exchange.)
how much are people giving?
Tell the community that you’re supporting IxDA!
Retweet your support:
I’m giving a little back
How the money will be spent:
We want to be able to select a highly qualified development partner who can help sustain our organizational growth over the long term. The funds gathered will be used to build, deploy and maintain the new website. Any funds not used in the current round of development will be used for ongoing website support and development. You can expect updates throughout the build process for how things are progressing. Our goal is to have the first phase of work done by this Fall.
On behalf of the IxDA Board of Directors and all who care about this community, I thank you!
Janna DeVylder, President, IxDA
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Hi Janna,
Finally found the link that enables us to donate. A couple of problems you should take care of ASAP.
First, when reading to the bottom of the page, the donation box at the right is no longer visible. You need a big donation link INSIDE your text and at the bottom of the screen – not just links to Twitter and such.
Second, we’re about to make a corporate donation, not a private one. Your form does not allow us to enter the name of our company.
Third, in general, we’re always tempted to give more if we know that our donation will be acknowledge in some way. Apparently, there will be no public thanks for any contribution.
Fourth, I have no idea from the above text how you plan to spend this money. What is a “qualified development partner”? A web house? A business manager? Considering that your site actually works (as opposed to that of the IAI), I’m surprised you guys want to screw around with it. And I’m shocked that it’s going to cost USD 30K – surely there are volunteers for this kind of thing.
Just my 2 cents.
Cheers,
Eric Reiss
Hi Eric,
I’ll let Janna address the first three issues you raise. To the fourth one, we have posted numerous times over the past six months about the launch & progress of this infrastructure initiative, which is code-named Conan.
For more backstory, going back in time from today please see:
http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=43062#43062 (a recent post in response to a similar question about the why the fundraiser)
http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=42234#42234 (with the announcement of our RFP and access to various requirement documents)
http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=39726#39726 (announcing our selection of Drupal)
http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=39312#39312 (posting our membership survey results about the current site)
In short, our current system works but is not seen as stable & reliable, nor it it scalable. It lacks robust search and has no way to easily support local groups being self-sufficient and connected to IxDA global. We’ve got a large team of volunteers on board for requirements definition and interaction design, but we intend — for the good of our organization — to utilize professionals for areas outside our core competency, namely, development.
Thanks for your support, and we appreciate this chance to add more visibility to our efforts and decision-making process.
Btw, we’re now also collaborating with IAI and UPA on aspects of this system once we heard about UXnet’s plans for a new piece of UX infrastructure. We’re proud of being open, transparent and collaborative — even if we’re making it up as we go along, just like everybody else!
Cheers,
Liz
Hi Liz,
Alas, I had missed or ignored the announcements about Conan – this is a low interest area for me. But on a page like this, I would have thought that some kind of summary would be appropriate. I’ve apparently missed mention of this on the IAI list, too. So the conclusion must be that I am simply not proactive enough in my information seeking behaviour. And since I still don’t know exactly what a “qualified business partner” is, I guess I’ll have to dig some more if I really want to know.
I look forward to hearing Janna’s answers to the first three questions.
Cheers,
Eric
Hi Janna,
Just curious, is this an open bid or you already have chosen the software provider?
I think a lot of organizations and non-profits would benefit from hearing about the process and results of your efforts. Has there been thought to perhaps publish some of the strategy and documentation of the project?
Chick Foxgrover
I have already donated some money but am unwilling to donate more until there is some transparency.
Who has been shortlisted to help? Considering $30,000 has been asked for, it would only be fair to let everyone know who are the external parties involved with Conan. Are there wire frames available on what the site would look like?
I’m sure a few purse strings would get looser when there’s more transparency considering that less than 10% of the registered members on the site have contributed.
I wish the Conan project success but the lack of transparency is puzzling.
We are very thankful for everyone’s support. Here is one of several announcements and posts about the project and what it supports. Look at Liz Bacon’s second response to this topic at the link provided. Apologies this was not posted in context with the call for support:
http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=43056
I wasn’t aware of these additional comments, and wanted to emphasize again that we are being highly transparent. See principally:
http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=42234#42234 (with the announcement of our RFP and access to various requirement documents)
The key issues underlying the perceived lack of transparency is that IxDA infrastructure is fragmented, the discussion traffic is overwhelming, and findability of information is poor. Addressing all of these matters is a goal of the new system.
We will be publishing wireframes shortly for community feedback. Stay tuned and thanks again for everybody’s support.
Cheers,
Liz
[...] was one of the lucky winners of this book from Morgan Kaufmann after I donated some money to the IxDA fundraising initiative. After turning in my MSc Project dissertation, I finally had some time to catch a breath. [...]
Hello,
Only joining in the last couple of months, I tried to donate from the link, but seems the Year field of the credit card expiration piece wouldn’t hold the information, registering an incomplete data error.
Is there another way I can do this?
Thank you,
Toni Taylor