What is the goal of the new aia.org Web site?
As the primary public communications vehicle for the American Institute of Architects, aia.org demonstrates the valuable role of the AIA architect in serving clients and communities. The new site delivers a consistent, cohesive online experience for members and others. Take a tour of the Web site.
These changes are being implemented in three phases.
Phase One, introduced in February 2009, offers a new look, streamlined navigation, and reliable search capability as well as the largest available knowledge repository for the profession. These fundamental enhancements provide the tools and resources AIA members need to enhance their careers and practices. Phase One introduces the new AIA homepage and main sub-pages, with content that i focused on the practice of architecture, education, becoming an architect, advocacy, industry tools, and events. This streamlined site architecture combined with a robust, content-area-wide search capability will enhance your user experience.
Two exciting new features of the integrated Web site focus on project work of significance as well as individual members, inviting them to share their experiences and work with other members.. First, a Member Spotlight located on the home page features the accomplishments of a member, including video or audio interviews and related content about that member or their projects.
Second, a Project Showcase emphasizes outstanding work being done by a member. Projects will be selected from those submitted by members. The public, members, and others will periodically be invited to vote for projects. The projects receiving the most votes will be featured throughout the Web site; one project will be showcased on the homepage. For more, see “What is Project Showcase?” below.
Additional enhancements and features are planned throughout the year. In May, Phase Two will integrate a new web-based association management system into aia.org. This association management system has online membership tools including a streamlined process for membership application and renewal, individual profile tools, improved E-commerce capability and functionality, and integrated events calendars for all AIA components and collateral organizations. Additionally, Phase Two provides expanded layers in Google Earth and increased content in the Google 3D Warehouse.
Phase Three is planned for the third quarter this year, and users will find additional sub-sites and expanded content in areas related to Knowledge Communities, sustainability, integrated practice delivery, and How Design Works. The additional content merged with Phase One design and structure, is intended to improve the overall AIA web site experience.
In addition, the AIA will continue to expand its offerings to include RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds for content, blogs, and more, so users get alerts to most recently posted information. Multimedia content and distribution channels will continue to expand as the site grows throughout the year. The AIA will continue to expand its offerings via podcast and video, ensuring that the content is available on iTunes, YouTube, Flickr, and social networking media like LinkedIn and Facebook, to reach users through media they already use while promoting AIA architects to the general public.
What are the browser requirements?
The Web site supports all browsers, but IE 7, Safari, and Firefox provide the best results.
What does the redesigned AIA Web page mean for search results?
The reformatted AIA Web page allows you to narrow search results for specific aia.org pages. During the next phases, further refinements are planned, so the search results screen better identifies and refines the aia.org content.
How do I find information on the new site?
Please refer to the site map for help on finding specific areas on the new site. Use the ‘search’ box in the top right-hand corner to search for content on the site. One of the Phase One enhancements is improved search capability because of a disciplined approach that requires all content on the site to be appropriately tagged for optimal search retrieval.
What is Architect’s Knowledge Resource?
The Architect’s Knowledge Resource (AKR, formerly known as SOLOSO) is a knowledge repository of information for the architecture profession. AKR information, content, and services are easy to find and locate throughout the Web site. As a member of the AIA, when you contribute to AKR, you take advantage of an opportunity to contribute high-quality, authoritative content that is also available to the AIA membership base of more than 84,000 colleagues and professionals. All of the content submitted to the AKR is vetted through a review process with clear procedures and policies.
Who can sign in to AKR?
You must be a member of the AIA to sign in to AKR. To find out more about membership in the AIA, go to the Join page.
How do I sign in to the site?
To access member-only content and tools, you need the e-mail address and password you use to access the member-only portion of aia.org. Your username is your e-mail address. The default password is your last name capitalized appropriately. The password must be at least six characters long. If your last name is fewer than six characters, apply the first digits of your member number to the end of your last name. All AIA member numbers start with 30. For example, if your last name is Smith, your password could be Smith3.
What should I do if I forgot my username and/or password?
If you have difficulty signing in, please contact AIA Information Central at infocentral@aia.org or 800-242-3837 from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST.
How do I create a profile?
You must be a member of the AIA and be signed in to the site in order to create a profile. Once you have successfully signed in, choose the Member Profile link on the AKR landing page. Your profile will automatically be created and you can update it.
How do I add content to the site?
You must be a member of the AIA and signed in to the site to add content. Once signed in, choose the Member Profile link on the AKR landing page, then pick the Contributions tab. Select either New Project Profile Submission or New Individual Item Submission.
How do I rate and review content?
You must be a member and signed in to Architect’s Knowledge Resource (AKR) to rate and/or write a review. You can rate and review content by selecting Write a Review at the bottom of the page or on the right hand side of the page near the starred rating system.
How do I add margin notes to an article?
You must be a member of the AIA and signed in to the site to add margin notes. Margin bubbles appear to the right of every paragraph in an article. Click on the corresponding bubble for the paragraph where you would like to comment. A margin window will open where you can read other member comments. To add your comments, select Add Comments in the upper right hand corner. If no comments exist, the margin bubble will show a plus (+) sign and automatically open to the Add Comments screen.
Why is the AIA logo placed next to some of the content on the site?
The AIA logo identifies content that has been published by the AIA. The Architect’s Knowledge Resource (AKR) is a tool that allows AIA members to upload their own content. Use of the AIA logo allows viewers to easily recognize which content pieces come directly from the AIA.
What is a content partnership?
The Architect’s Knowledge Resource (AKR) features content partners that help diversify and enrich the knowledge available through the site. Content partners are organizations that have given permission for us to link to specific areas of their Web sites that are rich in architectural content. This allows our search engine to do a running index (full word search) of the partner site with scheduled checks for new posted content. The resulting list of content partner information will be displayed in the AKR search results screen. When the results are opened, you will see the item in the context of the content partner organization’s Web site.
This feature highlights AIA architects’ first-person insights on their career or design decisions demonstrating depth of experience and knowledge to the entire architectural community and the public.
What is the Project Spotlight?
This feature highlights completed projects of significance that will receive well deserved visibility through aia.org as well as AIA You Tube channel, AIA Flickr, Linked-In, and Facebook group.
The notable aspects of a project can be a result of design, location, siting, materials, craft, feeling, or association with individuals or events.
How do I participate in the Project Spotlight?
All project profiles in the AKR are eligible for the Showcase. AIA members may participate by signing in and submitting project images and information to the AKR.
What are the selection criteria for the members who appear in the homepage banners
The new AIA Web site offers a venue for architects to share their knowledge and expertise in the following ways:
Projects
The quality of significance/notoriety in architecture is determined by many aspects. These aspects can be design, location, siting, materials, craft, feeling, or association with individuals or events. For the purposes of Project Showcase, the following criteria are used for selection:
(a) The architecture embodies distinguishing characteristics of:
- Typology
- Representation of a particular style or period
- Materials and methods of construction
- Represent the work of a highly skilled practitioner
- Possess artistic values
- Represents a significant and distinguishable part of an ensemble, e.g., streetscape
(b) Architecture that is associated with events that have made a major contribution to the history of an area or region
(c) Architecture that is associated with the lives of significant persons
(d) Architecture that has yielded, or likely to yield, information important in the evolution of design, building technology, or practice methods.
Individuals
In general, the person featured in the Member Spotlight is someone whose accomplishments have changed the profession of architecture or the built environment beyond normal participation within the design disciplines. This participation has resulted in the following contributions or advancements:
- Design: Architecture, Urban Design, or Preservation
The person has been responsible for contributions to design work contributions that are recognized by others as having an impact at the national, regional, state, and local level. This may include realization of built works, publication, sharing of expertise, teaching, lecturing, speaking, writing, or community involvement. - Education: Educator, Researcher, Writing, or Practice
The person has played a role in educating people at the national, regional, state, or local level awards to the value of design and the related process. This can be through research leadership, accomplishments in literature or publications, advancing practice, and sharing their expertise. - Leadership: Led within one of the Institute’s Components or a Related Organization
This category includes activities within the AIA such as chairing a committee, held offices, or planned/executed an initiative. For a related organization the accomplishments contributed to the architecture profession and benefited AIA members. Also of note would be sharing of the individual’s expertise through teaching, lecturing, speaking, civic/community involvement where results achieved significant contributions to the public good. - Public Service: Government, Industry, or Organization
The individual has had a positive impact by their role in government (Federal, State, or Local service inside or outside of the U.S.) where the person went beyond the normal expectations of their job. - Generalist
These are people whose benevolent acts have positively contributed to, or influenced the built environment or the profession.
Tools
Members who use a device that aids in accomplishing a task. Selected tools are notable for either their ability to assist accomplishing a task or are mentioned because they represent a particular culture or stage of technological development. They fit into these categories:
- Computer Software (program): computer system-based tool developed to alleviate rudimentary tasks
- Computer Model: software developed to evaluate solutions prior to acceptance
- Assessment Matrix: tool developed to rank and order items/tasks/outcomes
- Vocabulary or Grammar: terms developed for techniques specific to the discipline
- Recipe (or general procedure): steps developed to achieve homogenous results
- Product: outcome developed either as a direct result or to achieve a desired result
- Design Guidelines: a statement/ policy regarding material and method relationships
- Architectural Program: a statement/policy regarding spatial relationships
- Policy (or policy recommendations): a course of action or guiding principal
- Checklist: a list to compare, schedule, verify or identify items or topics of discussion
- Code: a comprehensive and systematically arranged collection of regulations/laws
- Instructions: an authoritative direction and sequence
- Forms: documents with blanks for the insertion of details or information
Topics
Members associated or involved in subjects related to the mission of the AIA and fall into one or more categories. The topics can be about an issue, state of the art findings, historical account, social-cultural phenomenon, statistical findings, or general interest of the moment. The categories are:
- Technology: either information- or building science-related
- Environment: built, natural, or individual that make up a person’s technological and natural surroundings
- Ecology: the reciprocal actions and reactions of an entity and its environment
- Systems: a series or method of procedure regularly followed, characteristic of a technology, individual, or group.
- Optimization: discourse about a system, or process to seek the path of least resistance in achieving reliable operational capability
Review the AIA's Code of Ethics.
The term “blog” is a concatenation of the words web and log. A blog is a shared online journal where users can post their own opinions and read other users’ opinions, typically in reverse chronological order.
An AIA member or AIA affiliate who contributes content to the Architect’s Knowledge Resource (AKR) is considered a content contributor.
A domain is a province of thought, field of activity, range, or scope. AKR uses four domains—design, building performance, practice, and leadership—to deliver information in an organized manner.
Podcasts rely on RSS feeds as a form of promoting media in the form of audio and/or video. For design professionals, the AIA offers a podcast series that features interviews, discussions, and best practices by architects and other design professionals who are at the forefront of the profession. AIA podcasts can be downloaded via one of three media types: XML, iTunes, or MP3. Once downloaded, the media can be viewed or heard on a personal computer or a portable media player at the time and place of the viewer’s choosing.
RSS specifies a means for disseminating news and current events from web publisher to web user via “feeds,” or syndication, using XML language. RSS can be an abbreviation for one of three standards: Really Simple Syndication, RDF Site Summary, or Rich Site Summary.
When uploading content to AKR, the contributor identifies key terms from the taxonomy that relate to the subject matter and adds these terms to the profile, or metadata, of the content.
The AIA created an organizational system of more than 12,000 architecture-related terms to help users tag their content and search content housed in AKR. All 12,000 terms are organized in one of four domains: leadership, practice, building performance, or design. From the four domains, terms are organized by most general to most specific. The terms are based on a lexicon or spoken word dialect.
View an overview and explanation of the taxonomy.
View the complete taxonomy.