IA-64 has been a supported Debian architecture since Debian 3.0 (woody)
If you would like to help, start by subscribing to the debian-ia64 mailing list.
The normal Debian channels for acquiring installation media now include ia64 CD images.
Another possibility is to use one of the beta-release debian-installer images for ia64. This could be more of an adventure, but any problems you find and report will help Debian get debian-installer on ia64 tested and ready for the next stable Debian release!
It's possible that you may find an early ia64 machine that needs a BIOS upgrade to work well with Linux. One particular combination we've heard about is trying to run new kernels on "Lion" systems with really old BIOS versions. To try to make this easier, here's what we know about BIOS versions that work well for Debian on older ia64 systems:
Firmware downloads for HP systems are available starting HERE .
If anyone has information about suitable BIOS versions for other IA-64 systems that are successfully running Debian, let us know on the debian-ia64 list!
The instigators of the IA-64 port were Bdale Garbee and Randolph Chung. The best way to ask questions now is via the mailing list.
To subscribe to the mailing list for this port, send a message containing the word "subscribe" as the subject to debian-ia64-request@lists.debian.org to sign up, or use the list web page. You can also browse and search the list archive.