Review of “Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy”

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Scott Smith

(Spoiler Alert: Regardless of your level of experience, or organizational role; if you create, edit, approve, or publish content, you will  like this book.  If you publish to multiple devices/browsers, or if you translate your content into multiple languages, you will CHERISH  this book.)

Several years ago, a client of mine was undergoing an extensive feasibility study for an enterprise content management solution. Though I wasn’t heavily involved in that project, I casually mentioned to a friend on the ECM team that I was reading a book called “Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy” by Ann Rockley. I enthusiastically recommended the book to her. She borrowed my copy for the afternoon and later bought a copy for herself.

Within a few weeks, I was able to identify members of the project team in the hallway because they were all carrying a laptop  in one hand and and a copy of “Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Strategy” in the other. The book became a primary resource for the project’s documentation and planning, and a key go-to reference for questions by stakeholders. One of the things that was most intriguing about Rockley’s book was that it discussed the merits of single-sourcing and managing content at component level (rather than storage of whole documents) to help to guard against the content silo trap.

In my past several client engagements, I have been working on the technical services side of the fence, primarily in SharePoint. For many months, I have been working to re-aquaint myself with content strategy. Frankly, the current state of content industry now seems so complex that it makes me queasy.

Consider how many devices (iPhone, Android, and other smart phones….) and new browsers (Chrome, Firefox...) have surfaced in the past few years. The reinvention of publishing industry has resulted in an onslaught of proprietary e-book formats (iBook, Kindle, Nook…). Furthermore, organizations are expected to publish content in multiple languages. When you tally up, the devices, browsers, languages and media (don’t forget paper!), you are talking about dozen (and dozens…) of publishing channels.  The threat of content-siloing is greater than ever.

Thankfully, there is a second edition of “Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy.” As if it weren’t enough to have Ann Rockley and Charles Cooper as the authors, this book features contributions and contributions industry stars such as Rahel Anne Bailie, Scott Abel, Derek Olson,  Mark Lewis, and many others. Make no mistake, this team-up is the content industry’s equivalent of “The Avengers.” This book will help you to move away from working harder, to making your content “smarter.”

Unlike other reference books that have the feel of an infomercial for particular devices or software platforms, this book is centered on developing unified content strategy that fits your organization. This book will help you to identify your organization’s pain points and develop tight plans to redesign your organization’s workflows, and to develop, modular, well-described, reusable “intelligent content.” This will allow you to better inform, and engage your customers regardless of their preferred device or operating system. Your content will become “future-proof.”

It’s become something of a clichÁ© for reviews of reference books to include the phrase “…avoids jargon…” This book does NOT do that. Instead, it helps the readers, of all experience levels, to EMBRACE industry-standard terminology.

You will not be involved in any current-day discussion about content without bumping into terms like DTD, EPUB, SCORM or DITA. Rockley and Cooper provide gentle indoctrinations into industry-standard concepts and has an exhaustive glossary, which will allow team members (from disparate professional histories) to better collaborate on projects.

The book also includes a detailed checklist for implementing your unified content strategy. This alone is an invaluable reference as your content teams navigate the course of you transition to single-sourced, intelligent content.

Regardless of your role in a content project, I highly recommend that you get your hands on this this book (available in NOOK, Kindle, iBook…….and don’t forget paper!)

Posted in CM, DAM. ECM..., Invisible Fist | Tagged , , , | 22 Comments

Trayvon Martin And The Demise of Critical Thinking

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Scott Smith

Is the Trayvon Martin case something that is being discussed in your classrooms, your offices, or in your homes?

I have been paying a lot of attention to this story, for several reasons, including that Sanford, Florida is my hometown. I wasn’t there all that long, I went to high school at Crooms Academy and Seminole High School and lived there for a short time after college. Though my parents lived there until their deaths,  so I went back often.

Sanford has a history of racism, that is a fact. Whether, or not,  there were racial motivations that led to the young man’s shooting by the neighborhood watch captain is opinion.

I learned the difference between fact and opinion in third grade. It seems that very few  people bother to make the distinction anymore.

Like everybody else I have my opinions, about racism, gun laws, and just about everything else. I have no problem discussing these issues with anybody. However, in regards to the questions about the facts of this shooting, I can only say: I don’t know because I was not there.

I didn’t know these people, I am not going to comment on their motivations or actions.

It’s bothersome that people are so quick to cut and paste text/pictures from the Internet and disperse them among their social networks.  No qualifiers such as “alleged” no attributions, no fact-checking. I am disgusted by the people who make up their own facts; or doctor photos to suit their own purposes.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the comments section of news sites. The organization’s political leanings (sorry  “alleged” leanings) are irrelevant. You can go to MSNBC, or Fox; Rush Limbaugh or MotherJones.

You’re likely  to see claims that a security video will show that George Zimmerman acted in self-defense, after Trayvon Martin brutally assaulted him. You’re also likely to also see claims that Zimmerman, hunted down a defenseless Martin and shot him in cold blood.

I don’t know. I wasn’t there. Neither were Sean Hannity, or Al Sharpton. Neither were you.

Discussion about racism, gun control, politics aside, I think something that Trayvon Martin case has made evident is that we (the US, the world)  have a severe critical thinking deficit.

Hard to say if this is an Internet-enabled, deficit, or if the Internet has just made the problem more obvious. Computers allow us to create misinformation, faster than ever; and the Internet  allows us to share mistakes and distortions with more people.

I guess I could write a meme, such as “Think Before You ‘Like’ ” or “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drink and Paste” and put it on my Facebook status with “Repost if you agree.” As you probably already know……97% of Facebook users won’t repost it.

I think our likely destiny is that the we are heading toward an endemic of Pierre Salinger Syndrome, where a claim on the Internet is automatically assumed to be true. Because it’s on the Internet.

One thing is clear, people need to quit blaming the media. We are the media now.

 

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The Kindness of Strangers

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Scott Smith

Unlike Blanche Dubois, I haven’t always depended on the kindness of strangers, though I am not opposed to the kindness of strangers, if their kindness makes sense in which the kindness is offered.

Like the times that the person in the checkout line spies my gallon of milk and pack of spinach and says “Oh, why don’t you go ahead of me?” Thus, I don’t have to linger behind them as they scan a month supply of dried goods. Such incidents seem to be fewer and farther between as the years go by.

Or last year when the person parked next to us at the Christmas tree farm offered to give me a bungee cord so that I could better secure the sawed-off Douglas fir in the trunk of my Honda. That level of generosity was of such a high magnitude when the metal hook became unfastened and ripped a generous chunk of tissue from from head, I whispered the reflexive cuss-words, instead of shouting them out, audible across all of Kent county.

Moments such as these are  usually uplifting, though seldom life-changing.

Though one day later, I’m still measuring the gravity of a comment  that a gentleman, also a vet of the Chicago advertising market, wrote in response to a post I’d made in on Linkedin discussion group several months ago. Here is an excerpt of the what he told me:

I, too, resided in the ad universe and was intrigued by your Google+ post. I just wanted to weigh in that it was a wonderfully written proposal and very substantive in your arguments.

It was one of the most uplifting experiences I’ve had in a while. Enough so that after a long hiatus,  I began discussing the concept with friends and acquaintances (both new and ‘auld’) in grocery stores, at the gym, on Facebook. Heck, I event sat down to blog about it.

The post he is referring to is a post that I’d made on Google+ well over six months ago for my “accessible reality” concept. In recognition, that the whole world is NOT on G+, I wrote a post on my blog, which include my G+ proposal, some months ago.

I have been contracting out SharePoint skills for the past year at a client, and I have admittedly been spending a lot less time on my idea. Though, after reading that gentleman’s comment, I have concluded some  things:

  1.  In the past year, Baby Boomers and senior citizens have not gotten any younger and product labels are still damn-hard to read. There is still an enormous opportunity for Accessible Reality.
  2. I really need to get busy refreshing the conversations with friends and acquaintances  who have transitions to new jobs, with new client lists.
  3. I need to gain feedback from strangers; whether it is kind or not.
  4.  I will  to remind myself of all the positive input that I have had on this area from friends, acquaintances  and strangers.  Most importantly I need to remember the phone conversation in which a  former colleague concluded that “….this is a shit-hot idea!”
  5. And as much as I feel awkward with the elevator pitch. I recognize the need to tighten mine up and be prepared to constantly refine it. I will also have an alternative pitch when taking the stairs, probably with fewer words to allow for the occasional huff and puff.

I am looking  forward to future conversations on this front and wishing all of my friends, acquaintances, and strangers a shit-hot 2012.

 

 

Posted in Accessible Reality | Tagged | 14 Comments

What Do You Do?

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Scott Smith

I try to take the stairs when I can.

I think the negative side-effect of taking the stairs is that I suffer from deficiencies in my elevator pitch. Perhaps, I am not as practiced at that art as I would be if I took the elevator more often. If you don’t take the stairs at all, you are probably much better at elevator pitches than I am.

Usually when I am in an elevator,the extent of the conversation  is “Can you push ‘7’ for me?”.  Though there is something about a coat, and/or a tie, that prompts people to think that they have the right to ask, “What  do you?”

I am not sure why people assume that if you’re wearing a coat and/or tie that you probably do SOMETHING, or that if you’re attired in a Red Sox hat and  shorts you probably don’t do anything.

I struggle with the question  “Scott, what do you do?” I wish that “It’s complicated,” were an acceptable answer to that question, as it is when people describe their relationship status on Facebook.

Though I think my biggest barrier to  my response is that I was humbled to be in the presence of  the greatest elevator pitch in networking history.

Decades ago,  I returned to Gainesville a few months after having graduated from the University of Florida. Eventually I took a position with a local radio station. The title on my card said “Account Executive” which seemed to generate more confusion than clarity.

During that time, I attended a March of Dimes fundraiser and  I intentionally didn’t hand out cards, because I didn’t want anybody to see my title. Thus, I was able to succinctly and irrefutably satisfy the inquiries with “I sell ads for KISS 105 FM.”

Though one gentleman was persistent and soon everybody wanted a card, and  I found myself repeatedly dipping into my pocket. That was all she wrote.

I fell into a trap of continually explaining that  “No, Account Executives don’t do accounting….”

Weary of trying to explain what I did, I turned to a gentleman who was in the current chat-circle. I didn’t know him, but his facial features were somewhat-familiar and the surname on his name tag was even more so. I asked him, “So, what do you Neil?”

He seemed surprised, but quickly answered:

“Oh, I’m George Bush’s son.”

Succinct. Irrefutable.

True, the response might have been better suited to a questions like “What’s your name?” or even “Who’s your Daddy…is he rich like me?”

But his response obliterated any aspirations that the  crowd  had of asking further questions. Nobody dared to inquire how much that job paid, or whether they were hiring.

It was over in less than three seconds, though  it was so beautiful in its parsimony and clarity that the mere  memory of the moment turns my knees gelatinous. Truly the gold standard of elevator pitches. I knew then that I could never love another. Nor would  my own elevator pitch ever feel adequate.

By the way, what do you do?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Invisible Fist | Tagged , | 22 Comments