The Limits of Content Management Systems

The promise of content management systems as presently implemented in large corporations will never be fulfilled.

Albing, Bill. KeyContent.org (2004). Articles>Content Management

Localization of Single-Source Content  

One of the key motivators of adopting a single-source approach for documentation is the potential cost savings available through the reduced cost of translation. By consolidating multiple documents, version updates, and similar products, translations may be leveraged across components. By creating single-source content with translation in mind, authors are able to create documents that are easy to localize, increase consistency, and reduce costs. The article below provides a summary of the translation benefits of single-sourcing and offers advice for designing a single-source strategy from a localization perspective.

Jones, Adam. STC Proceedings (2002). Design>Language>Localization>Content Management

Making A Better CMS

Most open source content management software is useless. The only thing worse is every commercial CMS I've used. But it doesn't have to be that way.

Veen, Jeffrey. Adaptive Path (2004). Articles>Content Management

Making a Business Case for Single Sourcing  

As we learned in the February 2001 issue of Best Practices, in JoAnn Hackos' review of the book, The Balanced Scorecard, selling innovative ideas to upper management is important. The Balanced Scorecard approach includes a customer perspective, an internal-business-process perspective, and a learning and growth perspective, in addition to the financial perspective. A solid and balanced business case allows you to gain management support and reach your goal.

Center for Information-Development Management (2001). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Business Case

Making the Business Case for Single Sourcing  

Discusses ways to communicate the financial benefits, customer value, learning and growth opportunities, and internal process improvements made possible by single sourcing.

Hackos, JoAnn T. and Tina Hedlund. ComTech Services (2004). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Business Communication

Making The Move To Content Management: Five Stages Of Career Transition

Moving to content management is as large a paradigm shift as moving to the Web was during the 1990s. It's hard to remember how frustrated we were in dealing with non-linear text, the constraints of HTML, and writing in a less formal style. If the 90s was the decade of the Web, technical communication 2.0, this is the decade of content management. It's techcomm 3.0, and we're entering the field with an improved feature set. Soon we'll reflect on this time of change and say, 'I could never go back.'

Bailie, Rahel Anne. Rockley Bulletin (2006). Articles>Content Management

Making the Transition From Traditional Reference Manuals to Consumer-Oriented Alternatives  

As computers have evolved from limited-purpose, limited audience, multi-million dollar, room-sized machines to desktop machines with almost unlimited use, computer documentation has remained geared toward describing the technical attributes of software, not the use of the software. Increased competition, cost, and environmental considerations make it increasingly important to change from the paradigm of reference documentation to task-oriented documents and to consider all of the alternatives available. These include simple one-page cards, videos, online systems, and example-based user guides.

Leetham, Judith. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Managing and Delivering Your Content as Data  

Houser describes several options for organizations interested in data-oriented publishing--the delivery of discrete, independent pieces of information that can be selected, manipulated, and presented to meet the needs of different audiences with different characteristics and different goals.

Houser, Alan R. Intercom (2003). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing>XML

Managing Content Hypergrowth  

To cope with a flood of assets, site owners turn to content management software. As they outgrow their “home brew” solutions, they buy packaged applications -- even though today’s products are immature.

Dalton, John P., Harley Manning and Katharine M. Gardiner. Forrester Research (2001). Articles>Content Management>Workflow

Managing Content: Version Control in a Collaborative Workplace  

The increasingly collaborative nature of the workplace--including writing teams and documentation groups--heightens the need for sophisticated document management solutions. Written for managers of workgroups and writing/editorial leads, this paper examines some common issues, including version control, document lifecycle management, and support for collaborative authoring and review. This paper also presents a model for finding and implementing a technology solution that makes sense for your team, as well as a case study of a successful implementation.

Angier, Jenny and Paul Foy. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Content Management>Collaboration

Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy  

Today's businesses are overwhelmed with the need to create more content, more quickly, customized for more customers and for more media than ever before. Combine this with decreasing resources, time, and budgets and you have a stressful situation for organizations and their content creators. To reduce the costs of creating, managing, and distributing content and to ensure content effectively supports your organizational and customer needs, organizations can benefit from a unified content strategy. A unified content strategy is a repeatable method of identifying all content requirements up front, creating consistently structured content for reuse, managing that content in a definitive source, and assembling content on demand to meet your customers' needs.

Rockley, Ann. E-Doc (2002). Design>Content Management>Collaboration>Content Strategy

Managing Life Sciences Content

Life sciences have been called the least automated industry in the world, but some pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and healthcare-related organizations are working to dispel that image by implementing targeted content management solutions aimed at shortening the amount of time it takes to get new products to market.

Rockley Group, The (2004). Articles>Content Management>Scientific Communication>Workflow

Managing the Complexity of Content Management

Content management systems suck. Or so you would think from the strife heard from analysts and practitioners alike. And yet, many websites regularly publish vast amounts of information with superior control and ease compared to manually editing pages.

Lombardi, Victor. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Design>Web Design>Content Management

Managing Valuable Chapter Content

One of the ways that STC chapters can improve their value proposition to present and prospective members is to make available some of the best content that is created by and owned by the chapter members.

Kinder, Meredith and Sheila Loring. Carolina Communique (2006). Articles>Content Management>Community Building>STC

Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools--Interview with the Authors

I talk with Katherine (Kit) Brown, Brenda Huettner, and Char James-Tanny about their latest book, Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools.

Brown, M. Katherine 'Kit', Brenda P. Huettner, Char James-Tanny and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Collaboration>Content Management>Podcasts

Managing Your Information

Large paper documents can be difficult to manage and control, but large online documents and huge volumes/suites of information can be a nightmare if you do not use management software from the beginning. There are many different types of ways you can approach managing your materials.

Rockley, Ann. Rockley Bulletin (1998). Articles>Knowledge Management>Content Management

Manual Labor

Back when having a website was more important than having a sound business plan, Web content management systems were a must-have for large companies. IT managers bought into the idea that they needed an all-in-one system that would help them generate content, structure it, design it and publish it. But new research suggests these systems largely failed to live up to their promise. According to a recent report by Jupiter Research, 61 percent of companies that have deployed Web content management software still update their websites manually.

Surmacz, Jon. CIO Magazine (2003). Design>Content Management>Management>Web Design

MarthaStewart.com: Making the Case for Customer-Centric Content Management

When you hear the term "customer centric content management", you might think we're talking about marketing content. We're not. We're talking about managing the delivery of all types of content, including marketing content. And, we're specifically talking about providing individuals -- people -- both existing and prospective customers, with only the content that is relevant and of interest to them. You may think you already do a good job at this task, but in most organizations, there is significant room for improvement. Most of the problems are caused by one very big mistake: failing to listen.

Rockley Bulletin (2006). Design>Web Design>Content Management>User Centered Design

Maximizing Corporate Bandwidth Utilization and User Satisfaction ... at the Same Time!  

We are drowning in a sea of information. The challenge is to learn to swim in that sea, rather than drown in it.

Warner, Scott. KMworld (2001). Articles>Knowledge Management>Content Management

MCMS Connector for SharePoint Technologies Review

Review of MCMS Connector for SharePoint Technologies.

Huen, Stephen. Code Project, The (2005). Articles>Content Management>Server Side Includes>Microsoft SharePoint

MCMS Manager

A tool which can be used to do common tasks which Microsoft Content Management Server API provides.

Ragel, Chester. Code Project, The (2005). Articles>Content Management>Server Side Includes>ASP

The Meaning of Knowledge Management

We hear the term knowledge management bandied about. It sounds suspiciously like a trendy new phrase for what we used to call 'documentation.' In truth, knowledge management is more than documentation. It encompasses documentation, data management, library management, and information design. Knowledge management is increasingly important; as the amount of content has increased, the task of locating the information in the content has become more difficult. You see, information is different from content. And knowledge is something that derives from information.

HyperWrite (2004). Articles>Knowledge Management>Information Design>Content Management

Meaningful Microcontent

Microcontent refers to small, granular, and possibly representative (that can provide a summary of or a navigation to a larger set of information) bits of information, typically available on the Web. An example in the domain of journalism might be headlines and news summaries, small bits of content that can be used on a front page of the news with links to more in-depth articles. The definition has grown in scope as much as in its application.

Albing, Bill. KeyContent.org (2006). Articles>Documentation>Content Management>Technical Writing