Content management has become a hot topic as organizations have struggled to manage their content. Web content has received the most press and is the focus of most books on the subject. However, the management of enterprise content—content that spans many different areas within an organization, created by multiple authors, and distributed in many different media (e.g., paper, web, wireless)—has received little attention. Enterprise content management is the focus of this book and is the result of many years we’ve spent helping our clients to manage their content in a unified way, designing strategies to ensure their content is consistent and accurate wherever it appears and flows along a uniform continuum, from the first information customers see, through the sales process, to the support materials you provide them with as part of your ongoing commitment.
This book was written with a number of audiences in mind. It is designed to assist content managers who are responsible for creating and managing large volumes of content in many different media for many types of content users. Content managers will learn what they need to know about enterprise content management, and what is involved in developing a unified content strategy. This book is also designed for information architects who are responsible for designing internet/intranet sites, content management systems, publications systems, learning materials, and supporting multiple media. Information architects will receive practical advice on designing the architecture to support a unified content strategy. This book is also designed for authors, specifically, anyone responsible for creating enterprise content such as brochures, newsletters, data sheets, product catalogs, proposals, reports, help desk/customer support materials, regulatory documents, user documentation, support documentation, service documentation, and training materials. Authors will receive practical advice on structured writing, writing for multiple media, and collaborative authoring.
This book is divided into five sections. Each part focuses on a particular aspect of managing your enterprise content with a unified content strategy. While you do not have to read this book in chronological order, it is designed to follow the unified content strategy life cycle.
| Part 1: The Basis of a Unified Content Strategy (Chapters 1-3). | This section provides an understanding of a unified content strategy, where content comes from in an organization, the issues of creating and managing that content and the fundamental concepts of reuse. This section also provides guidelines for identifying a return on investment for a unified content strategy. This is an important section for all readers to provide a basis of understanding for the rest of the book. Chapters 1 and 2 are targeted towards all audiences; Chapter 3 is more applicable to content managers. |
| Part 2: Performing a Substantive Audit (Chapters 4-7). | This section provides guidelines on how to analyze your organizational needs, analyze your content, determine your content life cycle, and build a vision of your unified content strategy. Knowing where to start, understanding the current situation and your needs, and building a vision for the future is important to the success of your project. While all audiences will benefit from the chapters in Part 2—specifically in understanding the content life cycle and auditing the content in your organization—Chapters 4 to 7 are targeted primarily towards content managers who will be responsible for envisioning and documenting the new unified content lifecycle. |
| Part 3: Design (Chapters 8-12). | This section focuses on the design phase of a unified content strategy. Effective design is key to the success of authoring, managing, and delivering content. It takes you through the concepts of information modeling, design of metadata, the design of workflow, and the design of dynamic documents. The chapters in Part 3 form an essential core of the book and are targeted to all audiences. Parts 1 and 3 are critical to your understanding of what a unified content strategy is and how to design your information architecture to support it. |
| Part 4: Tools and Technology (Chapters 13-18). | Managing enterprise content through a unified content strategy is dependent on having the right tools in place for authoring, management, and delivery of content. This section takes you through an understanding of how to evaluate tools and the functionality of the key technologies (authoring, content management, workflow, and delivery). It also provides guidelines for evaluating these tools and accordingly, is targeted primarily towards content managers, who will be responsible for selecting the tools to support a unified content strategy. |
| Part 5: Moving to a Unified Content Strategy (Chapters 19-22). | This section focuses on ways in which you can help your organization to adopt a unified content strategy. The section begins with a discussion of collaborative authoring—a new yet sometimes difficult process to adopt—then moves into the discussion of how to separate content from format so that authors can write content once and still ensure it is readable and effective in multiple media. Often, one of the more complex issues to deal with is the issue of change. This section focuses on change management and helps to identify potential pitfalls. Finally, this section helps you to move forward with a transition plan. Chapters 19 and 29 are applicable to all audiences, but Chapters 21 and 22, in their focus on management issues, is most applicable to content managers. |
| Appendices (A-E). | The appendices at the end of this book provide supplementary material such as checklists for implementing a unified content strategy and selecting appropriate tools. They also provide a vendor list, an explanation of content relationships, and further suggestions to help you write for multiple media. Content managers will benefit most from the checklists and vendor list, while authors and information architects will benefit most from suggestions on writing for multiple media and understanding content relationships. |
Top level Table of Contents in PDF format.
Ann Rockley is President of The Rockley Group, Inc. Ann Rockley has an international reputation in the field of e-content, content management, and e- learning. Ann is doing ground-breaking work in the field of information design for content reuse and enterprise content management. Ann regularly speaks at dozens of conferences (STC Annual Conference, InfoProducer Conference, Documation, Forum, Hypertext Conference, SingleSource conference, Medical Writer conferences, Library conferences, etc.) around the world on the topic of e-content, content management, and single sourcing. She provides papers, participates on panels, and gives workshops both at conferences and client sites. Ann is an Associate Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication and has a Master of Information of Science from the University of Toronto. She teaches Enterprise Content Management at the University of Toronto.
Pamela Kostur is a Senior Consultant with The Rockley Group; her expertise is in information analysis, information modeling, and structured writing to support a unified content strategy, as well as in developing e-learning solutions. Pamela has been working in the documentation field for over 16 years and regularly speaks at conferences (STC, IPCC, Documentation and Training) on topics including iterative usability, miscommunication, structured writing, building and managing intranets, creating usable online documentation, designing e-learning, and developing unified content strategies. Before joining The Rockley Group, Pamela was the Communication Manager for SaskTel Mobility in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. She is a senior member of the Society for Technical Communication, a member of the Professional Communication Society (a member society of the IEEE), and sits on the Advisory Committee for the University of Toronto’s Advanced Certificate in Information Design program.
Steve Manning is a Senior Consultant with The Rockley Group and has over 13 years experience in the documentation field. He is a skilled developer of online documentation (WinHelp, HTML Help, Web sites, XML, and Lotus Notes) and has created single source production methodologies using key online tools. Steve has extensive experience in project management and has managed a number of multiple media, single source projects. He also has extensive experience in the design and development of paper-based technical documentation. Before joining the Rockley Group, Steve was the Manager of Documentation for PROMIS Systems (now PRI Automation). While there, he managed a group of technical writers and course developers responsible for the creation of all documentation and training materials for new products. Steve is a frequent speaker at conferences (AUGI, WinWriters, STC) and teaches Introduction to XML at the University of Toronto.
The Rockley Group Inc. is one of North America’s leading providers of enterprise content management methodologies. They have helped organizations develop content reuse and unified content strategies across departments, divisions, and the enterprise. Working with customers in the Life Sciences (Medtronic, IDX Systems, Centre of Forensic Sciences), Financial (Citibank, Bank of Canada, Deloitte & Touche, Norwest Services) and High Technology (Alcatel, Cisco, Compaq, HP, Intel, Nortel) industries, The Rockley Group has developed content reuse solutions to reduce the cost and effort of complex information creation and management.