DisContent Management

1
Dis-ContentManagement how to avoid it

• STM e-Content Seminar
• Kensington Hilton Hotel
• 30th November 2006
• Alan Bacon, Blackwell Publishing

2
The Autobiography

• Head of Production Services
• With Blackwell for nearly 12 years,mostly in
  e-Content related areas
• Production Services supporting Production
  globally on- XML, XSL, Xpath, graphics, PDF-
  Ongoing improvements to content quality and
  delivery- Production projects management-
  Supplier analysis, feedback, education,
  standards- Internal training programmes

3
The Blindingly Obvious

• Content is a Publishersmost valuable asset
• Well, I had better qualify that
• Content is a Publishersmost valuable
  non-human asset

4
The Blindingly Obvious

• CONTENTIS KING
• (or QUEEN) !

5
Early Content Management
Comp Board Page 47
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer
adipiscing elit.
!!!!
Special Appearance !
6
New opportunities for discontent

• Well, if its on a CD, surely it must be
  correct?
• But there are typos in this scanned PDF file
• The colour of this on-screen image doesnt
  match my CMYK profile
• What do you mean, a CD-ROM version is going to
  cost extra??
• In short
• E-Content leads to massively increased
  expectations!(until the Internet came along, of
  course)

7
Managing content is a serious business

• Reputation and credibility
• Improving our service to authors, researchers,
  institutions and journal owners
• Ensuring value-for-money from suppliers
• Improving internal efficiencies and processes
• Re-purposing content appropriately and developing
  new channels to market
• i.e. Maximise the return on our primary asset!

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and can be a matter of life or death!
and inject the patient intravenously with
ltequationfix typemathml value 0.020
litresgt20 litreslt/equationfixgt of morphine BP
9
So, how to avoid dis-content management?

• The Six-Ations (as opposed to the Six Nations)
• Investigation
• Specification
• Automation
• Education
• Validation
• Information

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Investigation

• Decide what you want from your e-content
• Make sure all stakeholders have their say
• Think longer-term for business requirements
• Assume needs will expand rapidly
• Dont just look at costs explore revenue, too

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Specification

• Vital to agree on what the words mean think
  about an interpreter
• Sense checks at every opportunity
• Dont be too harsh on late changes(recognise
  beneficial improvements especially if theywould
  be hard to include later)
• Again, assume that needs are underestimated

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Automation

• Automated systems can make systematic errors
  which can be fixed systematically
• Humans make human errors, which are often very
  hard to identify and fix and inconsistent
• Automation keeps costs down
• not just in-house, but at suppliers too
• BUT, try to future-proof systems if possible

13
Education

• Education can change attitudes and working
  practices, reducing error levels
• Really promotes buy-in from stakeholders
• Not just one-off training or a band-aid!
• Needs long-term commitment, both internallyand
  for external stakeholders
• Keep adapting education programmes to meet
  evolving workflows and systems

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Validation (and Quality Assurance)

• Quality is job 1
• - Henry Ford
• Quality IS the job
• - Alan Bacon

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Validation (and Quality Assurance)

• Quality is critical in our field
• Aim for automated checking where possible
• But remember content is read by people
• So, exclusively, here is our secret QA weapon
• because, there is ultimately no substitute!!

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Information

• The devil really is in the detail
• Need to know the state and location ofevery
  piece of content, all the time
• If you cant measure it, you cant mend it
• Tailor information for the audience
• Good information even if its not always good
  news eases the discontent!

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Discontent has a bright future?

• Ever-increasing number of channels tomarket
  (e.g. STM Articles as podcasts)
• More variations and re-purposing of the original
  content- versions to suit the delivery
  platform- content customisation for specific
  markets
• Increasing array of file types provided as
  supplementary material
• and the sheer increase in content volume

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Please make it stop
Atom
Article-or-chapter-as-collaboration-tool
Digg and Reddit
RSS feeds
e-Books
PDA versions
Portals
Video and audio
Wikis
Blogs
Custom content
Podcasting
Supersites
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but we love it (really)

• Tools and systems are improving all the time
• Mechanisms and processes of content management
  are increasingly well-understood
• Automation and outsourcing reduce the amountof
  spade-work
• allowing us to focus on the business of content
  i.e. exploiting our primary asset to obtain
  thebest return for the business

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Manage Content and Eradicate Discontent

• So, by managing Content in an organised,pragmatic
  and not-too-hysterical fashion
• we can meet expectations
• and say goodbye to Discontent for ever!
• AND IF YOUR CONTENT IS EVER ON THE FLOOR
• YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!!

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• THANK YOU !