Advanced Information Architecture- Fall 02 Content management I. Foundations of content management Why we have to manage content What is CMS? II. How do

Advanced Information Architecture- Fall 02

Content management

I. Foundations of content management

• Why we have to manage content

• What is CMS?

II. How do CMS work?

• Technical infrastructure

III. Content management during site design

• Responsibilities

• Sourcing content

• Asset management




Web sites are growing way too quickly

Outdated content is typically placed in archives

Tools to create new content are becoming easier to use

This increases the pool of potential authors

There are economic and organizational pressures to move more information to the web

Inside every small web site is a huge web site struggling to get outSuh et al. (2002) Content Management Systems. New Riders. http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/html/cmsystems/chap1/


How many authors do you have?

How many items does each author create or change per month?

Ex: news, press releases, short tidbits, calendar events, articles

3 authors @ 5 items a month: 15 updates a month; 180 per year

5 authors @ 10 items a month: 50 updates a month; 600 per year

100 authors @ 12 items a month: 1200 updates a month; 14,400 per year

If the number of authors increases and they post the same amount of content, the number of updates increases


Factors that drive CMS

The number of pages on commercial, academic, and government sites continues to increase

Users are becoming more demanding and sophisticated

People in the organization want changes, updates, and revisions

This causes bottlenecks on page production

Slowdowns can lead to stale content and inconsistency

An unintended consequence of the slowdown is that it’s easier for them to absolve themselves of responsibility for the site

Technology changes the way an organization creates and manages content


Old-school content management

Many web sites were originally done by hand

Hand coding does not scale for large and complex web sites

There was an inter-dependency between design, code, and content

People on the team would typically do several tasks

Changing one part meant changing everything

There was no clear production process

This was not really necessary with small teams and small sites

Issue: what parts of the process can be automated?


The advantage of CMS

Content management applies technology to automate the most tedious parts of the old school approach

It defines a system for separating site design from the server code

The server code is kept separate from the content

A CMS provides the means and the opportunity to make a site manageable

It will change the workflow of the web team

It should result in cost and time savings over time


What is a Content Management System (CMS) ?

It refers to products that offer the basic technical infrastructure for developing, organizing and publishing content

Three main tools:

Asset management interface

Used to create and manage content

Repository

Used to store content

Template engine

Used to publish content


What do CMS do?

CMS automate the process of creating, publishing, and updating Web site content

They make maintaining and updating the content of a site easier

Content contributors have ability to manage their own content

CMS usually have three components

A front-end editor for inputting content

A back-end system for storing the content

A template mechanism to get the content onto the site


Content management involves publishing content with digital tools

In its simplest form, it does three things:

Asset management

Creating, organizing, and managing units of content

Preparing content for publishing and dissemination

Transformation

Presenting the content

Deciding on formats and layouts

Publishing

Delivering the content to the audience

Determining the channels for delivery


CMS involve workflow management, linking work practices and the CMS infrastructure

It is a predefined series of tasks through which content is created and published

It describes the progression of content through the asset management, transformation, and publishing activities

It makes work processes explicit and systematic

It applies rules to users and tasks to manage a process

A good workflow tool automates reminders to move content assets through the entire process

It generates logs so that we understand what is going on, what the status of each content item is, and where the bottlenecks exist


CMS is a sociotechnical system composed of the people involved (authors, editors, and developers) and the technology that supports them

Content management is a group activity, and requires cooperation to succeed

It involves coordination and collaboration

Business processes involved in the production of the web site have to be examined

It is important to understand what people do in the production process

Putting in place a technology infrastructure that will support that collaboration is not a trivial activity


It also includes the broader social and organizational context in which these tools are used

This always involves the business environment of the organization

The goals, culture, and decision-making processes must be taken into account

It typically centers on the purposes of the web site

Organizations and people use web sites to communicate

CMS supports the technical aspects of digital communication

It is intended to help people get their jobs done faster and more efficiently


Planning and implementing CMS is a serious high-level strategic activity

Selecting a CMS is typically a job for CTOs or IT department heads because of the high cost of the tools

It is important for the IA to have input into this process

CMS affects many people in an organization

It will change their workflows and there will be a learning curve

It will lead to policy changes

There is work to be done to convince the stakeholders that such a system is necessary

These systems are new enough that the impacts on organizations is often not widely understood


Content management



• What is CMS?








How CMS work

Technical Infrastructure

Content creation

Users add content via a browser-based interface

The interface is similar to the web site

It typically has rich text editing capabilities

Asset management is handled within this interface

Users edit existing content, compare versions of content, and to approve content for publication

Some systems are integrated with apps such as Office or Dreamweaver


Some provide custom client-side applications

This may be a richer editing environment, or allow administrative tasks

An application programming interface (API) allows users to add or manipulate content stored via scripts

Workflow helps manage the flow of content through this technical structure

It ensures that the IA is aware of and can approve what happens throughout

Version control helps people track changes to the content allowing management of change

The administrator assigns users and groups to certain roles and actions

User access control levels (ACL)


Repository

The repository can be a database, a closed file system, or a mixture of both

It can be virtual

One interface can provide access to numerous backend data sources

It stores content and any associated metadata

Metadata enables a range of content management functions

Allows the CMS to deliver more precise searches,

It can generate topic-based navigation and create links to related pages

It can track workflow status


Publishing

A template engine applies design elements to content, in order to produce the desired output document

The templates themselves usually contain placeholders for content from the repository

More powerful schemes can allow inline code to be interpreted in the templates

Link management refers to how the tool tracks and maintains internal links and site navigation

This can be driven by an internally maintained glossary of unique content Ids

Other systems handle it by referring to a user-created site structure, which is also used to create navigation


Static publishing

Pages are created and uploaded

Dynamic publishing

Content is uploaded to the database

When a request for a web page is received, the template engine publishes the content using the template

A dynamic server requires more processing power, but is useful for presenting constantly changing or frequently updated content

ToolsWebreference.com. (2001). Content Management Tools http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/html/site.html


Content management



• What is CMS?










This is a major part of the design and production phases of the project

The IA develops and oversees the content management process for the project

There should be a clear path for content development and delivery

Creation --> editing --> formatting --> proofing --> submission --> publishing --> storing --> version control

It also involves issues of copyright clearance and payments and possibly syndication contracts

There should be procedures for updating and removal of content


Sourcing content

Where will the content cone from?

Creation of original content

Who will do the work (in-house or outsourced)?

If internal, what are the relevant procedures for getting to content to the team?

If external, what are the terms of the contract?

Content syndication

The IA should understand the timetables involved in receiving this type of content

It is also important to be familiar with the contract

This will specify formats to be delivered, depth of content, frequency of updating, error control…


Free content

Always consider the source and quality of the content

Be careful about proper attributions

Reusing/repurposing content

If the client is supplying content , make sure to inspect it carefully

Issue: how much work is involved in getting the content into the proper form for publishing

Stock/library content

This is content that you have acquired or that you can purchase from a source

Be careful about clearances and avoid cliches

Keep careful records of source for each item


Managing content providers

This is where IAs rely on the project plan

There should be a specification explaining how the various providers (clients and outsourcers) are to deliver content

This should lay out formatting requirements, benchmarks, deadlines and payment schedules (where appropriate)

It is important for the client to understand the role of content development and delivery in the overall development process

Have backup plans to keep the work going in case the content is late


Managing content formats

In general, specify exact formats

Only accept content in digital format

Text

Use an content exchange format that is idiot-proof for clients (.rtf? .pdf?)

If using software (Quark?) make sure that your team and the content provider are using the same version

If the content is to be entered into a database, develop a usable, web-based entry interface

Images

Start with as high a resolution as you can get

Insist on standardized image formats


Audio

Again, get the highest quality file you can

Make sure that you have access to the technology you need to process the file formats you will be dealing witt

Make clear the distinction between encoding audio for the web and editing audio files

Streaming or downloading?

Video

Similar to audio but even more expensive

Be aware of the range of international standards affecting video recording and playback


Asset tracking and management

Have procedures in place to log and track the content that is going into (and out of) the site

An easy way is to use a file structure that mirrors the basic site architecture and store content in the appropriate place

Use subdirectories labeled by file format

For larger sites, use a database to store content

Keep a file that is used to check arrival of content and track versions

Save the email!

Documents

Advanced Information Architecture- Fall 02 Content management I. Foundations of content management Why we have to manage content What is CMS? II. How do