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amid

CHAOSCONTENT

sara wachter-boettcher @sara_ann_marie

sarawb.com

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‘‘Why Is Philly So Filthy? — Philly Magazine headline, 2013

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‘‘§ 10-702. Litter in Public Places. (1) No person shall place or deposit litter in or upon any street, sidewalk or other public place within the City except in public receptacles or in authorized private receptacles.

— Philadelphia Municipal Code

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How I feel about websites, too.

≈

Always late. Not mobile-ready. Too corporate. Totally irrelevant. Way too long. Redundant.

What gives?

‘‘§ Content in Public Websites. (1) No person shall place or deposit content in or upon any page, module, or PDF within the website except when authorized.

—Some long-lost web policy, probably

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It’s time for a new approach.

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turn your project

for content.

into aCATALYST

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1 Make change achievable.

‘‘I’ve always been a trash picker upper, but there are neighborhoods that are just too heavily covered for a person to pitch in while walking.

— A West Philly resident

‘‘A citizen-driven effort to revitalize one Philadelphia city block.

— West Rockland Street project

W. Rockland Street Spring Cleanup

Big problems feel…big.

‘‘Rewrite all our content for responsive design.

‘‘Cut everything in half so it’s easier to skim.

‘‘Transform all 4,567 PDFs to structured content.

Avoid the overwhelm.

Start with just one thing.

Visible Valuable Scope-able

Visible Valuable Scope-able

Visible Valuable Scope-able

Visible Valuable Scope-able

Your skills and area of

influence

What’s causing problems right now

The sweet spot

Moving an existing site

to responsive design

Product spec PDFs that

need constant updates

Create a product

content model

Fix everything.

Fix something.

small wins build

OPTIMISM

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2 Aim for ownership.

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We need people to take charge, too.

‘‘We can have one team that’s the responsive team and this team just goes on and makes the site responsive … The organization would have learned nothing from this exercise.

— Livia Labate, Marriott Responsive Web Design Podcast

‘‘Because we have so many people today that are contributing to these sites, how are we going to get to a place where they feel equipped to do that?

— Livia Labate, Marriott Responsive Web Design Podcast

Ask, don’t just tell.

‘‘How do you think we could solve this problem?

economist

comms director

editordesigner

Do, don’t just talk.

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Pair up.

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With > for.

involvement creates

OWNERSHIP

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3 Get commitment.

‘‘Okay, here’s the new content strategy! Go!

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Maps give us momentum.

They connect vision to operations.

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declining

thriving

• Purchase property • Revitalize it to rent to local businesses

• Use income for neighborhood cleanup

• Plan long-term civic improvements

Define where you’re headed.

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unstructured

structured

overwhelming

governed

churned out

purposeful

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Identify potential projects.

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Break down the big steps.

Decide who will lead each charge.

Set a cadence for progress.

maps keep us

MOVING

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Content is chaotic.

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So are we.

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We’re not here for perfection.

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Flickr images used via Creative Commons Attribution license.

sarawb.com // @sara_ann_marie content-workshops.com