Content Matters - My View on the Value of Content

What makes content work?Strategy, Engineering, Curation, & Management

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Rick Wilson, Chief Content Architect

The first in a Series

Editorial Disclaimer

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Steve Jobs1955-2011

From 1995 Stanford University commencement address: “You can only connect the dots looking backwards. So, you have to trust that somehow the dots can connect going into the future.”

Editorial Disclaimer

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Steve Jobs1955-2011

From 1995 Stanford University commencement address: “You can only connect the dots looking backwards. So, you have to trust that somehow the dots can connect going into the future.”

What I am saying about content, I say because I see how the dots can connect (at least for me). And, whether we are referring to the learning content world as the context for the use of the word “content”, or for the world of technology and media communications at large, I believe it holds true for all. Hey, today this is only my story.

What I’ll be talking about and presenting?

There are 4 discussion points to this presentation:

• What is content and why it matters

• How engineering content generates “better content”

• How curation gets more out of content

• How management improves results

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“Anyone attempting to make a distinction between good learning experiences and good content doesn’t know the first thing about either.”

Rick Wilson, Content Strategy Part 1, What is it, and Why you need it, Learning Solutions Magazine 8/29/2011

WHAT HAS THE DIGITAL DISRUPTION DONE?

The Challenges

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WHAT HAS THE DIGITAL DISRUPTION DONE?

The Challenges

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Let me set the stage. What are the challenges caused by the digital disruption of the last decade?

Challenge One for Content – The Audiences

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Baby Boomers 1946 – 1964 Generation X 1965 – 1980 Generation Y (Millennials) 1981 – 1997 Generation Z After 1997


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First. What makes this presentation so important is what we all recognize that it is happening. And, we are all participants. There is an abundance of challenges. We know that there are generational differences. But what I am learning is that the digital world is not about demographics. It’s about the “persona”.

An interesting dynamic is that the Apps for our smart appliances are foremost appeals to the Gen Y and Gen X folks. However, it is driving the use of these devices across the entire age spectrum. The reason. Content is getting easier to access and becoming more relevant – situational and locational. And, users are electing to create how they use and work with the content – no matter age. Now, there is a backward application effect. Users want more personalization and more adaptive uses of their digital environments. It was as true with our computers as it is now with our smart devices.


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So, who’s in charge now?They are!

Challenge Two for Content – Their Way

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Audiences today want content their way. And, content is all about context.

Challenge Two for Content – Their Way

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The audiences today want content their way. And, it’s all about context.

Context is everything to the user. The same content expressed from a single source through different channels will invariably produce different interpretations and possibly will cause many distinct reactions depending on the audience. Our understanding of how our information works or can work – especially online – will help us understand how the use by humans can be different, or may necessarily have to be different.

Challenge Three for Content – Their Use

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Challenge Three for Content – Their Use

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There is a frightful part. Once content is in their hands, it is out of our control. What is the user really doing with it? That’s another challenge; and, the way that I deal with it is to understand more about what the content can do or needs to do to win them over.

Challenge Four for Content – The Disruptors

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Beware of this kid! He’s might just be the next big disruptor.

Jobs?

Sergey & Paige?

Zuckerberg?

Hurley?

Challenge Four for Content – The Disruptors

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Beware of this kid! He’s might just be the next big disruptor.

Jobs?

Sergey & Paige?

Zuckerberg?

Hurley?

As a TV watcher in the ’70s, I was a fan of The Six Million Dollar Man. Sunday night at 7 p.m. I was glued to my Sony 25” Trinitron TV to watch Steve Austin battle an assortment of evil with artificial body functionality. My enthusiasm was simple: Amplified by technology, the Bionic Man is better, stronger, and faster than his enemies.

It’s a morality tale of sorts with a twist. We are not bionic people. These digital technology innovators are, and we are their target. Because, while we are working to help plan our organizations’ strategy, hundreds — if not thousands — of individuals (including some possible competitors) are exploiting technology to make themselves better, stronger, and faster than we are.

They are also digital disruptors. And they’re coming right for us and our organizations.

Challenge Five for Content – Big Data

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One Million Billions

It’s really about BIG content!

Challenge Five for Content – Big Data

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One Million Billions

It’s really about BIG content!

Everyday, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. What’s a quintillion? It’s 1 million billions! It’s so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years. These data come from every conceivable source: our GPS systems, our posts to social media sites, the digital pictures and videos that we share online, the transactional records of online purchases, smartphone messaging, and all the information from organizational systems. This data is big. It is clogging our communications channels and choking organizational information systems. Worse yet. It is hard to manage and therefore difficult to extract the truth. So, what is this truth factor?

WHAT IS CONTENT AND WHAT IS IT DOING?The Rules

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“The worth and value of knowledge is in proportion to the worth and value of the source.” – Samuel Coleridge, philosopher & poet.

What is content?Simply, content is the stuff prepared to use for certain intended communication and informational purposes.

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What is content?Simply, content is the stuff prepared to use for certain intended communication and informational purposes.

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So, what is content? It’s stuff. It’s the information or other resources targeted to people or solicited by them. Often, the information’s use is to satisfy particular requirements set out for people or chosen by them. This is particularly the case in the learning world – learning objectives, targeted (personalized) courses, product knowledge assets, and other such stuff.

How does content do it?

Content has to have exposure and expression in forms suited to the needs of people.

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How does content do it?

Content has to have exposure and expression in forms suited to the needs of people.

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Oh, we also need to satisfy requirements of the organization as well. So, how do we manage both people and organizational considerations?

Is it a balancing act?

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Not really. There’s a distinction. People concerns deal with findability, accessibility, and usability Organizational concerns deal with messaging, delivery, and use

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Not really. There’s a distinction. People concerns deal with findability, accessibility, and usability Organizational concerns deal with messaging, delivery, and use

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Trick Question


Is there a balancing act between organization and individual? It’s a trick question. My distinction is between organizational goals and people requirements.

And, the cross-pollination occurs at the use level. That’s where content matters. Our intended use versus their actual use and application. It can be very close, even the same, or very different and miles apart.

So, what does content do?

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So, what does content do?Everything

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Content’s expression (or presentation) has to convey in some manner sufficient substance to produce a cognitive response in the recipient. Check out the definition of Bloom’s Taxonomy in Wikipedia, particularly the part about knowledge transfer. When content makes a connection with the recipient, content has meaning – at least in that immediate case for that particular individual.

And, how does meaning occur?

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And, how does meaning occur?

Content has meaning because of the situation in which it happens.

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It’s contextual. The circumstances shape our interpretations and perceptions about the meaning of the content.

But, why is this important?

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But, why is this important?

Because today content has to be built around people.

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We need content that is where the people are and supports what they are doing and how they are doing it.

Rule One: Give people what they need

When learning happens…(in a work context)

About 70% of learning is provided through the use of challenging assignments and on-the-job experiences.

About 20% of learning is developed through relationships, networks, and feedback.

About 10% of the learning is delivered via formal training processes.

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Rule One: Give people what they need

When learning happens…(in a work context)

About 70% of learning is provided through the use of challenging assignments and on-the-job experiences.

About 20% of learning is developed through relationships, networks, and feedback.

About 10% of the learning is delivered via formal training processes.

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Rule One.Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger at the Center for Creative Leadership put forth this model stating that development typically begins with a realization of a need coupled to a motivation to do something about it, and that a blend of different learning approaches "in concert" can provide some powerful learning.

However, Jay Cross of Internet Time, who some of you might know or have read says, “70-20-10 is really a prescriptive model. It builds upon how people internalize and apply what they learn based on how they acquire the knowledge.” The model is not easily transferable to the typical learning and daily work flows of organizations, because the ratio of informal to formal learning varies with context.

So buy it or not, nobody ever told the digital population about this model and what is happening. Consequently, I think that the ratios are up for grabs.

Rule Two: Bring dexterity to content complexity

How is knowledge acquired?

There is a knowledge continuum made up of two factors:

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VELOCITY – the speed at which knowledge moves through an organization and out to and through its constituencies

VISCOSITY – the richness and value of the knowledge transferred increases the use

Velocity Viscosity

Velocity strips knowledge to minimums to speed up messaging to people – from Tweets and Facebook posts up to chats and discussion group posts

Rule Two: Bring dexterity to content complexity

How is knowledge acquired?

There is a knowledge continuum made up of two factors:

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VELOCITY – the speed at which knowledge moves through an organization and out to and through its constituencies

VISCOSITY – the richness and value of the knowledge transferred increases the use“When there are enough pieces to

figure out the big picture, we begin to have context.”

Rick Wilson

Velocity Viscosity

Viscosity augments knowledge by improving context to increase value.

What’s the point?

Knowledge network connections are crucial to how people extract what they need.

A strategy for content enhances prospects for effective knowledge transfer.

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Rule Three: Put knowledge where the connections occur

What’s the point?

Knowledge network connections are crucial to how people extract what they need.

A strategy for content enhances prospects for effective knowledge transfer.

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Rule Three: Put knowledge where the connections occur

There are numerous connections across our knowledge networks that are crucial to how people extract what they need in the erupting chaos of content. When there is an ensuing strategy for content, there are greater prospects for effective knowledge transfer throughout the network.

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WHAT MORE CAN CONTENT DO FOR YOU?

The Engineering

Why is engineering content that generates intelligence important?

Digital Disruption

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Back to the digital disruption factors. When the digital world crept into our lives, we had no idea what was going to happen.

Digital Disruption

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There is less need to go to a specific location or depend on a particular entity to get what we need to know or to develop our skills to do our job tasks. The digital revolution changed all that.

But it is not a settled world. One reason has to do with how our knowledge sources for work and job performance support us. I think content sources have to be smarter.

What does content engineering do?

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The engineering …

• Provides effective content management automation and processing sophistication

• Increases content value rapidly, as it improves throughput efficiency

• Creates a product far easier to use, support, and maintain

• Incorporates meta-tagging for search and discovery

• Optimizes content structuring for multi-modality use, reuse, and repurposing

• Permits single source publishing for multi-channel distribution

• Creates content with device sensitivity

• Produces content with contextual awareness

Content Management

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Efficient Improvement in Throughput

Automation

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Concept by Joe Gollner, the Content Philosopher

What does content engineering do?

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The engineering …

• Provides effective content management automation and processing sophistication

• Increases content value rapidly, as it improves throughput efficiency

• Creates a product far easier to use, support, and maintain

• Incorporates meta-tagging for search and discovery

• Optimizes content structuring for multi-modality use, reuse, and repurposing

• Permits single source publishing for multi-channel distribution

• Creates content with device sensitivity

• Produces content with contextual awareness

Content Management

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Pro

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Ra

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Inc

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Efficient Improvement in Throughput

Automation

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Concept by Joe Gollner, the Content Philosopher

This is where I see the need for content engineering. We need to accommodate the changes. We have to have the means to do things smarter and faster; and our content for knowledge acquisition has to have more intelligence. And content engineering supports that because the engineering achieves the stated bullet points on the previous slide.

It’s a particularly unique environment that can take advantage of this content engineering. It’s a new type of digital eco-system.

What is an intelligent content eco-system?

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Intelligent Content

Eco-system

Unified:Increases the value of interactions with assets accessible through the various types of portals

Supportive:Recognizes needs of users and responds with relevant content with user contextual sensitivity

Personalized:Provides complex logic to improve the quality of the user experience online and the collaboration with each other

Collaborative:Enables exchanges with others via formal and informal channels and processes

Global:Supports & manages the user locational and localization experience

Resourceful:Contains resources to enhance participation and interaction while determining user requirements

Intelligent:Leverages smart technology to expose and exploit access and use of resources

Adaptive:Identifies dynamics of user interactions and produces analytics for improving adaptation


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Intelligent Content

Eco-system








Unified:Increases the value of interactions with assets accessible through its various types of portals and integration points.

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Intelligent Content

Eco-system








2Personalized:

Provides complex logic to improve the quality of the user experience online and collaboration with others.


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Intelligent Content

Eco-system






Global:Intelligent:Leverages smart technology to expose and exploit access and use of resources


3 Supports & manages the user situational, locational & localization experience.


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Intelligent Content

Eco-system






Resourceful:


Adaptive:Identifies dynamics of user interactions and produces analytics for improving adaptation4

Contains resources to enhance participation and interaction while determining user requirements even as they change.


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Intelligent Content

Eco-system








5Supportive:Recognizes needs of users & responds with relevant and contextually sensitive content specifically for the user.


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Intelligent Content

Eco-system








6Collaborative:Enables exchanges with others via formal and informal channels and processes.


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Intelligent Content

Eco-system








7Intelligent:Leverages smart technology to expose and exploit access and use of all content and other resources.


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Intelligent Content

Eco-system








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Adaptive:Identifies dynamics of user interactions and produces analytics and metrics for improving adaptation

An Intelligent Content Eco-system

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An Intelligent Content Eco-system

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This eco-system model is not a fantasy. There are emerging digital solutions to accommodate these disruptions to our familiar norms and routines in the conduct of our work lives. Here’s the new work world embracing social media and virtual collaboration with sharing, liking, badging, gaming, and more. You interact, share, participate, manage, see, and conduct work activities with everyone or those with whom you chose to interact, or are chosen for you. This is the new Saba.

How are your organization’s content requirements changing to meet your

organization’s needs in 2014?

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WHAT MORE CAN YOU DO FOR CONTENT?The Curation

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WHAT MORE CAN YOU DO FOR CONTENT?The Curation

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Now in this segment I’ll talk about how curation can produce more bang and value from content.

What is this notion of curation?It’s the action of finding, grouping, organizing, and preparing content for use.

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What is this notion of curation?It’s the action of finding, grouping, organizing, and preparing content for use.

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It’s the way to manage the intersections connecting creation, organization, management, and delivery with orchestration to achieve the desired outcome. Knowing what to do in the process of curation comes from having developed a content strategy.

And, discussing content strategy is way to big a topic for this presentation, but I have a companion set of slides where I tackle the subject. And, if you are really interested, check out my articles that appeared in Learning Solutions Magazine.

Why is curation so important?It’s the means to arrange where stuff is, what stuff is, and how stuff can be found, accessed, and used.

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Why is curation so important?It’s the means to arrange where stuff is, what stuff is, and how stuff can be found, accessed, and used.

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When you don’t know what you have, you can’t use it.

It’s how to extend and increase the value and relevance of the content. It also incorporates consideration for contextualization.

Why do you need to do it?It’s the way to determine the cream from the crap.

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Why do you need to do it?It’s the way to determine the cream from the crap.

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One of the single most valuable roles in an organizational learning environment is sorting out the “wheat from the chaff” in this cataclysmic cacophony of content. There needs to be a means to create sane processes for finding, accessing, delivering, and sharing only the cream of the crop.

What makes curation so critical?It’s important to content success. Curation drives governance.

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What makes curation so critical?It’s important to content success. Curation drives governance.

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And, governance provides for the practical rules about content workflow, design, development, style, publishing, and delivery. Today, great care has to be given to guidelines on how critical information gets shared. The impact of “knowledge worthy” content assets is about being relevant and “trustworthy”.

Curation concerns itself with achieving a high standard for quality, veracity, accessibility, reachability, and use. However, once available for consumption outside the oversight and control of the content creators, content becomes subjected to consumers and their concerns. Chief among them is about how quickly they can process it.

It’s content mobility and flexibility. It’s just-in-time at the right place the way they need it. Don’t mistake great presentation with the best expression. Again, curators’ sensitivities should error on the side of the audience.

Famous last words

“Without a human filter to create contextual and digestible information the noise will just drown out the signal.” Steven Rosenbaum, Curation Nation, 2011

“Without the proper mechanics working on the content it’s going to be very susceptible to poor results.” Kristina Halvorson, Intelligent Content Strategy Conference, 2012

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HOW CAN YOU DO MORE FOR CONTENT?The Management

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HOW CAN YOU DO MORE FOR CONTENT?The Management

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Management of content improves control and results.

What is content management all about?

Processes and technologies to support collecting, storing, managing, and publishing information in its many forms or media.

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What is content management all about?

Processes and technologies to support collecting, storing, managing, and publishing information in its many forms or media.

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Content management consists of processes and technologies to support collecting, storing, managing, and publishing information in its many forms or media.

And, today references to content tend to be about digital content. Or, content taking the form of digital text and multi-media files (such as audio or video), or any other electronic file types with a content lifecycle requiring management.

What is the secret to content publishing?Creating single source content

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Concept by Xyleme, XML-based solution for single source content development, at www.xyleme.com

What is the secret to content publishing?Creating single source content.

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However, in considering my model of the intelligent content eco-system, here is a technology focused on the learning world – a tool that supports learning content management. You may have something already. But, there is a very harsh reality to confront. None of this is easy. I am electing methods that support doing as many things only once. This is one of them.

Intelligence in content occurs because you incorporate it. One profoundly important characteristic of intelligence is the information about the content. Metadata are behind this intelligence. Everything to be considered of value or to have value needs identity. The particular technology associated with this tool not only imbeds identity dynamically, but it has organization, construction, processing, and single source publishing functions.

The job of custodian incorporates curation, guardianship, and oversight. It is really being the “keeper of the content and it’s systems”.

It is a learning content management environment where everything can be managed, even stuff not physically in the environment.

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Instructor Guides

Participant Guides

Handouts

Slide Decks

Assessments

eLearning

Performance Support

Marketing Sheets

Reference Guides

Single SourceMultiple Outputs

</XML>To Update…

Change Source &

Re-publish!

Conventional Single Source

Virtual Learning Lab

Self-paced

Mobile

Instructor-led Classroom

What is the benefit of single source content?

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Instructor Guides

Participant Guides

Handouts

Slide Decks

Assessments

eLearning

Performance Support

Marketing Sheets

Reference Guides

Single SourceMultiple Outputs

</XML>To Update…

Change Source &

Re-publish!

Conventional Single Source

Virtual Learning Lab

Self-paced

Mobile

Instructor-led Classroom

What is the benefit of single source content?

Here’s how the concept translates. The conventional model requires us to reversion the content each time a change is made. And, if the change impacts more than a single content type, then we have to make the changes in each. With the single source model any change dynamically changes the corresponding content type, as appropriate. Then, you re-publish.

Why does content matter?

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It has value in proportion to its use and reuse. It is the new currency in our digital culture.

Get

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Final Remarks

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THANK YOU!

The reality is that content in today’s digital world is growing exponentially year over year for every organization. To explore, expose, extract, and express the most relevant content and to produce the most value from it requires that content experiences a constantly evolving collaboration between humans and computing technology. Behind these evolutionary processes is content strategy.

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Rick Wilson

[email protected]+1 561 400 6764 (mobile) +1 561 499 8168 (direct)@digitalruption

Chief Content Architect & Strategist

For more of what I have to say find me in Learning Solution Magazine:

http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/authors/337/rick-wilson

http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/authors/337/rick-wilson

Technology

Content Matters - My View on the Value of Content