how to future-proof your content by sarah beckley

How to Future-proof Your Content Sarah Beckley Senior Content Strategist razorfish

Content Strategy Workshops 11 July 2013

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• 7 years in Content Strategy • 5 years in tech support/tech writing • 5 years in print publishing • Specializes in financial services,

embedded/contextual help, online applications, content matrix development

• Previous clients include HSBC, HAL, Allstate, Citadel, STAR Financial Network, and the Options Industry Council, and GE

• @sarahbeckley • Sarah.Beckley@razorfish.com

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About Sarah Beckley

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• Terms

• Today

• Tomorrow

• Revisioning

• Resources

Agenda

Future-proofing

Content

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Terms

Creating flexible, reusable content that is platform and device agnostic to support content that can adapt to the unknown.

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What do we mean by future proofing?

Human-consumable, contextualized data—aka the stuff between the tags. - Rahel Bailie

Not limited to one purpose, technology or output. Intelligent content is structurally rich and semantically aware, and is therefore discoverable, reusable, reconfigurable and adaptable. - Ann Rockley

All content is a brand experience

- Mark Baker (paraphrasing)

nv

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Content is…

Today

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Mourn publishing

http://publishingisdead.com/

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Say goodbye to the Home page

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Hello, scrolling!

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Facebook,, news app, Red Cross app

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Sites are strip mined for content

•Instapaper •Readability •Pocket •Pinterest •The Future

Pinterest results for “content strategy” , www.instapaper.com

• 50 million people own tablets in the US.

• Mobile use will exceed desktop use next year.

• 133.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (57% mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in February 2013, up 8 percent since November.

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The machines are winning

Sources: comScore MobiLens & TabLens, U.S., 2003-2012, shapshop.com/2012-mobile-marketing-statistics, ComScore

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Mobile

•4.8 billion people now own mobile phones. Just 4.2 billion own a toothbrush. (Mindjumpers)

•Mobile commerce is projected to ten-fold from 2010 ($3 billion) to 2016 ($31 billion). (TMGmedia)

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But we’re consuming more and less

•Digital consumers read more books a year on average than their print-only counterparts.

•And we use a smartphone while: – Watching TV – Shopping – Driving – Doing daily household tasks

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Metadata still eludes us

Source: “Content Access: Maximizing Availability Across the Enterprise”, AIIM Whitepaper 2012, www.aiim.org

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Formats are shrinking and expanding

•TV’s as tall as me •Smartphones in every size and aspect ratio

Images: Netmagazine.com and Gizmag.com

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Heads up!

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Image: Wired mag http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2012/04/google_glass_story-660x388.jpg

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Content Bots

www.narrativescience.com

“The 19th century was defined by the novel. The 20th by the cinema. 21st will be defined by the interface.” - Lev Manovich

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Novel = Vlog + Twitter + Tumblr

20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KisuGP2lcPs&feature=share&list=SP6690D980D8A65D08

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Serial = Mobile app + UGC w/a twist

http://www.thesilenthistory.com/

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Snowfall

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Integrated experience

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek

•Content first philosophy •Targeted or niche audience •Mashups •Strong story •Multimedia/multichannel

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What do the examples have in common?

Tomorrow

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the exiting model obsolete.

- Richard Buckminster Fuller

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The future is change

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What do we know about the future?

• Increased content volume • Increase in device type and format • Increased complexity • Decreased screen size • Multiple devices in use at the same time • Non-linear

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Tomorrow’s content is…

• Adaptable • Accessible • Agile • Findable • Mutable • Nimble • Responsive

http://unicornsonrainbows.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/unicorns-rainbow.jpg

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Plan for tomorrow

•Strategy •Standards •Structure •Schema •Size •Socialize

The goal of content strategy is to use "…words and data to create unambiguous content that supports meaningful, interactive experiences.”

- “Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data,” Rachel Lovinger

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Content strategy

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BBC’s vision: Never miss a moment

Sources: Olympics: User Experience and Design and Sports Refresh: Dynamic Semantic Publishing, bbc.co.uk./blog

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Content = Live + Multimedia + Mobile

Sources: Olympics: User Experience and Design and Sports Refresh: Dynamic Semantic Publishing, bbc.co.uk./blog

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•Content guidelines •Governance board •Editor in chief •Document everything •Clearly defined roles

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Standards

Image source: http://kidmincoach.files.wordpress.com

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Microsoft’s model

http://blogs.technet.com/b/tothesharepoint/archive/2010/09/01/new-governance-content-white-papers-and-check-out-the-model.aspx

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• XML was made official in1997

• Managing Enterprise Content 1st edition published in 2002

• Enterprise content management became trendy in 2006

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Structured content is not new

Screen grab from “The Matrix” film opening credits

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• NPR famous for their content API

• Anil Dash and MindTouch both recommend building an API first, UI second

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APIs for content are new

http://www.npr.org/

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XML-Extensible Markup Language

HTML5-Hypertext Markup language

Microformats-Open data based on HTML5

RDF-Resource Description Framework

OWL-Web Ontology Language

DITA-Darwin Information Type Architecture (by IBM)

JSON-JavaScript Object Notation

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Semantic structure options

Val Swisher’s closet photo: http://www.contentrules.com/images/Organizer-Closet.jpg

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Semantic pattern recognition

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031320310002682

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• Identify content types •Map content relationships (ecosystem)

•Create content models •Assign content type behaviors

•Map content elements between content types

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Schema: Content models

Metadata can be fuzzy

Metadata Keywords

Tags/Descriptive metadata

Structural metadata

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Size: Small but effective

http://www.wallstreetinsanity.com/wp-content/uploads/p45car.png

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Microformats are your friend

Images: Hassan Naqeeb http://technecore.blogspot.com/2013/05/google-glasses-view.html

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Socialize: Drive the bus

Source: “Content Access: Maximizing Availability Across the Enterprise”, AIIM Whitepaper 2012, www.aiim.org

Revisioning

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Tomorrow’s content model

Source: http://www.ontotext.com/publishing

• What long content can you chunk (break up)? • No “wrap” for headlines • “Wrap” limit for subheads • Image options (two, three, or more sizes?) • Modules (common elements across sections that may not be

device-compliant) • Non-friendly formats (PDF, PPT, Flash, etc.) • Targeted to novice/intermediate/expert users • Geo-located for in person classes • Accessibility tags/screen reader text • Semantic tags for those searching for subtopics

Future-proof inventory additions

“You can’t afford to create a piece of content for any one platform. Instead of crafting a website, you have to put more effort into crafting the different bits of an asset, so they can be reused more effectively, so they can deliver more value.” Nic Newman, BBC (via Karen McGrane)

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Content is precious: Reuse it

• Desktop site • Mobile site • Mobile app • Tablet app • Print • Blog • Email • Microsite • Social • Intranet • Chat/text • Screen reader • White papers

Content delivery options

• Recipe – Title – Author – Date – By line – Cook time – Prep time – Measurements type (Imperial/metric) – Main ingredients – Optional ingredients – Nutritional info (could also be broken down)

• Training manual – Sub topics – Code examples – Videos

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Tomorrow’s content elements

• Structural metadata • Administrative metadata • Less descriptive metadata • Manually tagged • Folksonomy • Siloed taxonomies • Inconsistent vocabularies

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Today’s metadata

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• Create metadata for the superheroes

• Can you leverage existing metadata sources?

• How can you enrich this metadata?

• 15 minutes

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Exercise

www.digitalcitizen.ca

• Name • Group affiliation • Source of power • Type of power • Secret identity • Gender • Citizenship • Birthplace • First appearance • TV/Film/Web • Creator

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Tomorrow’s metadata

• Organization’s content • Controlled vocabulary • Open vocabulary • Industry standards

– Schema.org – Dublin Core – Etc.

• Social – FOAF- Friend of a Friend (describes people and their connections) – SIOC- Semantically-linked Online Communities

• Video – MPEG-7- Moving Pictures Expert Group – Media RSS- custom RSS for media-specific info

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Metadata resources

Then what?

• “Nimble” by Razorfish/Rachel Lovinger

• “Contents May have Shifted” by Erin Kissane (Contents magazine)

• “Mobile Content Strategy and Why Should I Care?” Karolina Szczur

• Managing Enterprise Content by Ann Rockley and Charles Cooper

• Content Strategy for Mobile by Karen McGrane

• Content Everywhere by Sara Wachter-Boettcher

• Content Strategy: Connecting the dots between business, brand, and

benefits by Rahel Anne Bailie and Noz Urbina

• Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski

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Read these guys

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•Strategy •Standards •Structure •Schema •Size •Socialize the new model and processes •Remember to review, rinse, and repeat!

Then break off a piece and start

Thank you!

Questions: @sarahbeckley