Really liked this one, good article…
PARIS — Epochal pronouncements from rock stars should sometimes be taken with a dose of skepticism. In 1966, John Lennon declared that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Since the 1960s, Jesus has enjoyed a bit of a comeback, while the Beatles’ music is still unavailable from legitimate digital music services
But people in the music industry tend to listen to Thom Yorke, lead singer in the British alternative rock group Radiohead, for Radiohead has cultivated a reputation as one of the most future-proof bands around.
Read it here…
Have been doing some more reading and thinking about the content architecture role tonight as I sit here and read discussions around ECM and some of the commentary on Bloom and social marketplaces.
I really like the idea of the Content Architect, it makes sense and it is a concept that I can easily understand. Kyle McNabb’s post from Feb this year “The Emerging Content Architect role” is a good read on the topic. But I have an issue on this that I need to get past, and that is the firm view that the idea of a Content Architect (and the Content Resource department, which is another concommittant concept) are great from a theoretical perspective (and an aspirational one!) but maybe not so good from an implementation perspective.
Some similar themes in this one as well that are worth a read.
Let me explain through background…
Many years ago there was the webmaster. Invaariably noone knew where to put this strange individual who knew many interesting things about websites (Marketing, IT, the car park, who knew?). But they knew they needed one. Now there is the content architect, and as with many a wonderful corporate website the CA will be shuttled back and forth between Marketing, Corporate, IT etc (maybe even the car park) without anyone really knowing where they should sit.
And that is why Organisational strategy is important. Unless you can actually look at real change in the organisation and restructure around the organisation’s core knowledge (read content), the Content Architect (and the Content Resource department) will live out on the edges like the webmaster did, without the proper ability or authority to effect change and without the corporate mandate.
Selling the value proposition is always going to be the most difficult thing here, and without all levels of the organisation seeing the value for themselves in this role and in the effective centralised/distributed management of organisational knowledge it is very hard to accept that this type of role will be quick in coming…
Okay so I was happily doing a bit of reading this evening (as is my wont and the fact that I am trying notto spend another marathon 5 hours playing FarCry 2 may have something to do with it). Or not. Anyway, reading – and I was reading this article on Digital Ministry.
Side note on this, while the article is interesting and Stephen Byrne is definitely a smart guy, that wasn’t what I thought was interesting here or why I’m writing this post (Surprise!). Why I am writing this is the somewhat throwaway line in the article “(everyone accepts that content is no longer a competitive advantage)…”
Okay, so I disagree.
This has come up in other discussions that I have been involved in on LinkedIn and other sites in regard to content and especially newspaper and magazine content where there are multiple sources and multiple ways of accessing the news (or whatever it is).
My point has always been that what becomes important (and of value) in this case is not the content itself, but the opinion, the ability to dissect the content, the meta information and other additional value that can be moulded around the content – I’m getting a little tired of people making bold statements like the one above as it misses the point as far as the opportunities presented by far better and more targetted search and better and more nuanced meta information.
Content can well still be a competitive advantage if it is of value and sits within in a cloud of smart meta information that helps the user to find/understand/learn/answer.
“We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.”
Amen to that
Reading a post by Cameron Reilly called “When Faith Kills” – worth sharing
I’m reading tonight about the case of Dale and Leilani Neumann, an American couple who let their 11 year-old daughter, Madeline Kara Neuman, die…
Ashley Seddon of Digital Personnel very kindly used some of my (relatively offhand) comments in an article that he was writing on Online News Subscription (and why I think that we need to find new models to support this type of thing rather than recycling old content subscription models)
http://www.digitalpersonnel.co.uk/blog/digital-media-news-and-views/online-news-subscription/
Morning light reflecting
from sunglasses – I try
to catch her eye.
Quiet ocean
waves and gull wings
open when you call
Rainy tearing skies
tears falling windblown sideways
possum gloves warming
Soon there will be rain,
its smell permeates the air -
I breathe more deeply
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