CONTENT CRITICAL FORUM January 2002
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CONTENT CRITICAL FORUM
Right content - Right person - Right Time - Right Cost
Moderated by Gerry McGovern - Email: [email protected]
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January 2002
Website: http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/cc_forum.htm
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
WEB CONTENT: THE MESSAGE IS THE MESSAGE
Gerry McGovern wonders why many websites are still putting looks before
substance.
CONTENT IS STILL ESSENTIAL TO THE SERVICES WEB
Tony Byrne advocates Web Services that are rich in content.
CONTENT MATTERS
ROUNDUP OF WEB CONTENT NEWS AND INFORMATION
The debate on copyright; Truth and fiction on the Web; Content sells
autos; Readability on the Internet; The Content Management Bible.
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WEB CONTENT: THE MESSAGE IS THE MESSAGE
By Gerry McGovern
Marshall McLuhan famously stated that, "the medium is the message." This
is true for much modern media. It is not true for the Web. On the Web,
the message is the message for the following reasons:
* Limited bandwidth: the message becomes diffused as the medium becomes
richer in color, movement, sound. The Web operates off limited
bandwidth. A picture may paint a thousand words, but many pictures take
five times longer to download than a thousand words do. In email, it's
even more bare bones. People hate to see attachments. The chorus is:
just the plain text, just the ASCII, please.
* Functional medium: Computers are, by and large, functional, work or
learning-oriented tools. Most people don't 'browse' on the Web. They
come to do something specific like buy a book or find information on the
latest laptops. They are in search of the message.
* Screen size and resolution: Screen resolutions have improved, though
it is still harder to view and read content on a screen than it is in
print. Screens sizes are, on average, small. This creates a sense of
focus, a sense of mission.
* The Web is active: You don't just sit back and watch the Web. You need
to boot the computer, load your browser, get online, then search or
click to get places. Most of us don't do these things unless we have a
sense of purpose.
Studies have found that the metaphor that best describes the Web in the
public's mind is a library. It's this great place where there's lots of
content that people want. Or, maybe to be more precise, it should be a
such great place. Very often, websites are all shiny surface and no
depth.
According to research carried out by Parity/Dialogic in 2001, four out
of five organizations put the look of the website before the content.
"Designing a Web site is like choosing a girlfriend or boyfriend," Jonas
Hjerpe, marketing director at the solutions division of Parity, told
Content Wire in November 2001. "It's all very well having an attractive
person on your arm, but if they have nothing intelligent, new or
interesting to say, you'll get bored and go elsewhere. Similarly,
surfers are usually attracted to sites that look good, but if they don't
offer anything substantial, users will move on and never return."
The websites that work are about substance. Quality content is the
substance of the Web.
Gerry McGovern
mailto:gerry@gerrymcgovern
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CONTENT IS STILL ESSENTIAL TO THE SERVICES WEB
By Tony Byrne
At the dawn of the Web, there was content, and it was good. But it was
not good enough. We users quite properly noted that the Net is an
interactive medium. We wanted to do more than simply read -- we wanted
to do business online. We told the airlines, "don't just tell us your
flight times, let us book tickets on your website."
And so the interactive Web emerged with new tools for e-commerce,
collaboration, and customer self-service. But then something happened.
Amid the new opportunities to interact we saw:
- Empty online bulletin boards bereft of reasons to talk.
- Massive catalogs -- B2B, B2C, it didn't matter -- that stared up at
you like bottomless canyons, full of good stuff no doubt, but also oddly
barren from a human standpoint.
- Automated customer services tools that left us more puzzled than
informed.
Companies soon came to realize that what these applications really
needed was good content.
One early signal of this problem was when industrial suppliers refused
en masse to participate in B2B NetMarkets. Why? Because NetMarkets --
with their brutal focus on prices, timing, and other types of neatly
tabular data -- served to further commoditize suppliers' offerings. You
might think it's funny when a shoelace manufacturer calls itself a
"fastening solutions provider," but they are probably making money at
it. And which first-generation B2B exchange could encapsulate their true
differentiators? That takes context, and context requires lots of good
content.
Good content comes in many forms: case studies, related services, and
lots and lots of supporting information. People need contextual
information to make decisions, especially in impersonal Internet
environments. Companies have caught on. Content has become king again,
albeit now it is relevant, just-in-time, device-appropriate content. So
witness the consequent spike in demand for content management systems,
and even catalog content management systems like Saqqara and Engima.
Presently we see the rise of Web Services, and it, too is good. The Web
Services model provides a framework for diverse Internet applications
from multiple companies to interoperate with each other, without anyone
having to manage complex, one-off integrations. Here's the idea: with
Web Services, formerly standalone Web applications can query directories
of other applications, discover services available for integration, then
wrap up complex, bundled transactions into one seamless experience,
thereby bringing a whole new world of convenience to consumers. We can
book a flight, reserve a hotel room, and rent a car all in one
transaction.
But without good content, this is a fantasy. Simply exposing services to
other applications does not mean they will actually be used, by
consumers or business.
Don't get me wrong: I'm quite high on Web Services. Among other benefits
it holds great promise for Web content management, especially within the
firewall. Web services could connect disparate desktop applications to
content repositories in ways that make current methods seem downright
Luddite. Perhaps more importantly, companies will be able to expose CM
services to other applications, overcoming the nearly ubiquitous problem
of disconnected content and e-commerce infrastructures.
But difficult lessons will be relearned if focus rests solely on
services integration without necessary supporting content. Right now, I
see a lot of attention around services discovery, application security,
and transactional integrity. The same attention should be paid to
packaging content that end-users truly want to see along the way. Give
us context. Transactions will follow...
Tony Byrne
Tony Byrne is Founder and Managing Editor of CMSWatch
(http://www.cmswatch.com), an independent source of information, news,
opinion, and analysis about web content management.
Would you like to comment on this piece?
mailto:[email protected]
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CONTENT MATTERS
ROUNDUP OF WEB CONTENT NEWS AND INFORMATION
THE DEBATE ON COPYRIGHT
LA Times (January 8, 2002): Copyright is a problematic issue in a
digital world. Things digital are so easy to copy. In the United States
the debate is currently raging. As the recording industry seeks to
create CDs that are copy-protected, Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) points out
that this approach quite likely infringes the 1992 Audio Home Recording
Act.
TRUTH AND FICTION ON THE WEB
Washington Post (January 4,2002): On the Internet, everyone is a
publisher. That means everything can be published; from truth to lies.
Since the September 11 tragedy, the Internet has helped peddle a lot of
falsehoods, including the following:
* A "friend of a friend" received a letter on September 10 from a former
boyfriend, an Afghan, begging her not to fly on commercial airplanes on
Sept. 11.
* Dunkin' Donuts employees of Arab descent were described as cheering
when they heard that the World Trade Center buildings had collapsed.
* Antiwar protesters from Idaho University were reportedly chased from a
Best Western restaurant by citizens singing "God Bless America."
* A fireman "surfed" the collapsing World Trade Center buildings and
walked away.
* A dog named Daisy rescued countless souls from the damaged buildings.
CONTENT SELLS AUTOS
Internet News (January 4, 2002): Americans are turning in increasing
numbers to the Web to gather information on cars they are interested in
buying. Studies indicate that while only 6 percent buy cars online, over
60 percent of car buyers visit car websites to gather information. This
illustrates an important aspect of e-commerce. The sale may not be
completed online but it can be influenced by quality content.
READABILITY ON THE INTERNET
Web Developer's Virtual Library (December 20, 2001): "There is a great
deal written and said about development of Internet sites, with much of
the emphasis being placed on usability, navigation and appearance. It is
now time to throw another factor into the mix — readability." Lee
Clark writes an interesting article focusing on the readability of
content on the Internet.
THE CONTENT MANAGEMENT BIBLE
Authors are at the hub of content management, according to Bob Boiko in
his new book, The Web Content Management Bible. "The term 'author'
applies to anyone who creates content, regardless of what official job
titles individuals hold," he writes. "The goal of any CMS is to harvest
the creative product of as wide an author base as feasible and deliver
it to as wide an audience base as feasible. The more organized the
system is, the wider is the feasible base."
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INFORMATION ABOUT CONTENT CRITICAL DISCUSSION FORUM
The Content Critical discussion forum is an email-based discussion list
focused on content and knowledge management. It is moderated by Gerry
McGovern and is run in partnership with the Pearson Education website,
Business Minds (http://www.business-minds.com). It is published 1-2
times per week. To find out more on Content Critical, please go to:
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/cc_forum.htm
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