Go Figure: Content Strategists Talking About WCM Systems

The Content Strategy Forum Event in London wrapped up yesterday. It was a well run and interesting event-- great content. There were serious talks about the future of content strategy as a discipline. In the halls, however, I had talks with people who were still debating the validity of content strategy as a profession. Many don’t see it as something distinct from information architecture or other existing editorial roles. Certainly, some of the content strategy agenda seems warmed over from a lot of other disciplines. But, I think any conversation that centers on improving the quality of digital, is a good conversation. And, I certainly believe that new roles will evolve in the digital arena. Time will tell if "content strategist" is one of them. In any case, there were a lot of really smart and well-intentioned professionals in the room. I would have wanted to hear some more concrete talk about content strategy methodology, but perhaps that’s just my taste.

The biggest surprise to me was an emphasis on Web content management (WCM) systems and the notoriously bad user experience they provide for authors.  In their talks, Karen McGrane and Cleve Gibbon both emphasized the importance of content-side digital stakeholders actively participating in WCM system deployments. I really wasn’t expecting that message from this event. In my experience, content folks have been generally negative about WCM deployments. Often they feel that WCM technology constrains (in a negative way) the possibilities of what can be delivered online. And, as Karen pointed out in her keynote “The way forward: what’s next for content strategy,” that the IT team selects WCM technology without understanding the content. True enough. But to IT’s defense, frequently, the content side of the organization have no idea what they are doing with the content either—no content strategy, no real information architecture, no component authoring strategy, etc.  Also, content folks frequently do not understand the technical sophistication and complexity involved in actualizing their content visions. Cleve Gibbon’s talk “The Strategist and the Executioner” illuminated this dynamic well.

The lack of understanding and clarity on both sides of the IT/Content fence coupled with the business and cultural disconnect between these two sides of the organization has made for an interesting dynamic in-house and online (often referred to as “a mess”). I think this well-articulated awareness and opening of dialogue between these two key stakeholder communities is good and I hope it continues with some cross-pollination of speakers between technology and content/communications events in the future. The content folks have made their move. Hopefully technologist will step up to the collaboration table in a more determined fashion as well and the real future of digital can begin to take shape.