Content Is Critical
News you can useJuly 28, 2008: Giving control of a website to a communicator can be like giving a pub to an alcoholic. More
The new web communicator
April 07, 2008: The Web offers one of the most significant opportunities to communicators in modern history, but requires a total redefinition of what communications is. More
Your website: Just words?
February 25, 2008: Words are the building blocks of every website. But then, words are the building blocks of modern civilization. More
The first corporation was built on content
January 07, 2008: Sears Roebuck was one of the very first large corporations. It was in the mail-order business. It used content to make the sale. More
Web design is the design of words
July 16, 2007: In the design of physical products, the use of words is often seen as a sign of a flaw of the design. On the contrary, in web design, without words, there is no design. More
Google changes information management
May 07, 2007: The success of Google proves that if you manage content professionally, tremendous value is delivered. More
How Web influenced US elections
November 13, 2006: Time and time again, content influenced the course of the recent US elections. Because this is the age of content--of written words, of audio and video. More
The Long Neck
August 14, 2006: All websites have a very small set of killer tasks that really matter to the customer. Web management is about perfecting the completion of these tasks. More
Heart surgery for dummies
March 27, 2006: One of Amazon's biggest sellers in recent months is Heart Surgery for Dummies. The world is now full of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) heart surgeons. More
Long Tail: boon for consumer, bust for producer?
February 27, 2006: The science of content management begins with a deep understanding of your customer. The Web is more likely to push your customer away than to bring them closer. More
Scientific Content Management
January 09, 2006: Management is the pursuit of the best way. Content is an increasingly important resource and activity within organizations. It is time it was professionally managed. More
Raising the perceived value of your website
December 19, 2005: Perception is everything. Right now, most senior managers do not perceive that content delivers significant value. More
In praise of web experts
October 31, 2005: People like experts because people like clear answers and rules. On the Web, Jakob Nielsen is seen as an expert. It’s one of the reasons he’s so popular. More
Hurricane Katrina and the Dot Com Bubble
October 11, 2005: There has never been more information. And that’s exactly the problem. Too much information too quickly published is just as bad as too little. More
Web content management is not data management
May 23, 2005: Web content management and data/document management require very different approaches. Data management is about storage; web content management is about using content to make the sale, deliver the service, and build the brand. More
Web content is a hidden asset
January 17, 2005: Most people within most organizations don't value content. In a typical organization, the higher up you go the less appreciation there is. That's all about to change because content is a 'hidden' asset of great value. More
Do you manage a website or a warehouse?
November 15, 2004: There are two types of people involved in websites today: those who see content as an asset, and those who see it as a commodity. The latter better start looking for a new career. More
Website content management depends on trust
October 25, 2004: You must be able to stand over everything that is published on your website and say that it is all accurate and up-to-date. Trust is a fundamental building block of professional web content management. More
Content management: design for rule, not exception
May 24, 2004: If your website tries to be all things to all people, it will fail. It's very easy on the Web to try to do too much. You need to relentlessly focus on what most of your readers do most of the time. Don't let anything else get in the way. Content management: design for rule, not exception
Website content management a process, not a project
May 10, 2004: When something is new, we need to approach it in an exploratory manner. We need to experiment and try things out. And so it has been with the Web. That period is now over. We need to move from seeing our websites as a series of projects, to managing them as a well-planned process. More
Press releases are awful web content
February 23, 2004: In the hierarchy of content, the press release is a bottom feeder. It is a single cell organism. In fact, it was never meant to see the light of day. To most people, reading a press release is about as interesting as reading a parking fine. And yet press releases proliferate on the Web. More
The dangers of publishing your website in another language
November 10, 2003: Publishing your website in another language is like managing a brand new website. It demands people who are expert in writing and editing in that language. The standard of English on the Web, for example, is often poor, even for those whose native language it is. It can be embarrassingly bad for websites publishing English as a foreign language. More
Why personalization hasn't worked
October 20, 2003: Personalization hasn't worked because most people don't have a compelling reason to personalize. It hasn't worked because the cost of doing it well usually significantly outweighs the benefits it delivers. It hasn't worked because managers have seen it as some Holy Grail of content management. Why personalization hasn't worked
The evolution of large websites
August 11, 2003: If you're part of a large organization, your website will probably have been started by a small group of evangelists. It will have grown in a very ad hoc manner. Gradually, senior management will have become more involved. Finally, the website will have been viewed as just another business tool, and managed as such. More
Why organizations think of web content like they think of invoices
April 14, 2003: Embedded deep within the psychic of the traditional organization is the view of content as an historical record. This view sees content as describing an event that has occurred. Web content is a driver of the event. Web content is action-oriented. That's the big shift and many organizations have not grasped it. More
Why content management software hasn't worked
March 03, 2003:Content management software hasn't worked because it was badly designed and massively over-hyped. Software companies lied about their products, charging criminal prices for crap software. It hasn't worked because organizations didn't understand content. They wanted a quick fix. They issued specifications that bore little relation to what they actually needed. More
Demystifying content management
July 08, 2002: In consulting, they say that the margin is in the mystery. Ironically, some managers prefer mystery to simplicity. If it sounds complex, many will pay more than if it sounds simple. Content management is a bubbling vat of hyperbole. It's time for some simple language. More
Content is not a technology issue
June 18, 2001: Last week, I was at a content management conference, where I heard two very opposing views of content. One was a technology view; a belief that, with the right software, most content problems could be solved in a cheap and efficient manner. The second was a people view; a belief that content was, at heart, about people writing, editing and publishing, with technology playing very much a supporting role. More
Why the Web was invented
January 29, 2001: Tim Berners Lee invented the Web because CERN -- the organization he worked for -- faced certain problems: getting the right content to the right person at the right time. More
