Content and Convergence:
Another Move Away from Content Silos

by Rahel Anne Bailie, Associate Fellow, STC Canada West Coast

When technical communicators think of content management, our minds naturally go to the world of structured authoring and XML content management. If someone were to map out the direction of structured authoring over the last couple of decades, it would be a relatively simple path, from DocBook SGML to DocBook XML to DITA XML, with a few detours along the way for specialized DTDs (such as S1000D, used for aircraft maintenance).

It's probably surprising, then, to realize that in the content management world, this type of content management is considered a niche market so specialized that industry pundits haven't even bestowed on it a sexy acronym, and are just now starting to look for a common vocabulary to talk about it. There's a current attempt to call this "component content management" but whether the term will stick well, as the term is being coined from outside the industry, remains to be seen. So far, single-sourcing  has been the most persistent terminology used, but even that only addresses a relatively small aspect of this type of content management which is known by terms such as structured authoring and XML content management (SAXCM is a bit of a racy acronym, but after all, SAX sells!).

Where the action is, both in terms of market size and in movement, is on the Web side. Web content management systems (WCMS) are used not only for Web sites but intranets, extranets, and portals — a fancy name for a site where some content is password protected, and sometimes different content is served up, depending on the role of the person coming to the site or logging in. Variants of these Web systems are also used for e-learning, knowledge management, collaboration, e-commerce, and a host of related applications - but let me not get distracted from my premise.

The systems used for marketing purposes have their own entourages to support their functions. There are Digital Asset Management (DAM) apps to handle all the still and moving images in low- and high-resolution, thumbnails, and print-quality downloads. To go with that, Digital Rights Management (DRM) apps are needed to control access and usage of the digital assets. Also part of the entourage is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) software that helps drive traffic to the site, and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) software that syndicates content from the site.

Where this all becomes interesting is in the convergence of these two worlds, in the intersection of the worlds of structured authoring and WCMS. We came from a world of content silos, and progressed to a world of content management silos: SAXCM and WCM. But, many would say, what about Enterprise Content Management Systems (ECMS)? Doesn't that remove silos, and let an organization share and re-use content across the entire enterprise? Well - and you probably won't be surprised at the answer - yes and no.

If you consider an organization a closed system, you very well might look at ECM as a solution to getting content out of CMS silos. However, as the saying goes, "the devil is in the details" and the actual execution to get everyone's content across the enterprise readied for ultimate shareability does take a concerted, corporate-wide, executively-sponsored project to guarantee success. And yet, aren't we rapidly bypassing the ECM stage? Now, we are entering a new phase where collaboration tools, social networking tools, and tools barely entering the market are ready to change the landscape yet again.

The technical communication world is preparing for this world of convergence and integration with DITA, where topic-based content can be re-used within a document or a department, or shared with the rest of the organization or with partner organizations. The DITA standard allows content to travel, even boomerang, and be as usable when it arrives as when it left its author. In the Web world, similar standards have emerged and continue to emerge in the forms of everything from microformats to entire mark-up languages as a way of making content transportable.

The next few years will hold some interesting developments for technical communicators. The convergence of content types will have far-reaching implications, and any predictions would need to change as user reactions to new technologies affect user expectations, the way that del.icio.us and digg have affected searching for information. It's certainly a time when we need to keep ourselves aware of industry trends and align ourselves more closely with other content developers that touch our work.

About Rahel Anne Bailie

Rahel Bailie is principal of Intentional Design Inc. , focusing on performance improvement for communication products, and content management consultant in Strategy A Consulting Group, a multidisciplinary consultancy helping organizations find effective ways to manage content as valuable corporate assets.