The Content Architecture In Action presentation given at Intelligent Content 2014 in the San Jose, CA. It covers the why, what and how to apply content architecture to enable digital and content agility within your organisation.

1. Content Architecture
“At Work”
Cleve Gibbon (@cleveg)
CTO, Cognifide

2. Just over five years ago,
a customer asked me,
to give them the
ability to…
…to create digital properties
at the speed of Wordpress
the scale of Salesforce, with
the simplicity of Google.

3. Change
Content
Digital
Value
Teams

4. Content Managed
Web Site
Digital Content
Platform
Web Channel
10+
Digital properties
Web Managed
Solution
Content
Management
System
Content
Management
Ecosystem

6. Content Managed
Web Site
Digital Content
Platform
Web Channel
Multi
Channel
10+
Digital properties
1000+
Digital
Properties
Web Managed
Solution
Digital
Platform
Content
Management
System
Content
Management
Ecosystem

7. A
C
T
Audience
Content
Technology

8. Content Architecture
Why
What
How

9. Why content architecture?
To enable digital and content agility.

10. Analytics
Automation
Campaigns
CMS
CRM
eCommerce
Email
Mobility
Multi-Channel
Digital
Customer
Experiences
Content
Aggregation
API
Archiving
Audit
Authoring
Distribution
Inventory
Lifecycle
Localisation
Management
Measurement
Modelling
Personalisation
Search
Syndication
Taxonomy
Translation
Workflow
…

11. Digital Agility
• Train and tracks are tightly coupled systems that are highly efficient.
• Cars and the road are loosely coupled systems the provide more flexibility.
• Digital agility requires organisations to place more value on flexibility.
• Companies must experiment, to learn, to optimise customer experience.
Source: http://dachisgroup.com/wrangling-complexity-the-service-oriented-company/

12. 1
first step towards
intelligent processes
typical starting point
for digital transformations
Intelligent processes
requires
intelligent content.
2
Intelligent content
has to be
designed for.

13. Content Agility
Production
Execute ‘that’ way
Make
Plan ‘this’ way
Strategy
Learn
Measure
Manage
Architecture

14. Liquid Content
Don't get set into one form.
Adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.
Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water.
!
Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup;
You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle;
You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot.
!
Now water can flow or it can crash.
!
Be water, my friend.
!
Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey (2000)

15. Content Management Challenges
• More content through increased interactions
• Increased complexity through experimentation
• Fewer resources to manage more content
• Multiple channels along which content must flow
• Vast amounts of content trapped within systems
• Rate of production is exponential

16. But we know…
• There’s a lack of awareness around what’s happening
• Serious organisational change hurdles
• Misplaced focused on technology to solve problems
• Both processes and people need to change
• Structured and meaningful content is on the rise
• Content is a strategic business asset

17. What is content architecture?
The time and place for continuous and collaborative content design.

18. Strategy
Architecture
Management
It’s where ‘design thinking’ for content takes place.

19. Content Architecture
• The design phase for content management
• Create models for structured and meaningful content
• Define author experience for content creators
• Map value workflows from production to delivery
• Develop APIs to take content everywhere it needs to be
• Design a technical architecture to sustain content

20. Connecting Information to Content
Context
Content
Users
Content
Labelling, Navigation, Search
Wireframes, Blueprints
Metadata, Taxonomy, Thesauri
Content Inventories & Mapping
Information
architecture
Mind The Gap
Content Models, Author Experience, Workflow
Structured, Reusable & Personalised Content
Content Administration, Asset Organisation
Role-Based Content, Permissions
Content Scale, Storage, Analytics
Content
architecture

21. Content Architecture
A Communication Tool

22. Applying content architecture
Think big, start small.

23. Change is your friend: Move like Neo!
You don’t need content to progress,
you need structure.

24. Responsive Design
C
Mobile Layout
minor
breakpoint
(decent desktop)
A
A
B
B
C
different
promotion
B
minor
breakpoint
(all devices)
adjust
text length
A
image
alignment
minor
breakpoint
(ipad mini)
C
Tablet Layout
Desktop Layout

25. Portfolio
APIs
Title
Amount
Owner
Fund
Entity
Manager
Portfolio GetPortfolio(name)
Text GetPortfolioOwner(portfolio)
Fund GetFund(portfolio, fundName)
Text GetFundManager(portfolio, fundName)
content is accessible to the entire
content technology ecosystem,
but most importantly internally!

26. Modularity
• From blobs to chunks.
• Break into parts
• Assemble into wholes

27. Search
• Establish taxonomy
• Indexing
• Retrieval
• Navigational

28. Content Repository
• Not all content lives in the
CMS
• Architecture shows where
content & data lives

29. In Summary

30. In Summary
Make space for content
architecture within your
projects.
!
Content architecture is
where content design
takes place.
!
There is no clear cut set of
roles and responsibilities,
across strategy, architecture
and management. Who cares?
!
This is a maturing field, so
let’s grow with it!

31. Resources
For more details:
1. http://www.slideshare.net/cleveg/defining-content-architecture
2. http://www.slideshare.net/cleveg/why-content-model
3. http://www.slideshare.net/cleveg/content-modelling-2013-lite
4. http://www.slideshare.net/cleveg/content-architecture-in-action
!
!

32. Questions
!
!
!
Cleve Gibbon (@cleveg)
www.cognifide.com