Slides for talk on "Hands off – it’s ours! Taking back the reins" by Keith McDonald, University of Greenwich on 13 July 2018 at the IWMW 2018 event.. See http://iwmw.org/iwmw2018/talks/hands-off-its-ours-taking-back-the-reins/

1. Hands off - it’s ours!
Taking back the reins
#IWMW2018 | #P9
Dr Keith McDonald | @WritingPrivacy

2. Introduction Master, there are a
few provisos...

3. Introduction

4. The project

5. The result

6. “The sphere of influence”
EVERYBODY
ELSE
Marketeers

7. Hands off - Step 1
Qualitative Audit

8. What stays? What goes?
400 pages
● 10% scrapped.
● 5% moved.
● 20% compressed.
Result: 60

9. Hands off - Step 2
Rewriting for Purpose

10. Stop the informational bias!
“Examination diet”
“Notional study hours”
“Contribution-towards-
the-cost-of-study loans...”

11. Before

12. After

13. Before

14. After

15. Before
(There is no hope…)

16. After

17. Hands off - Step 3
Culture shocks & Buy-in

18. One man...

19. And his (small) army...

20. Use content governance to
encourage better behaviours.
● Get students going where they
should be going.
● Get staff going where they should
be going.
● Leaving document culture behind.

21. Confidence usually
beats a culture shock.

22. Hands off - Step 4
Managing content

23. Too many cooks =
● Apathy
● Continuity
● Inconsistency
● Inefficiency
● Inaccuracy

24. Not all content ‘owners’
have the same awareness
and expertise.

25. Hands off - Step 5
Holding ground

27. Passive-aggressive feedback:
“I don’t know who’s
responsible for this...”
“This doesn’t work for me...”

28. There’s no point having a
new website if you intend
to make it like the old one.

29. “Hands off, you say?!?”
(Optimism is for fools…)

31. You CAN be victim of your
own success.

33. Some battles you cannot
expect to win.
(Thus, it’s important to win
the others!)

34. Summary
● Know your content.
● Anticipate culture shocks.
● Press for training.
● Establish a steering group.
● Push for winnable battles.

35. Thank you!
Go, take back your reins!
#IWMW2018 | #P9
Dr Keith McDonald | @WritingPrivacy