A Tale of Two Cities (and Conferences)

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times*. Or at least that's the impression about the state of the content development industry that came across during two different publishing conferences I have attended in the last few weeks. Hosted in two cities that couldn't have been more diverse, Palm Springs, CA and Austin, TX, the conferences were opposite reflections of their locations.

Palm Springs CA can perhaps be summed up by the fact that the city's greatest attraction appears to be an aging vaudeville theater that boasts that it is home to the World's oldest chorus line! This, the city not the theater chorus line, was the venue for the 2012 Intelligent Content Conference (ICC12), a vibrant well programmed exchange of ideas that drew attendees from various aspects of the enterprise content development world, especially from service information, business process, and marketing; along with new technology practitioners, leading consultants, and content strategists. This group understood that the real value of the new publishing model was in the content itself (hence the title of the conference.)

The underlying feeling coming away from this conference was that the attendees thought that this was indeed the "best of times" to be in content development. The biggest revolution in content development and delivery since the invention of the printing press is opening up an incalculable number of opportunities to redefine both the business model, and the way we tell our stories and interact with those who consume them.

Austin, TX on the opening day of the annual SXSW Interactive conference gives off that same vibe of excitement and opportunity as leading thinkers, futurists, innovators, and entrepreneurs descend on the Texas capital to discuss the future of the web. Part of this year's opening day events included a one-day mini-conference based on O'Reilly's Tools of Change (TOC) annual publishing industry get together in New York. As expected the majority of attendees where from the worlds of traditional book and magazine publishing. The contrast between this crowd and the attendees at Intelligent Content, and the larger SXSW crowd, couldn't have been more marked. The underlying vibe that I picked up at the TOC day was one of confusion, and even panic.

The first speaker, mobile designer Josh Clark, provided one of the best summaries on how to approach the new publishing paradigm when he said that "Your product is called content, everything else is a container." He also went on to say that "Mobile isn't about Apps. An App isn't a strategy." Yet nearly every other speaker, and question from the audience, ignored this great advice. The focus of most conversations was firmly on the delivery process and medium, not about the thing actually being delivered, the content. And during the sessions I was at I never heard a single word about how to add value to the content by making it intelligent

My feeling was that most of the TOC audience this is "the worst of times," as things are changing too fast to understand, and the traditional business model no longer works.

And that's where I believe the disconnect between these two groups originates - with the business model.

In the corporate world the development of content is a key part of any business process (In fact in THE CONTENT POOL book I put forward that it is THE key component), and that while it may not always be recognized as such, it is generally developed irrespective of the delivery platform. Yes particular platforms may be specified, but they are more a matter of convenience and familiarity than an integral part of the company's overall business model. The value to the organization is implicitly in the content, not the delivery model.

In traditional publishing, no matter what lip service is paid to content, it is the delivery mechanism that provides the value. The business model of traditional publishing is built around the infrastructure and process to move pieces of paper from the printer, to the warehouse, to the retail outlet, and eventually into your hands as a consumer. It is only you, as a consumer, who then derives any value from what was on that paper - the content.

While the corporate world sees new delivery models as an opportunity to provide more and more intelligent content, traditional publishing sees it as a disruptive event to a centuries old infrastructure.

The best of times; the worst of times.

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* With apologies to Charles Dickens for the paraphrasing. - "A Tale of Two Cities" was originally published concurrently in two separate formats - In the weekly magazine All Year Round without illustrations , and in collected monthly installments with illustrations by regular Dickens artist Halbot Browne (from which the illustration at the top of this post is taken.) Dickens was a master of realizing the value of his content over format often publishing new works in various formats and platforms to reach the widest possible audience, before eventually publishing the full work as a novel.

If he were around today, I'm sure he would be one of the pioneers of digital publishing.

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Silo? What Silo?

Information Silos. I often talk about them, and I hear people talk about them all the time.

"We need to break down the walls between functions and departments. We need other people to share their information and content with us."

A sentiment I heard expressed at a conference recently by the representative of a large engineering company.

Yet two days later when it was suggested that the design engineers in her company should be given web based authoring tools so that they could write the basic information needed for a technical procedure, her immediate response was "No way! I'll never let engineers write technical procedures. That's the technical authors' job."

Sounds like creating silos to me. Don't expect others to share and collaborate if you're not intending to do the same.

Getting others to break down their information and process silos means you have to do it first.

THE CONTENT POOL book - Just a week away.

I'm looking forward to the Intelligent Content Conference in Palm Springs next week for several reasons.

And top of that list is the fact that the conference will be the location for the official launch for my latest book, THE CONTENT POOL, which in many ways is based on this blog. (Cover above.)

Today Scott Abel posted an interview with me abut the book, and the ICC12 launch, at his Content Wrangler site.

I mention in the interview that we will be publishing a special limited edition of THE CONTENT POOL for conference attendees. The ICC12 Edition will be limited to just 100 copies and will include an exclusive chapter linked to the panel on "Making a Business Case for Innovation" which I will be participating in at the conference.

If you are heading to Palm Springs next week for ICC12 I look forward to seeing you.

If you can't make the conference the standard edition of THE CONTENT POOL is available for pre-order.

The Man from P.O.S.T. - "The Where to Prioitize a Technology Decision Affair"

Despite the fact that for over half of my career technology companies have (and continue to) pay my mortgage - I have always been a long standing, and increasing vocal, proponent of the idea that in deciding on any business process change or innovation the technology must come last.

A topic I devote a whole chapter to in the upcoming THE CONTENT POOL book (end of shameless plug).

At the 2011 LavaCon conference I even ended up getting a quick round of applause during the conference closing panel discussion for the statement that audience members should stop talking about tools and start talking about business need. A sign that I thought that we were making some headway.

Then yesterday I was invited on a conference call for a project that has been ticking over for nearly three years now and is not making any apparent progress. The reason quickly became apparent as conversation quickly got into the weeds about the features / functions and development efforts needed around three alternative technology options.

When I asked the basic question of what was the project's high level business objective, no-one could actually articulate it. Was this a project for the customer communication,, or was it a project to prove that something could be done using existing technology? Again, no clear response.

Over lunch afterwards, a friend reminded me of the acronym POST developed by the Forrester's consulting group. P.O.S.T.

Forrester's created the P.O.S.T. approach as part of developing a corporate social network strategy - but I believe it applies equally as well to the world of content strategy (Of which social network content should be a part anyway).

P. = People
O. = Objectives
S. = Strategy
T. = Technology

Seems obvious doesn't it. Start with those who have a need, figure out the things you need to do to fill that need, develop a strategy to do it, and then think about the tools you can use to do it.

You should be thinking along the lines of "We need to decrease the time it takes to get our content changes into the hands of our customers," not "We need to install Wizgadget3.0."

Or as my lunch companion neatly summed it up -

If you put the "T" first, all your are left with is a P.O.S.

Every Presentation, Ever: A Communication Failure?

I have spent, and continue to spend, a lot of my professional life either giving, or sitting through presentations. I have seen every one of the communication failures parodied in this video.



After I'd watched the video and smiled in recognition, and even winced occasionally about things know I've done in the past. I started thinking about the title.

Is every presentation ever given an exercise in communications failure?

I would submit that the vast majority are - sure there are good ones (see the various TED talks for instance), but most presentations are simply a dry regurgitation of facts and ideas that could be better expressed in much more entertaining and different ways.

How?

By focusing on the speaker, not on the PowerPoint.

Think about the conference sessions you remember most - I bet it was the ones with the energtic, passionate, articulate speakers, rather than the ones with the prettiest slides. I have seen a growing trend amongst top rated speakers and presenters to just use single image slides acting as a backdrop to a particular point as a way of getting the audience to focus on them and the message they are delivering. I even have spoken to several other regular conference speakers about dropping the use of slides altogether, but conference organizers seem to get scared when you say you don't have any slides.

During the course of the year I attend two distinct types of industry events, first there are the technical and business conferences, then as a pop-culture writer there are the the various conventions. For as long as I have been attending science-fiction and comics conventions the default way of communicating with the audience is to have a panel of guests discuss a particular topic in which they have a stated interest, or experience. No PowerPoints, just people discussing what they know and what they are passionate about. The results are invariably both enlightening and entertaining.

Yet business conferences are still dominated by the "person in front of a slide deck" model. - Why? Over the last couple of years I've been lucky enough to be invited in a few business conferences that have experimented with the panel approach (usually just one or two in a program dominated by presentations), and in every case they have been well received, and a joy to participate in.

But it doesn't necessarily need a panel to get that same effect. I mentioned the TED talks earlier - many of the most viewed videos are of a single person on stage, just talking. Sharing ideas with a passion.

Of all the presentations I have ever sat through the most spell-binding was from graphic design guru Edward Tufte who spoke for a whole day on the subject of graphics, and never once used a PowerPoint slide.

Instead of "presenting" information and hiding behind slide decks we should be encouraging expression of ideas, conversations, and discussion. - That's what communication is really about.

That Was The Week That Was ....

I'm not sure I could have asked for a better first full week of the New Year. No matter how I look at it 2012 looks like it's going to be a promising, exciting, and busy year in the world of Content Strategy and Business Communications in general, and on a personal level for 4Js Group as well.

Let's take a look at what made this week such a perfect start to the year.

• I kicked off the week by delivering the final manuscript for "THE CONTENT POOL" book on Content Strategy to the fine team at XML Press for final copy edits, indexing, and layout. - We are looking at publication in the first half of the year. - As soon as we have nailed down a date I'll post it here and on my twitter accounts. - I'll also be posting updates here as the book goes through the final stages before publication.

• Then the fine folks at MindTouch issued the list of what they considered the most influential people in the Technical Communications and Content Strategy industries. I was delighted and honored to make the list under both my own name, and as 4Js Group, alongside so many other great industry professionals.

• On the conference front, it looks like I will be speaking at this year's Lavacon in Portland in October. Lavacon has rapidly become on of my favorite events of the year, and I always enjoy speaking there.

• I was also invited to join a panel on "Delivering the Business Case for Innovation" at the upcoming Intelligent Content Conference in Palm Springs next month. - The conference has a great line up of speakers and subjects.

As I mentioned, overall a great week - and a great start to the New Year.

Where have all the posts gone?

Wow - I just realized I haven't posted anything here since May. Over two months ago! - That's too long for a blog to go unattended, but I have a good reason.

I am deep into writing the book version of this very blog.

THE CONTENT POOL will cover, and expand on, many of the subjects I've discussed on this blog over the years. Plus I'll be adding in more from my twenty plus years experience in the Business Communications industry to, hopefully, produce a though provoking book on exactly why content is your company's greatest hidden asset.

THE CONTENT POOL is designed to help you:

• Identify
• Organize
• Manage, and
• Leverage

your content to reduce costs and increase revenue and profits.

Look for it later this year from XML Press.

I'll be posting more updates, and maybe a few extracts, as we get closer to publication.

Looking forward to the STC Summit

Next week I will be in Sacramento, CA for the 2011 STC Summit. An event I've been looking forward to for many months.

Although I'm not speaking this year, I've been more involved than ever, as both Deputy Program Manager, and Track Manager for both the Web Technology and Education and Training tracks.

This will also be the first STC Summit since the publication of my book "WIKI: Grow Your Own For Fun & Profit," which will be available at the conference bookstore and at the XML Press booth.

If anyone would like to meet up for a chat, or get a book signed, then the best places to find me (or leave messages) will be at:

• The STC Program booth,
• The XML Press booth,
• The PTC booth.

I'll also make sure to step into some sessions and visit the expo floor on a regular basis throughout the conference.

I'll also be posting note on both my Twitter accounts during the conference, so feel free to follow, or contact me, via @4jsgroup or @alanjporter

I'm looking forward to meeting up with old friends and colleagues, as well as meeting lots of new people for some interesting discussions on Technical Communications and Content Strategy.

I think we have put together a great program this year, and if you are attending, I hope you find it both informative and stimulating.

See you in Sacramento.

You know what they say about when you assume something...

...that you "make and ass out of u and me." Well I feel a little like that this morning

Earlier today I recieved an email from a software vendor (who, keeping to the rules of this blog, will remain nameless) that in order for them to issue me with a license for a new piece of software they needed the "Host ID" of my Windows laptop. - That was is it, a one line request with no further explanation.

Now about 70% of my time is spent on MAC devices of various types, MacBook, iPad, iPhone. I haven't seriously played around with a Windows machine in years - I had forgotten how to find the Host ID. Clicking on the My Computer icon and looking at Properties, which seemed to be the logical thing to do, was no help at all. So I sent off a quick email asking how exactly I was expected to find this elusive "Host ID"

"Oh, it's easy" came the reply. "Just open a command prompt, run the ipconfig/all command and look for the Phyisical Address it returns - that's the Host ID."

Hang on a minute - so the thing you initially asked me for isn't even called that, and you expected me to know that plus, I needed to go to the OS, and remember a command line I may never have used in my life!

Talk about making assumptions.

OK the end process was in fact easy - but then most things are if you know how to do them. Just beacuse you, your engineers and your support personal maybe confortable working in a partcicular environment, don't assume that your customers are just as familar.

Making yourself look like an "ass" and making your customers feel like one (even if it's only for a few seconds) is never a good idea.

Technically incompetent or just bad design?

Last week I suddenly noticed that the Dell laptop I use for certain contracts was no longer picking up my home office wireless network. In fact it was telling me it was connected to an unrecognized public network without internet access. No matter what I tried I couldn't get it to disconnect from that network and pick up the wireless.


On Tuesday afternoon I plugged the laptop directly into my ethernet cable and spent several hours disabling, and enabling network adapters, rebooting modems, and frantically googling various scenarios. Most of which told me the culprit was a well known Windows 7 bug related to a rogue ID file that showed up in the Windows Services menu. Except I couldn't find that file anywhere on my machine. In the end I just reset everything and resigned myself to spending an afternoon on a help desk call.


But first I needed to be on-site at a client's facility. Thinking the problem might be my home network, I took the laptop along hoping to connect to the client's wireless - no such luck. I mentioned the problem to several people, and no one had any suggestions.


Then about 5 minutes before I decided to call the Help Desk someone who has the same model laptop asked me if the wireless switch was off.

What wireless switch?




Ah that one!!

A switch that in the five month's I've had the laptop have never even noticed.


From a communications perspective a couple of things sprung to mind from this incident.

• How about putting up a warning dialog on screen at boot up when this switch is switched to the off position (maybe with a location diagram) instead of leaving it to Windows to think it has connected to an untrusted network? Would have saved sveral hours of frustration. BTW when the switch is OFF it displays a red background - but let's face it, who looks at the side of their laptop on a regular basis?



• How about making switches a different color, better labeled and slightly more obvious? Most people reading this probably know I'm a big advocate of using symbols to communicate. But make them big enough and clear enough. For a guy of a certain age who wears bifocals, how am I suppose to know what that is?

Oh and who puts a switch that can disable a major feature in a position where it can slide on and off through the process of picking up the lap top and sliding it into a case? Not exactly a well thought out design there.