This article is an overview of content management --
what it is, why it's needed, how it saves time and money and where to
find more information. It includes insights from Society members, other
Web sites and our own experience. The references reflect the fact that
"content management" is a catch-all term that means different
things to different people. The advice offered by the authors cited in
the article reflects their functional orientation and industry experience
-- and that may not be applicable to your situation.
Streamlining Web publishing Content management -- the process of creating and deploying information
over the Web -- has become a necessity for all but the most basic sites
as the volume of information mushrooms, information sources diversify,
and the publication cycle shrinks from monthly to daily or even hourly.
Content management can reduce the cost of creating and maintaining Web
sites, but the investment in enterprise systems can be substantial and
many customers report that the payback period can be long. There are substantial
"soft" costs for process redesign and training. For these reasons,
we are seeing more focus on decentralizing responsibility for content
management -- a strategy we have been advocating and practicing for many
years (see "Upstream knowledge
management").
Content management and knowledge base
publishing
Knowledge base publishing is a key enabler for content management. The
knowledge base itself -- a combination electronic card catalog for authors
and documents, index, thesaurus, and bill of materials -- provides ready
access to an inventory of intellectual assets. Knowledge base publishing
processes -- creating and acquiring, describing and classifying, formatting
and sharing, deploying over the Web -- turn assets into "finished
goods" and recycle them for new purposes.
