The Rockley Bulletin Archives
December 2006
2006: Content Management Market Year in Review
The Rockley Group takes a look back at the year 2006 in review. What happened in market? How is globalization changing the content management landscape? And, what about new communication vehicles like blogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS feeds? Ann Rockley takes a look back and provides some key insights and observations.
November 2006
Ensuring A Successful CMS Implementation
Never mind what the vendor tells you about how the software is going to make your life easier, or what your IT department says it can do to administer and manage the system; the single most important factor in a successful CMS implementation lies with you and your people.
Pamela Kostur Embarks on Entrepreneurial Adventure
We’re pleased to announce that Pamela Kostur left The Rockley Group recently to join her husband’s company Parallax Communications; a communications consulting company. We wish her luck in her new endeavor.
On-Demand Webinar: How GE Healthcare Reduces Documentation Costs and Speeds Time-to-Market
In this one-hour on-demand webinar, discover how GE Healthcare reduces documentation costs and speeds time-to-market by marrying a solid content reuse strategy with a content management system designed to handle complex multilingual content.
October 2006
Advocating Plain Language: Thom Haller Discusses The Need For Clarity
We asked Thom Haller, Director of the Center for Plain Language, to define Plain Language, discuss U.S. legislation related to Plain Language, and provide perspectives on why this outreach is needed now.
Customers Say What Companies Don't Want To Hear
In "Customers Say What Companies Don't Want to Hear", Customer Relationship Management (CRM) consultant Dick Lee asked customers what "customer centricity" means to them. The answers are valuable and can help content management professionals better understand how to serve their customers in meaningful ways.
September 2006
Listen: Tools and Technologies to Facilitate User-Centered Design
Listening to your customers is the first step toward becoming a customer-centric organization. Theresa Regli discusses how some organizations are going beyond usability testing to measure the effectiveness of their content. Learn how forward-thinking companies and government agencies are using technology to better understand their customers.
Controlled Vocabularies Aid Translation and Content Management
Berry Braster explores the need for controlled vocabularies -- to avoid ambiguous language -- especially when we are delivering translated content to a global audience. Braster discusses a few of the many reasons -- humourous, disasterous, and otherwise -- that adopting Simplified Technical English could reduce unecessary expense, minimize risks, and prevent death.
Customer-Centric Content Management – Level 3 Building the Customer Relationship
If you don't have a relationship with your customers, how can you expect to deliver content of meaning to them? Ann Rockley examines the need for a customer-centric approach and explores how MarthaStewart.com can leverage their existing content assets to more effectively meet customer needs, and improve the quality of both their content and their product offerings.
August 2006
Pandora Delivers Personalized Radio
How do you get millions of people to voluntarily tell you what they like and dislike and help you categorize an entire library of content. Offer them what they want. That's exactly what internet radio pioneer Pandora is doing, to the delight of listeners.
September Rockley Report To Feature Customer-Centric Content Management
Don't miss the next issue of the Rockley Report, due out in mid-September. The theme of the issue if customer-centric content management. Special guest contributors Bob Boiko (author of The Content Management Bible) and Emma Hamer (E. Hamer Associates) will explore critical aspects of content management designed to support the customer and enhance the customer experience. Get your free subscription today.
"Taming the Content Beast: Content Strategy and Modeling Workshop"
Plan to attend Taming the Content Beast: Content Strategy and Modeling Workshop, September 18-19, 2006 in Washington, DC an exclusive 2-day workshop presented by industry-leading consultant and author, Bob Boiko.
MarthaStewart.com: Making the Case for Customer-Centric Content Management
While "putting the customer first" is a common marketing mantra, until recently few organizations had adopted a truly customer-centric approach to communicating with their customers. But today's Web savvy shoppers are changing all that -- they're rewarding companies that recognize them as individuals and that deliver information of value to them. Find out how MarthaStewart.com could become a customer-centric success story.
July 2006
In Review: Document Engineering By Robert Glushko and Tim McGrath
In "Document Engineering: Analyzing and Designing Documents for Business Informatics and Web Services", Robert Glushko and Tim McGrath explore the document as an interface to business and provide a common sense approach to modeling both documents and services for information exchange.
Software As Service: Google Introduces Web-Based Content Tool
Google is increasing its presence in the content creation tools space by introducing a series of web-based authoring tools. Find out what the search giant is up to and how its "software as a service" offerings might affect your future technology product selection plans.
XML Syndication Set to Explode - Are You Ready For Big Change?
In this exclusive Rockley Bulletin article, Angel investor and information technology entrepreneur Salim Ismail outlines how XML content syndication is changing the way we do business on the web and explains the importance of structured content as a critical enabling factor. Find out how much Internet content is currently hidden from your view and learn how you can tap into the power of structured XML content and syndication to find the content you and your clients really want and need.
June 2006
Organizing Bookmarks With del.icio.us
If you've yet to discover the power of social bookmarking, let us introduce you to del.icio.us. The free, web-based service is one of the latest Web 2.0 offerings to make organizing Internet bookmarks easier than ever. Once you try it, you're likely to become addicted.
W3C Publishes New Cascading StyleSheet Module
The World Wide Web Consortium Cascading Style Sheet Working Group has released a Public Working Draft of their new "CSS3 Module: Generated Content for Paged Media." The module aims to provide features on the web that are often used in printed publications.
Lessons From The Trenches: DocZone.com Is Doing It With DITA
In this interview with Christopher Hill of [url=http://www.doczone.com/]DocZone.com[/url], the application support pro speaks candidly with Scott Abel about his company’s experience moving into the world of the [url=http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita3/index.html]Darwin Information Typing Architecture[/url] (DITA). Lessons learned, suggestions for improving DITA, warnings, and practical advice are included.
Structured Blogging Aims To Make Microcontent Interoperable
Structured Blogging is a movement that aims to provide bloggers with the tools they need to quickly and easily create and syndicate structured content. The difference between a typical blog post and a structured entry is that Structured Blogging content is published in machine-readable XML format, so computers can understand, reuse, syndicate, aggregate, and act upon it.
March 2006
OpenDocument Format Alliance Announced
The OpenDocument Format Alliance, whose goal is to promote and advance the use of the OpenDocument Format (ODF), wants you to consider using an open source format for your documents. Why? Files that use ODF can be opened by any application that supports OpenDocument, giving users more choices in software.
SafariU Shakes Up Academic Book Publishing
Find out how O'Reilly Media is shaking up the text book publishing industry with SafariU. The subscription-based online service aims to help instructors deliver the right content, to the right students, in the right format, at the right time. Take a test drive and mashup a textbook today!
Teaching The New Art Of Authoring In XML
Bill Albing explores the new art of teaching authors to create reuseable, structured XML content. Albing provides practical, real-world advice for authoring teams attempting to make the move away from traditional word processing.
Making The Move To Content Management: Five Stages Of Career Transition
Moving to content management is as large a paradigm shift as moving to the Web was during the 1990s. It's hard to remember how frustrated we were in dealing with non-linear text, the constraints of HTML, and writing in a less formal style. If the 90s was the decade of the Web, technical communication 2.0, this is the decade of content management. It's techcomm 3.0, and we're entering the field with an improved feature set. Soon we'll reflect on this time of change and say, "I could never go back."
February 2006
The Rockley Report Adopts Free-Content Model, Opens Archives To All
Free access is now available to the entire library of The Rockley Report, a journal about content management. The Rockley Report was previously a quarterly, subscription-only journal, but adopted a free content model March 1, 2006.
Webinar: Customer-Centric Content Management
Join Ann Rockley, President of The Rockley Group and Bret Freeman, Senior Sales Engineer, Vasont Systems, for a free one-hour webinar, March 8, 2006 at 1pm EST. Learn how a customer-centered content management strategy can help you control costs, reduce expenses and enhance the customer experience at every touch point.
Subsetting And Customizing DITA: An Alternative To Specialization
Bernard Aschwanden suggests some organizations might be able to use a subset of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) to produce technical content without the need to specialize the increasingly popular OASIS standard. Learn what subsetting is and how it compares to customizing and specializing DITA.
Louis Rosenfeld On Enterprise Information Architecture
In this interview with Louis Rosenfeld, The Rockley Bulletin asks the information architecture and user experience guru to talk about enterprise information architecture, what it is, where it's heading, and how you can get started.
January 2006
2005 In Review: Tools and Technologies
The Rockley Group analysts discuss mergers and acquisitons, highlight smart strategic relationships, and shine a spotlight on new "flavors" of content management in this annual wrap-up of technology topics.
Content Management 2006: Market Directions and Trends
Ann Rockley provides her annual summary of where the market is heading and explores the twists and turns that got us there. Get Rockley's take on XML use, ECM adoption, translation and localization, open source content management, and customer-centric content management. Rockley points out several emerging trends that should be on your radar screen.
Using XML For Global Product Information Publishing: The Road to Success at Siemens Medical
Attend this one-hour webinar and discover how Siemens Medical designed an effective information architecture and optimized their product information publishing processes to reach a global market.
Planning for DITA Success: How to Set Up the Right Team and Select the Right Strategy
Discover why DITA has created such a buzz in the content management arena, particularly among technical documentation teams—and learn what you need to do to prepare for long-term DITA success.
November 2005
In Review: Cashing In With Content
David Meerman Scott showcases 20 web sites that use content to attract and retain customers, drive sales, and increase revenue. From Aerosmith to Weyerhaeuser, Scott provides a treasure trove of lessons learned and web content best practices from some surprising sources. Download a free chapter!
Content Management Professionals Reach EContent 100
CM Pros makes prestigious EContent 100 list of movers and shakers in the digital content industry.
Feng Shui of Global Websites: Helping Visitors Find What They Need
Are you planning on translating your website to describe your company to people outside of your home market or to sell your products internationally? Language is just one step in the march to global markets. This tip sheet helps you with another aspect of international websites – how to let visitors know where to find the information they need.
Internationalization Tag Set Draft Announced by W3C
Internationalization Tag Set aims to provide a set of elements and attributes that supports the internationalization and localization of schemas and other XML documents.
October 2005
The Semantic Web
Tim Berners-Lee explores the ideas behind the Semantic Web, how it will work, and why it's so badly needed today.
Hurricane Katrina Snafus Underscore Importance of Standards
By not writing to standards, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency has created an unnecessary hurdle for many hurricane victims seeking aid who have already endured too much.
November 3 Is World Usability Day 2005
November 3 is [url=http://www.worldusabilityday.org/]World Usability Day[/url] and we at [url=http://www.rockley.com]The Rockley Group[/url] are proud to acknowledge and promote this event!
Notes from the Field: One Writer's Unwilling Journey Into Content Management
Join one writer as she muddles through the maze of tools and technology to rediscover the value of remaining true to her technical writer roots.
September 2005
Automatically Finding Duplicate Content
Using automated software tools can help you identify duplicate and near-duplicate content in large document sets and prepare your content to be loaded into your content management system.
Fundamental Concepts of Reuse
Before you can begin auto-populating your documents, web sites, and forms with reusable content, you'll need to understand the basic tenets of content reuse.
Auto-population: Who's Doing It and Why?
Auto-population of reusable content is a smart move. It can eliminate redundant data entry, reduce errors, speed time-to-market, eliminate wasteful and unnecessary expense, and increase content consistency.
Content Management Glossaries
There are a variety of content management glossaries available online to help you master industry jargon and demystify the mumbo jumbo.
August 2005
Content Personalization and Customization: CM Pros 2005 Summit
Content Management Professionals tackle the issues behind personalizing and customizing content at their annual Fall Summit.
Searching vs Finding: Why Systems Need Knowledge to Find What You Really Want
If you're frustrated by fruitless searches that yield too many 'hits' to be useful, you're not alone. Ever wonder how we got ourselves in such a mess? A scientist at Sun Microsystems did, too!
Information Architecture for the Web
No content management library would be complete without a copy of "Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Websites." The book is an easy read (less than 500 pages) and offers practical advice for those looking to improve the way they manage online content.
Information Architecture of Content Management
A key factor in any successful content management implementation is a solid information architecture. Far too often organizations implement content management without first identifying the needs of their authors, without looking closely at their content to determine how it could be most effectively structured to support user/customer needs, and without analyzing their current and desired content life cycles. The result: resistance to adoption, increased cost and failure to achieve desired ourcomes.
July 2005
DITA: Is it the Standard of Choice for You?
There is definitely a lot of hype around the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), especially since it was adopted as an OASIS standard XML architecture for publishing. Standard or not, is DITA the right choice for you?
DITA 2006 Conference, March 23-25, 2006 - Raleigh, NC
Meet and mingle with the DITA gurus from IBM at DITA 2006 - a three-day conference dedicated entirely to educating attendees about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture.
DITA Resources Online
If you need to learn more about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), look no further. We’ve provided links to a few of the most useful DITA resources available on the web today.
Content Management Systems that support DITA
This article provides a high-level view of what several content management system vendors are saying about “support” for DITA.
June 2005
Applying Content Technologies to Enterprise Applications
Content management professionals know where to go to learn what's hot -- and what's not -- in the content management technology arena. Now you do, too! Attend the upcoming Gilbane Conference on Content Management Technologies in Boston and find out how blogs, wikis, RSS feeds and rich internet applications are being used to deliver content of value to those who require it.
Webinars: DITA, Multilingual Publishing and Award Winning Content Management
Upcoming webinars from Idiom and Stellent offer attendees a chance to learn about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), Global Multilingual Electronic Publishing, and how Land O'Lakes won the AIIM Best Practice Award for its "innovative use of content management solutions."
The Content Management Handbook
If need to convince upper management why your organization should move to content management, Martin White has information you need. In "The Content Management Handbook" (2005, Facet Publishing), White discusses how important it is to take into account Total Cost of Ownership before selecting a content management system.
Mining for Information: Locating Useful Content Management Resources on Commercial CMS Vendor Web Sites
You can learn a lot about content management by visiting content management software vendor web sites. Well, that is, if you can find it. But, every once in a while, some really great information gets published to a vendor web site. We’ve selected some content we think might prove valuable to those hoping to make the case for content management in their organization, or those just trying to learn as much as possible, without all that distracting marketing noise.
May 2005
Shopping for Open Source Web Content Management Systems
Finding the right open source web content management system isn’t an easy task. There are literally hundreds of products from which to choose. With so many choices, it’s no wonder there’s a lack of understanding about what web content management systems are available and what these tools can actually do.
Innovation Happens Elsewhere: Open Source as Business Strategy
In "Innovation Happens Elsewhere: Open Source as Business Strategy" (Morgan Kaufmann, 2005), authors Ron Goldman and Richard Gabriel examine the world of open source software and address the human and business factors involved in adopting and maintaining open source systems.
Comparing Web Content Management Systems
Searching for a web content management system can be a daunting task. After you’ve done a [url=http://www.rockley.com/summaryc.htm]thorough analysis[/url] (organizational needs, content lifecycle, customer needs, and an audit of your existing content), it’s time to start thinking about tool selection. But where do you start? How do you determine which tool might do the job?
Locating Open Source Developers and Support Personnel
Many organizations consider adopting an open source content management system but opt instead for a solution from a commercial provider. Oftentimes, the decision not to adopt is based on – at least, in part – a perception that it may be difficult to locate knowledgeable developers and support personnel to manage an open source CMS. While these fears are realistic, OpenSource@Work aims to make locating open source CMS talent less scary.
April 2005
Should you develop a custom DTD (build) or adapt an existing standard DTD like DITA or DocBook (buy)? Because a DTD provides the foundation for every part of the system, from editing tools to content repository to output processors, this decision is perhaps the most important of all decisions made in the implementation of an XML-based content management system.
Finding Document Type Definition Creation Tools
Hand-coding Document Type Definitions (DTDs) is time-consuming and often error-prone task, especially for the novice DTD developer. If you're creating your own DTD from scratch, or editing an existing standard DTD, consider using a visual DTD editing tool.
In "Learning XML" (Second Edition, O'Reilly, 2003), Eric Ray, co-founder of the TECHWR-L technical writing web site and listserv, demystifies XML and explores, in depth, how XML DTDs work.
Learn how DTDs work by visiting w3schools.org. The site provides an excellent introduction to DTDs, including information about XML elements, attributes and entities, and explains how to validate your DTD against an XML parser.
March 2005
The Role of Content Standards in Content Management
Learn how using DITA, DocBook, SCORM and SPL can help you organize, author and deliver content to those who need it. Discover how adopting the right standards can assist your organization with regulatory compliance, industry conformance, and provide new avenues for information interchange.
KeyContent.org: Wiki Technology Facilitates Online Collaboration
Discover KeyContent.org, a new content management-based Web site that utilizes wiki technology to facilitate online publishing and collaborative authoring. The site is dedicated to knowledge sharing between professionals on the front lines of technical and scientific communication fields.
Lights Out Publishing: The Product Documentation Solution
Discover how "lights out publishing" can help you manage product documentation and deliver the right information, to the right people, at the right time.
CM Pros Announces Summit - April 11, 2005
The Second Semiannual Content Management Professionals Member Summit takes place in San Francisco on April 11, 2005, in conjunction with the Gilbane Conference on Content Management Technologies. Find out what's in store for attendees and learn how you can join CM Pros today.
February 2005
Finding Industry-Specific XML Markup Languages
Many industries and organizations have developed specialized XML markup languages designed to facilitate the exchange of information. While you may find it necessary to create your own markup language, chances are, there may be one or more existing markup languages that may meet your business needs. Discover how to locate freely available markup languages and put them to use today.
XML Markup: Creating Self-Describing Data
If you're thinking about moving to XML-based content management, you'll need to understand how XML can help you create self-describing, human-readable markup.
Catching Drug Dealers: GJXDM To The Rescue
Law enforcement officials in the United States are relying on XML-based content management to aid them in busting illegal prescription and street drug dealers. Learn how the U.S. Department of Justice is implementing the Global Justice XML Data Model to help catch criminals.
Before you can create your own XML markup language, you'll need to understand how XML works. A wide variety of books on XML are available at your local bookseller, but few are designed to teach you what you need to know to begin to master XML quickly. In fact, many XML books on the market today are so jargon-laden and poorly organized that they make learning XML more difficult than it need be. But, there is one XML book that can help you get up and running in just one weekend.
January 2005
CMS Vendor Q4 2004 Financial Roundup Report
Learn how well Interwoven, Stellent, Vignette and others vendors did, what issues are affecting how their financial results are being interpreted, predictions for workforce growth, service reductions and more.
Tools and Technology: The changing vendor landscape
A brief look at the vendors of content management software tools and the changes occurring as a result of the growth of interest in content management.
Content Management Market Trends
In the December 2004 issue of The Rockley Bulletin, we looked at the year in review and some of the major events that affected the content management industry. This month we take a quick look at trends affecting content management and their affect on the direction of the content management market.
IT Consulting Companies Begin Embracing Content Management
IT consulting companies are increasingly recognizing the benefits to be realized by targeting the burgeoning content management sector; the best and brightest will take note of a simple fact: success begins at home.
December 2004
Content Management: The Year In Review
2004 was a busy year for the content management industry. The biggest news? Mergers, acquisitions, XML, content reuse, enterprise content, and a new trade association for content management professionals.
Content Management Resources, Trade Associations, Standards And More In Our 2004 Of Interest Archive
Each issue of The Rockley Bulletin includes information you can use today to help you better manage the content you create. Our 2004 "Of Interest Archive" is an online resource center designed to provide relevant information about trade associations, online resources, standards bodies, and other helpful information aimed at content management professionals.
XML, DITA, Metadata, XForms And More In Our 2004 Technology Corner Archive
2004 was a busy year for those involved with content management technology-related issues. Check out the complete list of content management technology articles available in our 2004 "Technology Corner Archive".
XMP, Round-Trip Conversion, Digital Rights Management And More In Our 2004 Required Reading Archive
If you're involved with content management, you need to be well-informed. Check out the complete list of book reviews and other useful resources in our 2004 "Required Reading Archive".
November 2004
Fundamentals of Enterprise Content Management Certificate Program
The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) offers an intensive, web-based training program, "Fundamentals of Enterprise Content Management," a certificate program designed specifically for professionals who are in the first few years of their enterprise content management careers.
Learning About Content Management Tools and Technologies
While understanding both your organizational business needs and your content lifecycle is required before tackling any content management project, it also helps to understand the types of tools and technologies that are available to facilitate successful content management projects.
Enterprise Content Management: What You Need To Know
The folks at Open Text Corporation, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada have published a new book, authored by Tom Jenkins, entitled "Enterprise Content Management: What You Need To Know". It's packed full of useful statistics, factoids, and case studies -- information any content mangement professional would find valuable.
Fundamentals of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Certificate ProgramNew Roles Require New Skill Sets: Training Ensures Content Management Success
If your organization is planning a move to content management, it’s likely you’ll need to obtain training from experts who understand the challenges content management projects introduce. Because content management is a paradigm shift that requires the creation of new roles, modifications to existing roles, and the development of new skill sets, it’s best to identify -- up-front -- what new knowledge your staff will need to succeed.
October 2004
Content Management Professionals Organization Announced
A group of thirty content management experts from around the world has announced the formation of [url=http://www.cmprofessionals.org]CM Professionals[/url], an international community of content management professionals whose purpose is to further best practices based on shared experiences of experts and peers.
DITA Case Study: The Mechanics of Single Sourcing
Learn how one organization -- CEDROM-SNi --implemented DITA. This case study provides detailed information about the project, its goals, scope, challenges, and lessons learned.
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture: Avoiding Proprietary Lock-in
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based, end-to-end architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. Created and made available by IBM, DITA helps content creators consistently structure information into discrete, modular topic chunks (e.g. reference topics, task topics, and concept topics) that can be repurposed elsewhere. Read this article by Kay Ethier and Scott Abel to learn what DITA is and how it can help you avoid proprietary lock-in.
Optimizing the Content Supply Chain: Realizing Opportunities to Reduce Costs and Improve Outcomes
Company executives are continuously searching for new and creative approaches to reduce expenses, increase efficiency and profitability, and delight customers with innovative products and services. In this fight to achieve competitive advantage, many companies may be overlooking the processes required to create, manage and produce content. Discover how technological limitations can break down the content supply chain and learn how content management systems, authoring and publishing tools, and industry standards can be used to reduce costs and improve outcomes.
September 2004
Metadata tools are software applications designed to assist you in building taxonomies and categorizing content. If you don't have a metadata tool, you can get started creating and managing metadata with an Excel spreadsheet.
If you’re interested in metadata for publishing, get the “lowdown” on the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) from XML.org columnist, Bob DuCharme. His September 22, 2004 article examines the XMP specification and helps demystify how it works, who is using it, and for what purposes.
If you have a hard time finding the information you need on your corporate intranet, on the web, or even on your own personal computer, you’re not alone. Read this article to learn how you can improve your search and retrieval efforts and provide the information your customers need when they need it.
PRISM: Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata
PRISM (Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata), an IDEAlliance Working Group, has issued a Request for Comment on the newest version of PRISM, a set of XML metadata vocabularies that assist in automating repetitive tasks that are used in accessing, managing, tracking and repurposing content.
August 2004
The Journal of Database Marketing and Customer Strategy Management
The Journal of Database Marketing and Customer Strategy Management is a must-read for those who need to keep in touch with the ever-evolving facets of Customer Relationship Management.
Connected Strategies: Customer Relationship Management Meets Content Management
For a real-world example of basic content management and customer relationship management in action, visit the [url=http://www.connectedstrategies.com]Connected Strategies[/url] web site. A service of the high tech marketing gurus at [url=http://www.bnj.com]Babcock and Jenkins[/url], this site demonstrates how web sites can provide dynamic content to site visitors based on their personal information preferences.
Top 10 Customer Relationship Management Best Practices
Alice Thomas, Vice President, Consulting Services at CGI-AMS, says Customer Relationship Management (CRM) works -- but only when the right approach is coupled with careful planning and execution. In this article from CIO magazine, Thomas shares 10 best practices designed to ensure your CRM project is a big success.
Where do CRM and Content Management fit in the Customer Experience?
Carolyn Watt, President of The Customer Experience Company explores the importance of a unified content management strategy as a key enabler for organizations hoping to consistently deliver exceptional customer experiences.
July 2004
Managing Legacy Content - To Convert or Not To Convert?
Legacy content conversion is an important issue for content management project teams to understand before they tackle a CM project. The results of a 2003 Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture [url=http://aifia.org/pg/the_problems_with_cms.php]survey[/url] help underscore the importance of legacy content planning. Over 53% of survey respondents complained that content management systems do a poor job of handling legacy content. Gaining a thorough understanding of legacy content issues is a prudent first step – prior to selecting content management tools or authoring software.
Practical Advice: Converting PDF To XML
Need advice on converting PDF files to XML? Or better yet, want to know why you might consider such a conversion project in the first place? Check out this white paper from Cambridge Docs for practical advice on making PDF content accessible and reusable.
Roundtrip Conversions: Seven Golden Rules for Making Convertible Documents
In [url=http://www.dclab.com/xmlconversiontools.asp]Roundtrip Conversions: Seven Golden Rules for Making Convertible Documents[/url], Gross shares seven secrets designed to help make legacy content conversion a snap. The article discusses tools, conversion strategies, publishing stylesheets, and provides a list of helpful hints every legacy content conversion team should master.
Legacy Content Conversion Issues
Discover several important issues you should consider before deciding to convert legacy content to a new content-management system friendly format. Learn how automated legacy content conversion tools can help content conversion efforts -- and how they can really miss the mark! Gain insight into why consistently structured documents using semantic style tag names can make conversion easier and faster.
June 2004
Understanding XForms: An Introduction
XForms 1.0 is an XML recommendation from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). While commonly described as a replacement for the forms functionality provided by Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), XForms is a great deal more than that.
Check Your XForms Online With XForms Validator
IT pros charged with implementing XForms will no doubt be interested in the beta release of this nifty online tool. It’s called the XForms Validator, an interactive, Python-powered validation tool of XForms documents of all types.
Free Online Access To XForms Essentials
O’Reilly Media and the XForms Institute have teamed up to provide those interested in XForms technology with free online access to XForms Essentials by Micah Dubinko. Learn more about XForms Essentials and gain access to the free online version of the book.
Understanding XForms 1.0: A W3C Recommendation
Learning about XForms is easy. Make your first stop the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) web site where you can review the "XForms 1.0" Recommendation. After that, you might want to view publicly available test cases, join the XForms discussion list, or take an online tutorial designed to help you master the logic behind XForms. You'll be creating more useful forms before you know it.
May 2004
Learning Content Management Systems vs. Content Management Systems
Discover the difference between a learning content management system and a content management system. Learn the pros and cons of both and how to decide which is the best choice for your organization.
Effective Learning Content Management with a CMS
Content management systems can manage all types of content, regardless of their intened use. There's no need to purchase a Learning Content Management product when you can, with some upfront planning and expert advice, configure a Content Management System to manage and deliver learning content.
Applying a Unified Content Strategy to Learning Materials
Applying a unified content strategy to learning materials means that you can connect learners with the materials that best suit their objectives, as well as their particular learning styles. You can also connect the right content with the right course, making sure that wherever a piece of content is used, it is consistent. Inconsistent content, either within a course or across courses or even across other information products, is a sure way to introduce disconnects to learners and other users of your information.
March 2004
Content Management and the Electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD)
Managing life sciences content does not stop at the eCTD. Content management systems and eCTD tools should be interoperable and capable of ensuring approved content is the only content that ends up in the submission.
Managing Life Sciences Content
Life sciences has been called the least automated industry in the world, but some pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and healthcare-related organizations are working to dispel that image by implementing targeted content management solutions aimed at shortening the amount of time it takes to get new products to market. Time-to-market is of critical importance to life sciences organizations, especially pharmaceutical firms. A one month delay in a blockbuster drug's approval can yield $41.7 million (U.S.) in lost revenue.
Drug Information Association: XML Resources for Life Sciences Pros
The Drug Information Association (DIA) has compiled a series of useful articles designed to help you understand XML and related technologies. Don't worry! You don't have to be an IT guru to understand XML. The resources provided are written in laymen's terms and geared towards life sciences professionals, but may prove beneficial to professionals in other industries and vertical markets.
Electronic Government: Challenges to Effective Adoption of the Extensible Markup Language
The U.S. General Accounting Office report, "Electronic Government: Challenges to Effective Adoption of the Extensible Markup Language" is an excellent source of information for those seeking to adopt an XML-based content management system. The report outlines difficulties preventing the widespread implementation of XML in the U.S. government, describes U.S. federal government XML projects, illustrates several potential uses of XML in government and in industry, and provides recommendations for adopting an "enterprise architecture" to avoid creating a "patchwork solution".
February 2004
What Is Digital Asset Management?
If managing more than words is your goal, learn how Digital Asset Management can help you facilitate the creation of innovative business, educational, and entertainment products by aggregating and reusing new and existing digital assets.
The Technology of Rights: Digital Rights Management
While this space is normally reserved for book reviews, this month's "Required Reading" is an article entitled The Technology of Rights: Digital Rights Management by Karen Coyle. The article explores the world of digital rights management from a beginner's perspective and is a must-read for anyone responsible for the management of copyrighted or other sensitive material. It's timely and the issues discussed are relevant to a wide variety of audiences.
Managing enterprise content involves more than managing text-based information. It may also involve the management of voice mail scripts, video files, audio files, images, graphics, archived web conferences, charts, scanned images, and more. In this issue of The Rockley Bulletin, we explore ways to manage the voices and sounds we hear, the still images and moving pictures we see, and the instructional training we receive.
Lip Service Can Be A Good Thing: Are You Ready For Voice XML?
Managing the spoken word is the job of the open standard known as Voice XML. Companies like General Motors are utilizing Voice XML to power the OnStar Virtual Advisor service, while Cingular is using the technology to provide customers with voice activated access to its service offerings. Use the links provided to learn more about Voice XML, how it's being used, and to discover the benefits it can provide your customers.
January 2004
Trade Associations, Online Resources And More In Our 2003 "Of Interest" Archive
Each issue of The Rockley Bulletin includes information you can use today to help you better manage the content you create. Our 2003 archive is an online resource center designed to provide relevant information about trade associations, standards bodies, and other helpful sources of information aimed at content management professionals.
2003 Technology Corner Articles
A complete list of all Technology Corner articles from 2003.
An overview of the enterprise content management landscape during 2003. Includes details about software vendors, regulatory and compliance issues, technology and more.
Upcoming Events
In addition to both public workshops and in-house content management training, The Rockley Group also keeps a vigorous speaking schedule including presentations at many of the largest and most influential content industry conferences in both North America and Europe.
November 2003
CMS And GMS Systems: What's Available?
Find out where you can learn about Global Management Systems and Content Management Systems available today. An excellent starting point for those seeking to evaluate the tools landscape.
Book Review: "Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies" By John Yunker
In "Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies", John Yunker explores the globalization landscape and the role Web-based content plays when we attempt to reach beyond our native marketplaces.
How A Global Unified Content Strategy Can Help You Reduce Translation And Localization Costs
Discover how a unified global content strategy can help cut costs and simplify the complex management of business rules and content when localizing content for international audiences. The article, by Dawn Curtis, Senior Consultant, The Rockley Group, provides information about the tools and technologies available, as well as considerations for overcoming the common challenges encountered when implementing a unified global content strategy.
Localization Industry Standards Association
If you're involved in localizing, internationalizing, and/or translating content, you should stop by the LISA.org web site. There are a variety of useful, free resources available online. And, members have access to additional benefits and members-only content.
October 2003
Six Sigma And Quality Improvement
Six Sigma Black Belt, Tom Pearson, explores the world of quality improvements and answers the question, "Can Six Sigma be applied to content management?"
ASQ: The American Society for Quality
Want to learn more about quality iniatives like Six Sigma? Discover what the American Association for Quality has to offer members and non-members alike.
How To Convince IT "Quality Is The Driver"
Learn how approaches like Six Sigma can help IT organizations become more accountable, by providing the means to define specific results and the tools to be able to deliver them.
Book Review: "What Is Six Sigma?", Pete Pande And Larry Holpp
Discover how Six Sigma quality strategies can help your organization demonstrate a quantifiable return on investment.
September 2003
Book Review: "Information Architecture With XML: A Management Strategy" By Peter Brown
In "Information Architecture with XML: A Management Strategy", Peter Brown illuminates the importance of XML and explains why it is critical for top-level managers to understand and control the spread of XML in their organizations or risk costly, undesirable consequences.
A Unified Content Strategy: Changing Roles And Responsibilities
Moving to a unified content strategy involves the creation of new roles and responsibilities. Discover what new roles are needed, and what training and skill set is required of those selected to fill them.
How To Overcome Resistance To XML Authoring And Convert Reluctant XML Authors Into Great Ones
This overview article from the Arbortext XML Publishing Network provides some excellent guidance designed to help you turn outspoken critics into enthusiastic supporters.
Why You Need An Information Technologist
Find out why your project team needs an information technologist and learn what skill sets and previous knowledge are required to do the job.
August 2003
Preparing For Change: New Roles, Responsibilities And Training
Content management introduces new roles and responsibilities. Find out what training and skills are needed for two emerging roles, information architects and information technologists.
Book Review: "Leading Change: Overcoming The Ideology Of Comfort And The Tyranny Of Custom"
The best way to overcome challenges to change is to start by understanding the nature of resistance, and to develop a strategy for overcoming fear associated with change. James O'Tooles book, "Leading Change" is an excellent starting point.
Change Management For CMS Projects
Content management initiatives involve change. Lots of it. And, with change comes fear, resistance, and confusion. Learn how managing change from day one can help make the transition easier.
Talkin' Turkey: Communicating Change Helps Ensure Content Management Success
Developing and using a shared glossary takes persistence and discipline, but here are a few tips that can make the job easier and can facilitate communications among members of a content management team.
July 2003
Implementing Information Models
Information models are like blueprints for documents, you shouldn't begin building without them. Find out what factors you should consider before you implement a content management system.
Book Review: "Structured FrameMaker (7.0): Introduction To Authoring Workbook"
The folks at Scriptorium Press know Adobe FrameMaker 7.0. Even better, they know how to transfer their knowledge to others. Scriptorium's Professional Training for Professional Communicators series of learning workbooks are an excellent learning tool for those interested in mastering the world of structured authoring using Adobe FrameMaker 7.0.
Issues In Information Modeling
Pamela Kostur, Senior Consultant at The Rockley Group, demystifies many of the complex issues information modeling raises. Discover why its important to learn the language of information architecture, distinguish between reusable structure and reusable content, and visually represent the structure of your information assets.
Structured Content: What's In It For Writers?
In this CMS Watch [url=http://www.cmswatch.com/Features/OpinionWatch/FeaturedOpinion/?feature_id=79 ]article[/url], Mark Baker explores the pros and cons of structured writing and provides insight into what makes content writers tick. The lesson: Writers will use any tool that makes their task easier.
June 2003
Planning To Implement A Content Management System? Considerations Before You Buy
You've determined that your organization needs a content management system. Before you rush out and purchase anything, here are a few things to consider.
Book Review: "E-learning Tools And Technologies" By William And Katherine Horton
"E-Learning Tools and Technologies" provides a phenomenal amount of information about the tools and technologies that can be used to develop, manage, and deliver e-learning content.
Strategic Planning: The Key To Content Management Success
This overview article from The Alliance for Non-Profit Management will help you get a firm grasp on what strategic planning is (and is not) and how it can help you plan for content management success.
Rage Against The Content Machine
If you're trying to decide whether to buy a content management system or build your own, the folks at Common Sense Advisory have news you can use. Find out why many home-grown content management solutions end up costing more than purchasing software from an established content management tools vendor.
May 2003
There are a variety of content management software tools available to serve those with limited budgets. Discover a few of the tools that may be of interest to your organization.
In "Managing IT As An Investment - Partnering for Success", the authors make the case for transforming IT into a "value center" - a mission critical member of the business enterprise, managed as a strategic asset.
How Business And IT Can Work Together
Discover how building a bridge between IT and business can help you successfully manage your information assets, share content and knowledge, and break down silo walls that hinder content management success.
Communication Is Key To Alignment At United Parcel Service
Find out how "brown" is driving IT by linking projects to core business operations.
April 2003
Book Review: "The Consultants Scorecard" By Jack J. Phillips, Ph.D.
Consultants can be a valuable addition to a content management project team. But, determining what value they provide to your organization can be a tricky proposition, unless your prepared.
Content Management: What Does It Really Cost?
Content management isn’t cheap. However, a clear identification of your current costs and potential savings can clearly demonstrate savings for your organization if you adopt a unified content strategy and content management.
Collecting Metrics To Demonstrate Return On Investment
What’s the value of building a business case that demonstrates return on investment? Plenty. Making the case for your project using real-world metrics and salesmen-like savvy is critical.
Selling Content Management To Your Organization
Learn ways you can demonstrate the business value of content management to others in your organization.
March 2003
Tool Vendors Rush To Label Products "Enterprise"
If you're confused about content management tools and the functionality they provide, you're not the only one. Learn how to avoid the marketing mumbo-jumbo and determine which products will support your content management goals.
Book Review: "The Content Management Bible" by Bob Boiko
Bob Boiko's "Content Management Bible" is a handy reference book for those involved in creating, maintaining, publishing, and archiving content on the web and across the enterprise.
Why Enterprise Content Management?
Discover the reasons for adopting an enterprise content management strategy. Learn how you can begin taking the "next logical step in the evolution of communication".
Match Your CM System To Your Content Strategy
Find out [url=http://www.cmswatch.com/Features/OpinionWatch/FeaturedOpinion/?feature_id=49]why[/url] it's crucial to devote sufficient resources and editorial expertise toward developing a sound and sustainable content strategy. If that's not a priority, says content consultant, [url=http://gahran.com/]Amy Gahran[/url], "then a content management system probably won't help - and it could even hurt."
Are You Overpaying For Content Management?
February 2003
CMIS: A New Breed Of Content Management Systems
Need help organizing and sharing content across a variety of content management systems? If so, you might find what you're looking for in a content management integration system.
Book Review: "Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation"
"Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation" provides an excellent resource for creators of single source technical documentation. Let from an expert how to get started writing modular content today.
Opportunistic Reuse vs. Systematic Reuse
To reuse or not to reuse? That is only one of the questions. Learn the diffference between opportunistic and systematic reuse and how selecting the right reuse approach for your particular situation can add value to the content you create.
XML.org: Finding Your Industry Standards
XML standards got you down? Look no further than XML.org. It's all there!