Organizing Content

May 2001

Most companies need content-management systems that let all enterprise content be catalogued in multiple contexts so it can be reused, licenced or managed across departments to lower costs, improve productivity and create new revenue. No initiative is complete without a careful audit of the organization's requirements. A Web-based content-management system is a necessity, but a Web-centric approach is a problem in search of an enterprise solution. Effective Web-based content management means streamlining production and integrating creative, business and technological processes. No clear strategies exist to blend internal and external content sources. There is no single best approach, however following are some useful guidelines:

• Define needs. In most organizations, a certain level of pain exists around creation, use or deployment of content. Managers need to find that level before it finds them, and it is essential to understand how content is created and used before beginning to define content-management requirements.
• Know content has a life cycle. Content permeates organizations and the creative processes of every department. That is why the term "content" can be confusing when closely associated with the Web. Content has a life cycle, from production through distribution. To address this life cycle, an effective content-management system must be extensible and scalable.
• Implement a needs assessment. The dynamic nature of content requires ongoing planning. With a thorough needs assessment, companies can clearly define objectives, determine value of content, define scope of content development, evaluate processes and assess investments.
• Integrate processes. While understanding the needs of content management often starts with the Web, organizations also need to evaluate approaches to process and technology re-engineering. It is important to approach content management so it fully supports content developers.
• Build a Web-enabled "content base." Many Web sites rely on text-based indexing and don't optimize use of databases. By compiling simple information about diverse and complex assets into a "content base," content can be quickly and easily searched based on specific attributes such as sound, texture, colour, scenes or sequences.
• Appoint a content manager. Solely increasing staff doesn't solve content-management problems. Instead, organizations need to assign a manager to address the full content life cycle and work with IT, managers, content developers and outside agencies to coordinate the deployment and management of all organizational content.
• Adopt best practices. With the pressure for Web sites to update content daily, the need for content management becomes more pressing. Supporting dynamic content requires best practices for Web-based content management—essentially, ongoing planning and assessment at every phase of the content life cycle.
• Seek revenue opportunities. Content management lets content be used, reused, monitored and metered by use, providing the first tangible way to turn the intellectual capital of your staff into a measurable asset.

The tasks of managing a Web site

The tasks of managing a Web site have a lot in common with the normal duties of a systems administrator. They include installation and maintenance of software, overseeing system security, and helping users with problems. As well as setting up and maintaining a network connection, managing a Web site also involves:

• Setting up and configuring the server. After the server software has been installed, it needs to be configured and fine-tuned for optimum performance. Security issues must be addressed, and access schemes for non-public data set up.
• Log file management. Log files provide users and administrators with important feedback on which documents are popular. However, on a large site, log files tend to grow very quickly, and thus must be truncated or archived at regular intervals. Usually, a statistics summary is generated before removing the log files and kept online for a longer period of time.
• Providing usage charts. Both remote users and local information-providers may be interested in statistics and usage charts, that can be automatically generated and mapped into the server's document space.
• Setting up searchable repositories. Information usually has to be prepared before it can be made accessible.
• Running automatic consistency checkers. Documents can contain hypertext links to other information and it is important to verify the correctness of these links.
• Setting up dynamic enhancements. Handling forms, interfacing to database systems and existing information services usually requires server extensions.