Virtual Presentation delivered at Lavacon 2019. A bit of a deep dive into some fundamental questions around the nature of the content industry and some of the challenges it has historically faced. In order to stave off depression, it ends with a more positive "Content Manifesto" that declares what needs to be done to redress some of the observed problems in the content industry. Relevant to content management and to open content standards like DITA and XML.

1. Copyright © J.A. Gollner 2019 Acknowledgement: Totally Awesome “Toy Story” Franchise from Walt Disney / Pixar Studios
The Economics of Content Joe Gollner
@joegollner

2. Economics is the study of the
production and consumption of
goods and services in a society
It is about the creation and
distribution of value. What is
deemed valuable in a society will
turn on its utility – what use it will
have and what benefit it will
provide to those who can use it.
Did Someone Say Economics?

3. Peter Drucker boiled it down nicely
The business of business is essentially to:
Compete for an increasing share of a market
Expand the size of that market
The second one is critically important
Failure to expand your market will ultimately
lead to declining value for everyone
participating in that market
What Does This Mean for Us in Practical Terms?

4. The Content Industry has been in
steady decline for 30 years
How can this be?
The value of communication
is directly tied to its ability to
connect people across & beyond
the entire enterprise – and we
have been creating communication
siloes that directly undermine this value
An Inconvenient Truth
It’s your
fault, Joe!

5. Let’s be a little more clear
about what we are talking
about here
What communication siloes
are we talking about and
how did they happen?
Just Wait One Minute!

6. Content is what an enterprise
creates & communicates in order to
leverage what it knows
The Content Industry features
two main components
Content professionals who help
enterprises to communicate
more effectively
Content technology providers who equip
them with the tools they need to do this
Content & the Content Industry

7. T
Technical Communication
Earnest effort to improve
how enterprises support
the users of their products
The demand for changing
delivery and usage venues
(omnichannel) has forced
TechComm into greater &
greater sophistication –
isolating it more & more
from other practices

8. Intense focus on creating, and
measuring, powerful experiences for
customers and prospective customers
Has consequently
become increasingly
isolated from other
communication practices
Has evolved its own
family of technologies
& into the Martech stack
Customer Experience

9. Intended to tackle the hard
problem of handling content
as content & unlocking its value
Has only evolved marginally
since the mid-1990s
Has not been well integrated into
mainstream technology platforms
Content Technologies

10. Have largely evolved in isolation
from mainstream industry trends
Typically reflect the interests of
one, and only one, type of
practitioner
Like Content Technologies, they
are showing their age
A bit like a crusty Don Rickles
A lot like you, Joe!
Structured Content Standards

11. There four domains of activity & investment
Technical Communications
Customer Experience
Marketing Communications
Content Technologies
Structured Content Standards
They are not integrated or coordinated within
themselves and are not integrated or coordinated with
mainstream technology trends or business practices.
Success in one area can fortify the separation
from the others & from the mainstream
Classic illustration of barnaclization in action
Commentary

12. Going all the way with Digital
Content that is genuinely
fluid – integrated and
integrating
Fully open to analysis
and evaluation
Connecting everyone
everywhere
Digital Content

13. Did Someone Say Digital?

14. Executives are not complicated or hard to figure out
They like immediate returns a lot
They like anticipated long-term repeating returns even more
Hence their unquenchable love of forecasts and fads (like for all things 4.0)
Executive Management

15. Digital Content
is the starting point
Digital Content
integrates business units,
flows between tools
& connects an enterprise
to its customers,
prospects, and partners
Establishes a very attractive
net present value of content investments
based on both immediate & forecasted long-term returns
End-to-End Digital Content Solutions

16. There are two claims at work here
Digital Content Solutions are different
It is possible to quantify the value of digital content
Digital Content Solutions
Prioritize over everything else the ability of content
assets to move across an enterprise
This includes moving back & forth with external
stakeholders such as partners and customers
This determines exactly what digital content looks like and
drives how it must incorporate and balance structure & semantics
so as to work with the tools that are being used by all stakeholders
Do not resemble specialized repositories offering “casual authoring” options
Must feature a technology stack accessible to mainstream IT stakeholders
Commentary

17. The valuation of digital content focuses on
Immediate returns
Direct revenues from subscriptions / royalties / licensing
Cost avoidance by reducing historical expenditures
Contributory returns
Portions of revenues realized on a larger product
with this needing to be claimed & supported
Contributions to activities valued by the enterprise
such as lead-generation & user satisfaction
Long-term indirect returns
Justifying near-term resource allocations based on longer term improvements
in performance [these can combine projected long-term direct revenues /
savings with broader and less directly measurable enterprise improvements]
Commentary

18. We will address all communication needs
We will engage all users working with all tools
We will deliver immediate and long-term
returns on all content investments
We will turn enterprise knowledge
into digital content assets
We will leverage content assets
to guide both people & machines
We will make digital content solutions
an integral part of the enterprise business & technology landscape
We will make content a true enterprise asset – that is valued accordingly
A Digital Content Manifesto
Content
Professionals of
the world, unite!

19. Digital Content Manifesto
If all seven (7) claims are accepted then the
character of the Digital Content Solutions that
will be needed becomes very clear
Digital Content Solutions
Will not resemble the types of
“content management systems” that we have
historically seen
Will incorporate selective aspects of past and present
content technologies, techniques and practices, and standards
The operative word here is “selective”
Invokes a “Lean” approach to the design & deployment of Digital Content Solutions
Commentary

20. Joe Gollner
@joegollner | joe@gollner.ca
Content Philosopher Blog
www.gollner.ca
Managing Director / Solution Architect
@gnostyx | jag@gnostyx.com
Questions or Comments or Violent Objections…
“To infinity and beyond”