This was the opening keynote address at Content Convergence and Integration, an event convened in Vancouver during March 2008. This presentation traces the history of content and the associated technologies and takes us up to the present where convergence and integration are upon us.

1. The Framework Age:
Convergence | Integration | Performance Joe Gollner
Vice President
Copyright © Joe Gollner 2008
Stilo International

2. Context: A Brief History of Content
What is Content?
How did content technologies
emerge?
What are the current trends?
Why is this important?
How do convergence and
integration relate to improved
business performance?

3. What is Content?
Content is the physical form of
human communication
Content populates an ecosystem where people receive, internalize,
modify, use, create and share that content. Content connects everything.

4. In the Beginning
…was the book…
Printed
materials
included
business
records as
well as rich
content
resources

5. Memex
Adapting to the Exponential Growth in
Knowledge Resources
1940 1960 1980 2000

6. Some “Provocative” Definitions
Data
Data is the meaningful representation of experience
Information
Information is the meaningful organization of data communicated
in a specific context and with the purpose of informing others
Knowledge
Knowledge is the meaningful organization of information,
expressing an evolving understanding of a subject
and establishing a basis for judgment and the potential for action.
Content
What is “contained” and “communicated”
Encompasses Data, Information, and Knowledge

7. The Knowledge Dynamic
The persistence of content is what has allowed this
dynamic to accelerate at an exponential rate

8. Computer Technology
Leveraging Knowledge through Automation
1940 1960 1980 2000

9. Augmenting Human Intelligence
Leveraging Automation to Assist Personal and Team Productivity
Douglas Engelbart
Workstation - 1966
Workstation - 1968
1940 1960 1980 2000

10. The Internet
Connecting Knowledge Organizations
1940 1960 1980 2000

11. The Vision of Hyper-Text
Envisioning content forms that reflect how people think and collaborate
Ted Nelson
1940 1960 1980 2000

12. Proprietary Content Formats
Limiting the Interchangeability and Usefulness of all data types

13. CALS – Tackling the Interchange Problem
PROBLEM INTERIM SOLUTION GOAL
STDS
Supplier Client Supplier Client Supplier and Client
1940 1960 1980 2000

14. Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)
1940 1960 1980 2000

15. SGML
SGML
Reflected human communication patterns
Provided absolute flexibility
Automated processing was “difficult”
Adopted in documentation-intensive sectors
Military, Aerospace and Commercial Publishing Charles Goldfarb
The Father
of SGML
The Key Innovation of SGML:
naming something (understanding) is different than
describing what should be done with it (behaviour)
naming something is the important part
naming something and defining its behaviour
benefits from sophistication

16. The World Wide Web
Where there’s a Will there’s a Way
1940 1960 1980 2000

17. World Wide Web – The Success of Simplicity
Original Objective (1989)
“to allow information sharing within
internationally dispersed teams”
HTML: a simple use of a complex standard
Sir Tim Berners-Lee
The Father
The Key Innovation of the Web: of the Web
deciding what to do (intention) is different than
determining how it should be done (execution)
deciding what to do is the important part
communicating an intention and successfully executing it
benefits from simplicity

18. Extensible Markup Language (XML)
Source: Microsoft
1940 1960 1980 2000

19. The Key Innovations of XML
The Key Innovations of XML:
Fusing the innovations of SGML and the Web
naming something (understanding) is different than
describing what should be done with it (behaviour)
deciding what to do (intention) is different than
determining how it should be done (execution)
Yuri Rubinsky
The Real Father
XML exhibits an unresolved tension between of XML
Sophistication
to meet the needs of application integration
Simplicity
to meet the needs of people interacting with technology

20. XML
The driving focus for XML
was facilitating a revolution in
the way technology applications
are designed, developed and
deployed
This resolved the failure of
preceding approaches to adapt
to genuinely open systems
This focus explains a great deal
about the character of XML

21. Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)
Source: Microsoft
1940 1960 1980 2000 2010

22. Web 2.0 – The Social Web
The second
revolution in
web adoption
1940 1960 1980 2000 2010

23. Web 2.0 – All About Engagement
Web 2.0 has been called “The Participatory Web”
Key technical elements include:
AJAX – Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
simple syndication protocols – RSS / ATOM
simplified web services – Aggregator APIs
Folksonomies – collaborative tagging
Processable content – XHTML / CSS / Microformats
Addressable, traceable, dynamic, collaborative content – wiki / blog
Much closer to the original idea behind the ‘web’
The centrality of XML in making this possible is often missed
The popularity and potential of Web 2.0 is impossible to ignore

24. The Semantic Web
Introducing a formal, interchangeable
expression of meaning suitable to
automated processing.
Essential for marshalling radically
distributed services.
Content for Machines
1940 1960 1980 2000 2010

25. Convergence Happens

26. A Matrix of Derivative Content Applications
Derivative Content Applications
Rely heavily on available
application components
and interfaces
Draw upon massive
content resources
Leverage processable
metadata to discover
and invoke services
Evolve rapidly to meet new
demands and leverage
new resources
Enable radically new frameworks for collaboration

27. A New Possibility: Knowledge Appliances
Something Small, Portable and Useful
Something that provides access to,
or embodies, accumulated knowledge
Does something
Helps you do something
Something that connects you to other
people and facilitates communication
Immediate
Simple
Engaging
Robust
Personal
Extensible

28. Leveraging the Hidden Process
Knowledge Appliances
Are not magic
They are the visible face
to a deep process
For something to be fast, adaptable,
configurable it cannot be isolated
The hidden complexity
Infinite Power –
must be distilled into a simple form
Tiny Living Space
Google is an online example
Simple interface
Massive infrastructure

29. The Rise of the Performance Support Portal
Performance Support Portals depend upon content resources that are
intelligent and modular and that can be dynamically re-purposed

30. Observations on Performance Support Portals
Performance Support Portals (PSPs)
Becoming widespread in many industry sectors
Public expectation is that products will be supported with a portal
Portal services are differentiated by:
Precision
The extent to which content is tailored for user contexts
Speed
How quickly the desired content is located
Navigability
The ability for users to move to supporting content
Portability
The ability for users to access content from anywhere
Timeliness
The tight integration of portal contents and product status

31. Observations on Performance Support
Performance is about achieving objectives (value creation)
Efficiently
Effectively
Performance applies to
Products
Systems
Processes
Teams
Enterprises
Performance support is about facilitating connections
Between people
Between people and the persistent content they share

32. From Convergence to Performance
The potential provided by convergent technologies
is not enough to realize improved performance.

33. Implications for Content
What then is expected of content?
1. Content must be available as valid XML
2. Content must be modularized
3. Content must be meaningful in multiple contexts
4. Content must be discretely addressable
5. Content must be uniquely identifiable using metadata
6. Content must be linked to related content
7. Content must encourage modification & addition
8. Content must be processable with almost perfect confidence
Is this what we mean by Content 2.0?

34. Project Scenario
Integrated
Maintenance
Information
View
for Commercial
Aircraft
All essential sources
of maintenance information
are tightly integrated into a
single view
which is a radical improvement
over historically used methods

35. Project
Scenario
Healthcare
Information
Portal

36. Encyclopedia
On Demand
Textbooks
Academic
Portable
Public
Project Scenario
Russian Academic
Knowledge Portal
Variable Output Document
and Knowledge Architecture
(VODKA)

37. The Joy of Structure
All elements of the convergence
continue to evolve
Under Web 2.0, the movement is
towards designing interaction
frameworks in which content evolves
The Semantic Web is finding an increasing role as
prerequisite to Performance Support Portals where
discovery and traversal can be huge issues
Content 2.0 represents a situation where elements of
structure make dynamic discussions productive

38. Solving the Real Integration Challenge
Integration:
The real challenge to be overcome
is the integration of
knowledge, technology and business goals
Key Point:
A solution is, by definition, invisible.
Only the resulting performance is seen.

39. Closing Thought
With the technology capabilities
converging and information
integration techniques maturing, it is
becoming increasingly feasible to
enable radically new ways to create,
manage, share and leverage high-
value content.
Historically, the alignment of changes
in the technology and techniques
used to handle content has led to
explosive leaps forward in what
people can collaboratively
accomplish…

40. Stilo International
and the OmniMark Content Processing Platform
Copyright © Joe Gollner 2008

41. Stilo International
Over Twenty Years of Experience in e-Publishing
Defense CALS Initiative
Microsoft CDROM Publishing
Wall Street Journal Interactive
European Parliament
Global 2000 Clients
Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, BAE…
Wolters Kluwer, Caterpillar…
IBM, SAP, HP, Sun, Toshiba…
Providers of OmniMark
Premiere Content Processing Platform
Providers of the Stilo Migrate content migration service

42. OmniMark 8 Content Processing Platform
OmniMark provides critical capabilities
Scalable streaming architecture
Powerful pattern matching
Context management
Content validation
Full XML / SGML support
Universal character support
Equally well-suited to:
Migrating legacy content to XML
Enhancing the usefulness of content markup
Transforming XML into an unlimited range of formats
Ensuring conformance with evolving industry standards
Progressively raising the level of quality control being applied

43. OmniMark: Scalable & Efficient Content Processing
People
The OmniMark content processing platform has evolved over the last 20 years
to provide the most robust and complete tool for processing content.
OmniMark is used around the world by leading organizations to transform their
content assets into high quality information services that drive business results.

44. 44
On-Demand Online Advanced automation
Content Migration Service Analyzing
Web-based wizard guides Grouping
migration activities Mapping
Converting
Engages subject matter experts
Validating
efficiently
Bursting
Reduces cost – improves results Testing