The document discusses implementing intelligent content solutions and provides guidance on various topics: 1) It outlines key implementation topics such as management, taking first steps by establishing vision/strategy/business case, and assembling an effective project team. 2) It discusses addressing legacy content and processes, managing risks, and applying proven implementation methods like using standards and pursuing incremental realization. 3) It emphasizes engaging new user behaviors, pursuing payback relentlessly, maintaining content independence, and making content the center of product design.

1. Implementing
Intelligent Content Solutions
Copyright © Joe Gollner 2011
Joe Gollner | www.gollner.ca

2. Implementation Topics
Management
Taking First Steps
• Business Considerations, Communication Channels, Project Team
Managing Risks
Technology
Applying Proven Methods
Adapting Proven Design Patterns
Intelligent Content Solutions
Key Concepts

3. Scenario: Taking a Software Product Global
Software Company
Niche Offering
Traditional Licensing
Single Unilingual Interface
Limited Market
Declining Sales
New Strategy
Software as a Service Offering
App clients
Multiple Localized Interfaces This is a scenario
many organizations find themselves
Global Market regardless of what business they are in

4. Scenario: The Content Dimension
Content areas
Marketing
Sales
Product support
Training
Customer support
(call center/self-support)
User generated content
System documentation
(requirements, design specifications, test
scenarios, maintenance instructions…)
OEM / Supplier component documentation

5. Taking the First Steps
Vision
Strategy
Business Case
Strategic
Tactical
Charter
Authority
Reporting line
Scenario
Resource allocation Executive expression of the urgency of
Working budget the change imperative
Example: Nokia’s burning platform

6. Balancing Business Considerations
Context Scenario
Market conditions Timeframe identified for the
demonstration and
Financial pressures announcement of a new product
Key trends roadmap & new product offerings
• Technology
• Consumer behaviour
Competitive pressures
Organizational realities
• Readiness for change
• Competence areas
Management realities
• “Announcables” & Metrics

7. Opening Communication Channels
Content initiatives have a special challenge here
Content represents a potential return
Must contend for attention
• Amid the fray of day-to-day business
• “The world always rewards
skill over knowledge” (Brian Reid)
Build tactical relationships
based on
new capabilities
new offerings
Help business partners succeed

8. Assembling the Implementation Team
The Real Test of Executive Support
Latitude to assemble an effective team
Essential elements
• Passion for change
• Domain experience & credibility
• Management connections
• Project management experience
• Procurement experience
• Communication skills
• Experience with innovation tools
• Modeling & Markup
• Findability & Management
• Usability / User experience

9. Managing Risks
More than creating & reporting on
a “risk register”
Key Risks
Content initiatives can become
mis-aligned with:
• Business priorities
• Market directions
Content initiatives can become
inwardly focused & disappear
from management view

10. Addressing Legacy Content
Opportunity
All new content initiatives will
have antecedents
The investment in past content
has often been great
Can deliver benefits if it is
recovered / reused effectively
Threats
Can represent
overwhelming volumes
Often the newest sources
Often includes material & can be the most challenging
structures that must be jettisoned (e.g., the impenetrable database)

11. Addressing Legacy Processes
Opportunities
Many legacy processes contain valuable,
even vital, knowledge
These can be repurposed and
repositioned in a new world
Threats
Many legacy processes were a bad idea
to begin with & are now out of step
Champions of legacy ways of doing things
can be an obstacle
The good processes risk being tossed out

12. Addressing Legacy Controls
Information Technology Group
Will not typically be attuned to
content considerations
Will apply familiar templates
derived from
• Network management
• Database administration
• Application maintenance Scenario
Will emphasize a default How can the IT group be
control mentality engaged in a content initiative?
• Antithetical to “content” How can IT be made part of the
• The most potent risk intelligent content solution?

13. Battling Entropy & Barnaclization
Entropy
The dissolution of initiative energy
• Loss of executive engagement
• Loss of key resources
• Decline in pace of innovation
Barnaclization
The accrual of features
• Degenerating responsiveness
• Escalating complexity
• Increasing brittleness
• Climbing operating costs

14. Accepting the Reality of Intelligent Content
Intelligent Content
Content can be considered intelligent
when it expresses, in an open way,
the full meaning underlying a communication
such that the
data, information and knowledge
being expressed can be easily accessed
and effectively leveraged
by both people and
the software applications
that support them.
Intelligence
The acquisition & application
of knowledge

15. Accepting Content Complexity
The three sides of content
must be held in a delicate balance
The risk is that
over-emphasis on one
dimension undermines
the others
The point of intersection
is highly complex

16. Intelligent Content in Practice
A Practical Definition
Intelligent Content is designed, created, managed and deployed
using open standards so that the resulting information products
are exactly tailored to the needs of the user and are efficient to
maintain & leverage for the content owner.
Key Concepts
Portable
Reusable
Discoverable
Contextualized
Dynamic
Processable Dynamic assembly of engaging information products

17. Building Blocks of Intelligent Content
Content Components Technology Components
Text Modules Management Systems
Media Assets Authoring Environments
Data Sources Publishing Processes
Relationship Links Discovery Frameworks
Metadata Properties Social Media Venues
Concept Taxonomies Mobile Devices
Assembly Maps
Governing Models
Processing Rules
Formatting Instructions
Distribution Rights

18. Applying Proven Implementation Methods
The Seven Steps to Intelligent Content
Strategy – why
Analysis – what
Design – how
Exploration – learn
Transformation – change
Validation – confirm
It’s about Content evolving in Context
Deployment – use

19. Using Standards
Standards should be used Scenario
• Each has strengths What standard suggests itself?
• Each has limitations Why? What risks emerge?
Standard
Evaluation
model

20. Leveraging Open Source
Strengths & Limitations
Widely used products tend to be better
Many open source tools
have known weaknesses
• Testing regimes
are minimal
• Documentation is weak
• Support is
“community based”
• Commercial Open Source
can be attractive
Great for exploratory
investments

21. Building Solid Vendor Relationships
Vendor community is a key resource
Experience & expertise
Technology that is supported
Customer-driven innovation
Key tactics
Maintain competitive pressure
Avoid the “Big Deal”
Separate consultancy from
implementation
Avoid lock-in

22. Pursuing Incremental Realization
Implement solutions incrementally
Seven steps to intelligent content
Iterative cycles against a larger strategy & architecture
Key principles
Content-oriented architecture
• Versus a technology oriented
architecture
Modular solution components
Twinned investments
• Open source implementations
• Commercial product realizations

23. Engaging New User Behaviours
Technologies are not neutral
An innovation will spark a reaction & new behaviours
• Complex system
• Probe, sense, react model
Projects must learn as they progress
Scenario
New product offerings is being
delivered to new users on new devices.
How could the project team tap into
what users are doing?

24. Pursuing Payback (Relentlessly)
Returning benefits on investments is critical
Must be measurable & reported
The Business of Intelligent Content
A harsh discipline used to force an agile design strategy
• For every dollar spent on the solution,
a second dollar must be spent on
making content & process improvements
• For every two dollars invested,
there must be four dollars returned
in the first year
1+1=4

25. Maintaining Content Independence
Easy to Say – Hard to Do
Resist pressure to compromise independence
Vendor-specific orientations
Over-engineering
(spiralling complexity)
Disciplinary bias
• We need to design
the perfect database!
Independence is designed
…and continuously verified

26. Reducing the Cost of Change
Future orientation means designing for change
Sustainable solutions
Maintainable
Extensible
Replaceable
with minimal cost
Sustainment cost will
ultimately determine
latitude for adaptation
Design for redesign

27. Making Content the Center of Product Design
Intelligent Content Scenario
• Product design This is the
end goal
• Production
Processes
• Radical
customization
Users as
A real world
product managers content strategy
Products for a major
High Tech firm
as publications (circa 2000)

28. Recalling Key Concepts
Balancing business
considerations
Accepting the reality of
Intelligent Content
Engaging new user
behaviours
Pursing payback relentlessly
(1+1=4)
Maintaining content Activating a learning cycle where
the value & knowledge persist in
independence the form of intelligent content

29. Exploring Intelligent Content 2011
Generated from ICC11
Program using Wordle.net

30. Intelligent Content in the Green Desert
Tapping the knowledge Finding Findability
New Look Tech Docs Measuring Measurement
Content in the Middle Business Fundamentals
The Social Dimension Engaging UX Design
Going Mobile Disciplinary Convergence
From Pubs to Apps Content Strategists Unite
Integration Matters A Hunger for Learning
Leveraging Vendors An Emerging Community
See Intelligent Content in the Green Desert at www.gollner.ca 

31. The Four Humors of Intelligent Content (c400 BC)
IMPLEMENT ENVISION
Integrated Solutions Business Goals
Dynamic Publishing Content Strategy
Phlegmatic Choleric
Melancholic Sanguine
Hippocrates
Performance Metrics User Contributions
Adaptive Control Social Media
MANAGE www.gollner.ca ENGAGE

32. Making Connections
Joe Gollner
joe@gollner.ca
Gnostyx Research
www.gnostyx.com
Fractal Enterprise Blog
www.gollner.ca