Content Management Systems: Examining the Changing Role of Technical Communicators

1
Content Management Systems Examining the
Changing Role of Technical Communicators

• Cathy C. Rumfelt
• ENGL 8121
• July 18, 2007

2
Common Threads

• Question What recurring themes/ideas appeared in
  all three articles?
• Importance of user-centered design
• Changing role of technical communicators
• Need for critical analysis of XML, CM, and ECM

3
Coming to Content Management Inventing
Infrastructure for Organizational Knowledge
WorkWilliam Hart-Davidson, Grace Bernhardt,
Michael McLeod, Martine Rife, and Jeffrey Grabill

• Introduction
• Researchers align content management (CM) with
  phronesis
• Phronesis the ability to think about how and why
  we should act in order to change things, and
  especially to change our lives for the better.
  Aristotle says that phronesis isn't simply a
  skill, however, as it involves not only the
  ability to decide how to achieve a certain end,
  but also the ability to reflect upon and
  determine that end (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki
  /Phronesis)
• Focuses CM not on the making of texts, but
  rather on the good of the community for which
  text making is a central, sustaining activity
  (Introduction)
• Question How does the idea of phronesis affect
  the role of the technical communicator?

4
Coming to Content Management Inventing
Infrastructure for Organizational Knowledge Work

• Introduction, continued
• When organizations come to content management,
  they dont always understand what it is
• Look at bulleted lists under WHEN ORGANIZATIONS
  COME TO CM (2nd page)
• Question What is the difference in these two
  lists? What is revealed about what these authors
  value?

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Coming to Content Management Inventing
Infrastructure for Organizational Knowledge Work

• Case Studies
• National professional organization (NPO) and MSU
  Library websites
• Case Study 1 NPO
• What can we do to improve our website?
• They had ideas about specifics, but couldnt
  discuss big picture issues/ideas
• Vision provide an area where members could
  respond to key issues
• Wanted to streamline, but at low cost
• Advise the NPOs web team

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Coming to Content Management Inventing
Infrastructure for Organizational Knowledge Work

• NPO, continued
• Question What did the authors discover as they
  researched the site?
• Conventions provided same info, but in a
  different format
• Members were not using the site
• Needed to research users and content
• Found more than 20 different types of menus
• Audience groups shifted roles as they went on the
  website one user may have many different roles

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Coming to Content Management Inventing
Infrastructure for Organizational Knowledge Work

• NPO, continued
• Recommendation from authors
• NPO should revise website to reflect the goals
  and task of users vs. the structure of the
  organization
• Content should be uniform but customized for the
  needs of each role
• Authors had to see beyond clients initial
  problem to the bigger picture
• Question What are the implications for technical
  communicators?

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Coming to Content Management Inventing
Infrastructure for Organizational Knowledge Work

• Case Study 2 MSU Libraries
• MSU already had a user centered view (users
  contributed to online resources)
• MSU wanted a new content strategy to align with
  redesign of website
• Authors surveys for users, analysis of existing
  pages lots of research
• Results
• Users view the site differently than the library
• Technologies varied from page to page
• 2 distinct types of pages

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Coming to Content Management Inventing
Infrastructure for Organizational Knowledge Work

• MSU Libraries, cont
• Recommendations for MSU Libraries
• Create user role-based views landing pages
• Identified many areas where users could be
  contributors and indexers and organizers
• Allow users to create customized views

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Coming to Content Management Inventing
Infrastructure for Organizational Knowledge Work

• Their Conclusions
• 1. Workplace writing research may be a valuable
  aid to transforming organizational structures.
• 2. As the web itself is transforming into
  enterprise software for small business and
  non-profit organizations, technical communicators
  are well-positioned to provide the critical
  services that usually accompany shifts in new
  infrastructure.

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Coming to Content Management Inventing
Infrastructure for Organizational Knowledge Work

• Questions
• Based on this article, what is content
  management as inquiry-driven practice?
• What do these researchers value in content
  management?
• What are the implications of the two case studies
  presented in the article?
• How has the role of the technical communicator
  shifted, in their view?

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Usability, Structured Content, and Single
Sourcing with XMLFilipp Sapienza

• XML Overview
• History of XML
• Developed and endorsed by W3C in Feb. 1998
• Descended from SGML (Standard Generalized Markup
  Language)
• What is XML?
• Markup language allows one to organize and
  compartmentalize mixed data types (surgery
  example)
• Writing documents in XML is called structured
  content development differs from traditional
  writing methods that are hierarchical and
  sequential

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Usability, Structured Content, and Single
Sourcing with XML

• Question Why use XML?
• Structure unifies content ensures quality
  control b/c it prescribes a specific model that
  everyone follows
• Content displays more easily on multiple
  platforms (wireless devices, Web browsers) with
  different stylesheets
• Modularization allows granules to be queried
  and reused (pool example, syllabus example)

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Usability, Structured Content, and Single
Sourcing with XML

• 4 Usability Issues that arise from XML in Content
  Development
• Issue 1 Structured Language vs. Traditional
  Writing
• Traditional writing sequentiality, hierarchy,
  constraints of a format or genre
• XML ability to generate content for different
  audience, etc.
• Need new evaluative techniques to evaluate
  usability of structured writing in a modular
  state
• Developer issues
• Writer cannot connect to ideas of existing
  situations b/c she may not know where the module
  will be used
• Research is needed to determine what constitutes
  a usable module or granule of content

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Usability, Structured Content, and Single
Sourcing with XML

• Issue 2 New Culture of Usability
• XML allows for smaller user tests during
  development rather than one big test at the end
  may cultivate new culture of usability
• Universal Usability
• Easy for all users to use
• Aurora for disabled users uses XML to vary for
  different types of users (visually vs. hearing
  impaired)
• ISTE Example
• ISTE method assesses usability of manuals
• Users reading technical documents usually skip
  over conceptual and go to constructive procedures
  
• XML templates could give users choices about
  which view they want
• Advantages and Disadvantages

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Usability, Structured Content, and Single
Sourcing with XML

• Issue 3 User as Developer
• Structured documentation blurs the role of
  developer and user
• Traditional model developer acquires info., and
  puts forth content
• New model user may be able to customize systems
  instead of being a recipient, she can be a
  co-creator
• Will user feel comfortable with this role?
• User as Developer Issues
• XML used for adaptable and adaptive systems
• Some users like the malleable tools, but
  consistency is still important
• Additional research says level of user expertise
  is linked to how much customization is desirable
• More research is needed could frustrate users

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Usability, Structured Content, and Single
Sourcing with XML

• Issue 4 Usability of Interoperability
• Traditional method develop content for one
  primary audience, meet needs of other audiences
  through visual markers
• New method XML allows for different views of the
  same content from a single source
• Yahoo example DTD for information sharing (news
  sources)
• Similar content can be changed according to
  preferences (ex. horizontal vs. vertical views,
  different languages, etc.)
• Research is needed to look at how these changes
  affect reception of content also research for
  different technologies, etc.

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Usability, Structured Content, and Single
Sourcing with XML

• Questions to Consider
• How does XML affect the role of the technical
  communicator?
• How does XML affect the role of the user?

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The Rhetoric of Enterprise Content Management
(ECM) Confronting the Assumptions Driving ECM
Adoption and Transforming Technical
CommunicationsRebekka Andersen

• Article Summary
• Andersen examines the Enterprise Content
  Management (ECM) solutions that are becoming
  increasingly popular in business and technology
  industries. She critically examines five
  assumptions about ECM technologies, and then
  calls for technical communicators to take action.

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The Rhetoric of Enterprise Content Management
(ECM) Confronting the Assumptions Driving ECM
Adoption and Transforming Technical
Communications

• Enterprise Content Management (ECM) the
  technologies, tools, and methods used to capture,
  manage, store, preserve and deliver content
  across an enterprise
• Questions
• How is ECM different from CM?
• Why does Andersen find ECM problematic?

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The Rhetoric of Enterprise Content Management
(ECM) Confronting the Assumptions Driving ECM
Adoption and Transforming Technical
Communications

• Five Assumptions about ECM technologies
• they empower and enable workers and end product
  users
• they increase social interactions and knowledge
  sharing
• they improve content quality, accuracy, and
  consistency
• they eliminate need for technical knowledge
• they require worker adoption for success.

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The Rhetoric of Enterprise Content Management
(ECM) Confronting the Assumptions Driving ECM
Adoption and Transforming Technical
Communications

• Assumption 1 ECM technologies empower and enable
  workers and product end users
• Questions
• What is Andersens analysis of this assumption?
• Does ECM empower the worker and users? (page 8)

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The Rhetoric of Enterprise Content Management
(ECM) Confronting the Assumptions Driving ECM
Adoption and Transforming Technical
Communications

• Assumption 2 ECM technologies increase social
  interactions and knowledge sharing
• Questions
• What is Andersens analysis of this assumption?
• Is there increased online social interaction?
  (pages 9-10)

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The Rhetoric of Enterprise Content Management
(ECM) Confronting the Assumptions Driving ECM
Adoption and Transforming Technical
Communications

• Assumption 3 ECM technologies improve content
  quality, accuracy, and consistency
• Questions
• What is Andersens analysis of this assumption?
• Do these technologies improve content? (pages
  10-11)

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The Rhetoric of Enterprise Content Management
(ECM) Confronting the Assumptions Driving ECM
Adoption and Transforming Technical
Communications

• Assumption 4 ECM technologies eliminate need for
  technical knowledge
• Questions
• What is Andersens analysis of this assumption?
• Is there still a need for technical knowledge?
  (pages 12-14)

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The Rhetoric of Enterprise Content Management
(ECM) Confronting the Assumptions Driving ECM
Adoption and Transforming Technical
Communications

• Assumption 5 ECM technologies require worker
  adoption for success
• Questions
• What is Andersens analysis of this assumption?
• How does user adoption affect these
  technologies? (pages 14-15)

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The Rhetoric of Enterprise Content Management
(ECM) Confronting the Assumptions Driving ECM
Adoption and Transforming Technical
Communications

• Question What do you think of Andersens
  conclusions?
• Technical communicators must get involved in the
  business and technology discussions
• They cannot remain mere recipients of ECM
  technologies they must help shape them
• Businesses need the alternative viewpoints
• Research must be conducted ECM technologies must
  be critically examined