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Content Reuse - The Unseen Revolution
In an exclusive interview with DCLnews, content management expert JoAnn Hackos reveals how financial pundits, public utilities research organizations, and local governments are taking up XML powered reuse of content in a big way.
 Dr JoAnn Hackos is President of Comtech Services (www.comtech-serv.com), a content-management and information-design firm based in Denver, Colorado, which she founded in 1978. She is called in by corporate executives around the world to consult on strategies for managing and reusing content - which, these days, is a big issue for companies and the public sector alike.
For more than 25 years, Dr. Hackos has addressed audiences internationally on subjects ranging from content and project management to information design and organizing online and web-based documentation. She is author of Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery (Wiley 2002), Managing Your Documentation Projects (Wiley 1994), and Standards for Online Communication (Wiley 1997), amongst others.
DCLnews caught up with her during a hiatus in her busy schedule and asked her what the biggest benefits are for organizations interested in adopting content management systems?
"Bottom line ... it's a way of harnessing the valuable knowledge that already exists within organizations."
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Dr JoAnn Hackos: "One of the main advantages is you can reuse content and deploy it in different formats or to different audiences. To cite an example: One of our clients is a group of top level researchers doing reports on various financial and economic issues. They have reports for internal use, which speculate on the financial condition of companies. These obviously are not for general release. But the researchers do want to publish versions of the reports on their public Internet, which entails suppressing some of the information.
Up to now their publishing process has been based around Microsoft Word. They create the first report with the full information. Then they make a new file and delete the sections that aren't for public consumption. The problem here is they have two versions of the same document. If it needs updating, which is often the case, they have to do it twice. This is a common scenario for many organizations."
DCL-NEWS: What's the best way to get around this?
Dr JoAnn Hackos: "Our advice is they create these documents in XML or convert them to XML and tag the sections that are for internal use only. That way, there would be one source and two outputs: One that goes public on the Internet and one that stays internal. It would streamline the whole process and cut down on errors and confusion. The risk would also be removed of private information ending up in the public domain - an embarrassing and potentially damaging scenario."
DCL-NEWS: So it's all about reusing content for different outputs?
Dr JoAnn Hackos: "Well, that certainly is one of the most powerful aspects of content management. In fact, another client of ours is a research organization that does reports for public utilities around the world. These reports might cover air pollution or the amount of sulphur in the air.
The firm does a lot of research projects and produces huge reports. In the past these were created and published in Microsoft Word. The downside of this was they couldn't easily produce a summary of the reports or a catalog of the reports - unless they wanted to cut and paste, which is not the ideal solution.
They are currently considering converting these reports to XML. Doing this would mean they could tag sections of content like the abstract, author's name, title and sub-title, headings, references, and so on. Tagging the information would allow them to extract sections of text and reuse content in other ways."
"Gradually they're waking up to the fact that flood damage or other natural disasters could wipe out documents that are legally required to be kept."
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DCL-NEWS: Is XML and the reuse of content catching on?
Dr JoAnn Hackos: "Most definitely. People are slowly, but surely becoming aware of the potential of XML and content reuse. They see how it can help them make sense of the information they have in otherwise unstructured documents. The bottom line is: It is a way of harnessing the valuable knowledge that already exists within organizations.
One thing that will make a big difference to take up of XML and content management is if Word becomes an XML editor, which is what Microsoft is pushing for. People will feel a lot more comfortable if they can work in their normal environment - Word, Excel or PowerPoint - and simply save files as XML. Word becoming an XML editor will be the tipping point that will make content management and content re-use take off. Right now, though, it is still early adopters."
DCL-NEWS: Is the current interest confined to technical people?
Dr JoAnn Hackos: "Not at all. I've been amazed at people who are asking what XML is all about and why they would want to use it."
"Middle management, CEOs, and the movers and shakers of the business world... want to know what difference XML would make to the running of their firms..."
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DCL-NEWS: What kind of people?
Dr JoAnn Hackos: "Middle management, CEOs, and the movers and shakers of the business world. People who aren't necessarily technical. They want to know what difference XML would make to the running of their firms and whether or not it would be easy to implement."
DCL-NEWS: You consult a lot with the public sector - where are they at when it comes to content management?
Dr JoAnn Hackos: "Much of their documentation is still on paper - often stored in boxes in basements. When a document is required, people have to go down in masks and protective suits to fish it out! As you might expect, finding the right box isn't easy either. Gradually they're waking up to the fact that flood damage or other natural disasters could wipe out documents that are legally required to be kept. This is a big motivator for city government and municipalities to store and manage data electronically. Apart from anything else, data can be backed up safely in multiple locations."
DCL-NEWS: Are city governments looking at XML as a content management solution?
Dr JoAnn Hackos: "Many are interested in being able to use some of the capabilities of XML. Forms are a good example. An XML form looks like an ordinary form to the person completing it. But under the hood it has coding that allows you to use the information in more than one way. For instance, it would be possible to keep track of the number of building permits for each of the different areas of a city for a given year. This could be sent to an Excel spreadsheet, which could then provide the exact figure and other usable statistics.
Instead of having just words on a form, XML allows you to manipulate them as data. You can put the words in other places, not just store them in the form itself. Without XML there is a lot of manual entry of data, which means extra work and possibility of errors.
XML and content management would speed the whole process up for both citizens and commercial organizations when they deal with city governments. There's no doubt about it, these types of systems are set to have a very big impact on the world - unseen by the user, but a revolution all the same."
DCLnews Editorial
Books by JoAnn Hackos
Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery
 Discover how to successfully manage Web content and get the competitive edge. Using the content-management strategy she developed for companies like Nortel, Motorola, and Cisco, Hackos guides you step-by-step through effective Web content management.
http://www.comtech-serv.com/content_book.shtml
Managing Your Documentation Projects
 Arm yourself with proven strategies and techniques for producing top-quality, truly usable documentation, while cutting costs and time-to-market. Hackos reveals the hard-won secrets of over 25 years experience in document design and project management. What's more, this is the only book on the market devoted to the project management of technical publications.
http://www.comtech-serv.com/managing.shtml
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