Tue Mar 18, 2008
The content convergence and integration conference was a mind-blowing excursion into the wild terrains of content management. For those confused by the conference title, let me tell you the gist of it (from what I could gather).
We live in the information age, yet for the most part organizations fail to use content as a commodity and a valuable asset. As writers, we need to impress upon decision makers that the strategic use of content can indeed achieve the goals of the company, and is not a superfluous add-on. Furthermore, we can leverage social media and new ways of organizing content (such as folksonomy and dynamic publishing) to create a heightened user experience that goes beyond the traditional user manual. Oh, but for more conservative companies, the traditional manual works just fine.
Well, there’s more to it than that - a lot more. Presentations ran the gambit from DAM to DITA to XML and everything in between. It was a pleasure to volunteer at the event and work with the fine folks at the Strategy A consulting group, who were responsible for organizing and running the show.