More and more, this business we know as Publishing is revolving around the issues of content management. Where once someone would prepare words and images for a particular publication and perhaps keep original manuscripts and transparencies in a filing cabinet, now we're looking at (or already doing) the process of storing data digitally in tagged format in databases, ready to be squirted out into a dozen different formats; we're multiplatforming with a vengeance. Or at least that's what the pundits like to say.
Is this really what's happening? Are we destined to become an industry of datakeepers? Well... yes and no. The DTP revolution in the 1980s didn't mean that we all became traditional typesetters even while we did end up doing our own typesetting, and the broader publishing revolution that's going on around us won't turn us all into database geeks or put us at the mercy of tech-savvy but publishing-ignorant experts. Oh, that does happen, especially to the unwary; we're in a rolling period of transition after all. But these things tend to shake down into forms that we all can use. Think of it like this: the layout tools that are practically given away to consumers now (Apple's Pages for one excellent example) are many times better than the best DTP apps from 20 years ago.
How will this affect content management? Well, we're already being offered free content management tools in the form of blogs, RSS feeds, online diaries, Flikr and similar image services, webmail, social and business networking services, wikis, online office suites... the main differences between these and the £100K bespoke CMS solutions that publishing groups are encouraged to plump for are the level of tailoring and the scale. This will change.
We are all content managers, even those that don't think they are. The tools are getting better, easier and cheaper. Their scope is growing, and their traditional complexities are fading into the background.
2 comments:
Totally agree. My job is named web editor, in fact 80% is content management.
Editing is less than 5%.
I agree. As the owner of a fairly new business, trying to get it seen by the masses is very difficult. No clues from Google except to say, just write more quality content. But when you have said what you want to say, what are you supposed to write. At least at Grammar Proof i get to read interesting articles from all walks of life. Nature of the work i guess.
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