content is data: pushing re-use to the limit
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© 2011 IBM Corporation
Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.
Dr. Adrian R Warman
© 2011 IBM Corporation
Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.
2
Agenda
Introduction Technical content and enterprise data Real world examples Re-use: panacea or problem? Controlling re-use Best practices Conclusions
© 2011 IBM Corporation
Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.
3
Introduction
Who am I?
– Dr. Adrian R. Warman Where do I work?
– Hursley Park, WinchesterIBM United Kingdom Limited
How can you contact me?
– Tel: +44-1962-819176
– Email: [email protected]
– Google+:Adrian Warman
What do I do?
– Information Architect
Disclaimer
– Any views or opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent official positions, strategies or opinions of International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation.
– No guarantees are offered as to the timeliness, accuracy or validity of information presented.
Acknowledgement
– Clip art used in this presentation is from the Open Clip Art Libraryhttp://www.openclipart.org/
© 2011 IBM Corporation
Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.
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Terminology: Re-use
© 2011 IBM Corporation
Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.
Technical content and enterprise-level data
Most organizations depend on 'scalable' repositories:
– Database content.
– Development source code.
– Standard tools / applications / spreadsheets.
– Documentation. They provide a single 'go-to' location for organizational material.
– Reduces duplication.
– Helps with version management. Provides an opportunity:
– Technical content created and stored for one purpose might be re-used for another purpose.
• Manuals / guides.
• Training materials.
• Product literature.
– Especially if it can be accessed through a 'portable' format: XML or SQL.
© 2011 IBM Corporation
Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.
Real world examples
Many 'personalized' documents. Pharmaceuticals. GIS. Product development
– Software, in particular
But ….
© 2011 IBM Corporation
Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.
Re-use: panacea or problem?
Does re-use scale?
– An example. Suggestion: Recognize that solving one problem introduces another. Suggestion: Distinguish between re-using and re-purposing.
© 2011 IBM Corporation
Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.
Controlling re-use
Rockley [http://www.rockley.com/TheRockleyReport/V1I3/Information%20Architecture.htm] identifies four ways of controlling re-use:
– Opportunistic reuse
– Systematic reuse
– Nested reuse
– Workflow Suggestion: Think about the distinction between controlling re-use and managing re-
purposing.
© 2011 IBM Corporation
Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.
Best practices 1
Identify re-purposing 'dimensions'. Be cautious about adding dimensions. Think about whether you are really re-purposing, or simply sharing. Is the content Factual?
– Static, resilient, rarely changes.
– Good candidate for re-purposing [Green flag][Green flag]. Is the content Editorial?
– Definitive, highly variable between re-purposing dimensions, but static within the dimension.
– Possible candidate for re-purposing [Amber flag][Amber flag]. Is the content Opinion?
– Sales, marketing, highly variable.
– Poor candidate for re-purposing [Red flag][Red flag]. Can you isolate and so push content from Opinion → Editorial → Factual?
© 2011 IBM Corporation
Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.
Best practices 2
Identify / acquire / implement tooling to help manage re-purposing.
– For all but the simplest scenarios, management is more important than enablingre-purposing.
Identifying factors:
– Ability to 'collapse' instances of re-purposing.
– Support for 'Test Driven Documentation'.
– Support for metadata rationalization (managing the dimensions).
– Links with software source code management
• In particular, for merging changes.
© 2011 IBM Corporation
Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.
Best practices 3
© 2011 IBM Corporation
Content is data: pushing re-use to the limit.
Conclusions
Basically, re-use / re-purposing is an important technique. In a short-term, small-scale case, it can and does save time and effort.
– But don't equate small number of re-purposing dimensions with small number of content files.
Increasing the number of re-purposing dimensions will, by definition, introduce complexities to be managed.
– They increase the time and effort required to perform all documentation tasks.
– They enable errors.
– They can be extremely difficult to remove. Be aware of the risks.
– Have processes / tools in place to help you detect scaling issues.
– As you hit a pain point, think about the number of re-purposing dimensions. Use this as an early warning flag for 'next time'.
A small change early can avoid a big change later.