* A definition of content that allows a visionary future
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In a couple of weeks, EMA will publish the result of many months of research I have conducted into the current and future state of enterprise content management (ECM) – including what it is, who uses it, and where it is heading. In order to explore these topics in depth, however, I needed to find a good working definition for ‘content.’ Surprisingly, that was not as easy as it sounds.
Many people can give examples of what they think content is – documents, spreadsheets, e-mails, Web pages, images, forms, video, etc. – but few people can really define content. The dictionary is little help for an IT-centric definition, and even other analysts and journalists seem to define content only by example. Lacking any external authoritative source, EMA came to define content as essentially “a combination of data, form, and context.”
Content starts with data – the digital bits and bytes that represent numbers and letters. Adding form to data – translating stored data into numbers, letters, words, or sentences – produces information, a meaningful representation of data. Adding context to that information – putting it in a container such as a document, an e-mail, a movie file, a podcast, or a Web page – produces content, a meaningful representation of information.
This definition is rigid enough to exclude amorphous and uncontained information, but flexible enough to accommodate the future of content. EMA’s upcoming research into ECM, for example, looks not only at traditional content such as mainframe reports or documents, but also at new online content technologies like podcasts, instant messaging, wikis, and blogs – all of which still fit into this definition.
An enduring yet flexible definition of content like this allows us to start thinking about these and other new content types, new delivery mechanisms, and new content capabilities. This in turn allows us to think about how new forms of content can help transform content-centric environments into more dynamic, agile, and productive businesses.
For example, how does instant messaging change the way a business communicates? Can wikis change how business users work together? How will ‘smartphones’ (such as the recently announced Apple iPhone, or mature Windows Mobile or PalmOS devices) change the way businesses produce, handle, and deliver Web content? What other new content technologies are coming? How will they affect businesses and their customers?
I would love to hear what you and your enterprise are doing with content, and especially how you see new online content technologies changing the way you do business. Please e-mail me.
