Volume 1

Issue 4

December 2004

In the news Education: Courses available for you!! Scott Abel The Content Wrangler abelsp@netdirect.net If you're looking to learn about effectively managing content, look no further. In this issue of The Rockley Report, we highlight several educational resources you may find valuable in your quest for content management knowledge. We've created a short list of college and university classes and programs, trade association offerings, and a summary of our own Content Management Workshop Series for your review. We've included some useful links to other online resources that may assist you in finding educational opportunities. College and University Content Management Classes and Programs University of Washington - TC 435 Content Management Course covers the principles and practices of building, managing and using content management systems in the technical communication workplace. Examines both the intricacies of collaborative workflow technologies and the organizational contexts that surround them. To learn more, visit: http://www.uwtc.washington.edu/programs/ugradcourses.htm. University of Washington iSchool - Content Management Certificate Program The Content Management Certificate Program provides the skills to help fill the growing need for well-informed information professionals who develop content management strategies and solutions to achieve business goals. Program includes three courses: Content Management Methodologies - Introduces the subject and techniques of content management, including (1) a process view of content management (i.e., collection, management and publishing), (2) a functional view of content management (i.e., audiences, organizational goals, staffing, workflow, publications and content components), and (3) key concepts (i.e., data, information, knowledge and content). Emphasis is given to content management as a project, including initiating a project, gathering requirements, performing logical design, choosing software, implementing the system and deploying it. Content Management Design - Develops the knowledge and skills in the logical design of content management systems, including the analysis of audiences, content, publications, access, workflow and staffing. Emphasis is on the synthesis of all of these analyses into a coherent and complete design for a particular content management system. Content Management Implementation - Develops knowledge and skills in the physical design of content management systems, including authoring tools, XML and relational repository design, and publication template systems. Emphasis is on understanding how leading content management systems perform the tasks necessary to collect, manage and publish content. To learn more, visit: http://ex tension.washington.edu/ext/certificates/ctm/ctm_gen.asp. Texas Tech University - English 5387 Publication Management Course teaches students how they can create value for their organizations by helping to make decisions about the appropriate platform for documentation, by creating single-source solutions, by collecting and disseminating knowledge, and by organizing communication projects in order to complete the job on time and on budget. The class also explores effective strategies for managing content. To learn more, visit: http://www.faculty.english.ttu.edu/carter/5387/. Illinois Institute of Technology - COM 541 Indexing & Retrieval Course covers the principles, practices and tools for indexing print and electronic documents, along with methods and tools for storing, maintaining and accessing information for communication roles in corporate, institutional and government settings. Emphasis is given to web-based strategies, techniques and tools. Specific areas of study include document and content management systems, metadata, relational databases, browsers / search engines, and XML. To learn more, visit: http://www.iit.edu/~com535/ir/ir_home.html. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Advanced Content Development Course explores the interplay between content and structure in the construction and management of online spaces, including how to create and maintain information structures for dynamic content and how to deliver customized content to individuals and groups. To learn more, visit: http://www.rsvp.rpi.edu/academics/course_catalog/comm/acd.shtml. Trade Association Content Management Programs Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Certificate Program The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) offers an intensive, web-based training program, "Fundamentals of Enterprise Content Management," a certificate program designed specifically for professionals who are in the first few years of their enterprise content management careers. Level One: ECM Practitioner Certificate program includes ten, 60-90 minute web-based courses; each followed by a online assessment covering the course content. Participants may enroll in individual courses or the entire program. Upon completion of all ten courses and successfully passing each assessment, participants earn the AIIM ECM Practitioner Certificate. Level Two: The Building Blocks presents advanced concepts in focused, topic-specific tracks including: ECM Technologies, Applications, Verticals, and Sales Techniques. Each track consists of five or six 60-minute Web-based modules and are led by the same Subject Matter Expert (SME). Upon completion of all modules in a given track and successfully passing a final exam, participants earn the AIIM ECM Specialist Certificate. To learn more, visit: http://www.aiim.org/article-aiim.asp?ID=25953 Rockley Group Content Management Programs Content Management Workshop Certificate Series The Rockley Group Content Management Workshop Series is designed to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the concepts and techniques required to develop and implement effective content management. Each workshop runs for two days. Take all four workshops and receive a certificate in content management. The series includes: Content Management Jumpstart Information Architecture for Content Management Content Modeling and Structured Writing Content Management Implementation Strategies Content Management JumpStart Content Management JumpStart introduces the concepts, strategies, guidelines, processes, and technological options required for a successful content management implementation. This workshop helps content managers and authors understand how to meet the increasing demands of creating, managing, and distributing content through a content management strategy. It covers the value of content management, how to analyze your content lifecycle, how to develop an ROI. It introduces you to the information architecture of content management, and provides guidelines for selecting tools and technology. It also covers the changing roles and processes that content management brings about, and provides strategies for managing that change. Information Architecture for Content Management Information Architecture for Content Management introduces you to concepts required to develop the information architecture for your content management strategy. Information architecture is a key component of a successful content management strategy. It is the backbone of your strategy and formalizes the structure of your content, helping you to determine rules for identifying, managing, retrieving, and delivering your content. In this workshop you will learn how to design your information architecture to support the user experience. It covers the concepts of content modeling, metadata, content management business rules, repository structure, and workflow. Content Modeling and Structured Writing Content Modeling and Structured Writing teaches you how to create content models and the content supported by those models. Content models define how information products are structured to support reuse and consistency, they identify where information products will share reusable content, and indicate what metadata applies to each element. Structured writing provides the standards for how to structure and write each element identified in your models. In this workshop, you will learn techniques for creating XML-ready content models that support content reuse in a structured authoring environment and how to create writing guidelines to support these models. Existing content models such as DocBook, DITA, SPL, and PIMS will also be reviewed. Content Management Implementation Strategies Implementing an effective unified content strategy is a balance between what is desired and what is possible from both an authoring and a technical perspective. An optimum implementation strategy is based on your analysis of your content, the potential for reuse, and the end user content requirements, as well as on your understanding of the technical capabilities/implementation of the content management system. Content Management Implementation Strategies provides you with an understanding of the factors affecting implementation, enabling you to make the right decisions about implementing your unified content strategy and your content management system. Note that it is not intended to be a technical "how-to" session; rather, it focuses on helping you to understand implementation issues. Additional information is available from the Rockley Group Content Management Workshop Series web page at http://www.rockley.com/workshops.htm.