This document discusses intelligent content, which refers to content that is structured, modular, reusable, format-free, and semantically rich. Intelligent content is discoverable, reconfigurable, and adaptable. It has advantages like reduced production time and consistent content across channels, but also has disadvantages like steep learning curves and needing advanced technology. The document outlines the key features of intelligent content and why its use is important given increasing demands, agile development processes, and changing organizational structures.

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INTELLIGENT CONTENT
By Denise Kadilak
Information Architect/Team Manager

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ABOUT ME
• 18 years experience
• Creating and maintaining 1000s of pages of user-end documentation
• Technical-project lead investigating new tools, best practices, and
workflows for a 27-member documentation team
Part-time college instructor:
• JCU: Technical Writing course included in the school’s
Professional Writing program
• Tri-c: Composition and intro to literature
Upcoming and past presentations:
• Content Marketing World, 2016
• MadWorld, 2015/2016
• WIAD, 2015
• STC Summit, 2015
Information Architect/Team Manager

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ABOUT ME
Webinars:
• Moving from Adobe FrameMaker to Flare
• Panel Discussion: Migrating from Frame to Flare
• A Hands-on Look at Migrating from FrameMaker to Flare
Website:
• Writing with a Flare

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AGENDA
• What is a Intelligent Content
• Key Features
• Advantages
• Disadvantages
• Why important
What we’ll cover…

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WHAT IS INTELLIGENT CONTENT?
• It is content that’s structurally rich and
semantically categorized and therefore
automatically discoverable, reusable,
reconfigurable, and adaptable
Ann Rockley
Founder and President of The Rockley Group
In very board terms – Traditional Definition

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WHAT IS INTELLIGENT CONTENT?
• It is designed to be modular, structured,
reusable, format-free, and semantically rich
and, as a consequence, discoverable,
reconfigurable, and adaptable
Intelligent Content: A Primer by Ann Rockley, Charles
Cooper, and Scott Able
In very board terms – Updated Definition

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WHAT IS INTELLIGENT CONTENT?
• Modular
• Structured
• Reusable
• Format-free
• Semantically rich
Key Features

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MODULAR
• Not a traditional document
• A bunch of separate content components
• These are assembled into documents
• Flexible
• Shared across product lines
• Shared across departments
Aimed at reuse

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MODULAR
• Agile – satisfies a variety of content needs
• Documentation team owns
• Support, marketing, training can reuse
• Efficient – do more with less
• Consistent – same content used across
products/disciplines/etc.
Advantages

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MODULAR
• Lacks context
• Difficult to manage/requires advanced
technology
• Challenge to create/steep learning curve
Disadvantages

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STRUCTURED
• XML most common format
• Metadata allows you to classify
• Readable by humans and machines

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STRUCTURED
• Automate
• People and machines can read
• Metadata
• Faster production
• Template driven
• Consistent
• Multi-device
Advantages

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STRUCTURED
• Extra time to plan and produce
• Advanced technology/tools
• Steep learning curve
• We are used to writing in this
environment, not this or this.
Disadvantages

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REUSABLE
• Reuse existing modular content to create
new content
• Text is most common but can be applied to
most media
• Not cut-and-paste

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REUSABLE
• Reduces content-creation time
• Eliminates duplicate content
• Consistent content
Advantages

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REUSABLE
• Light on context
• Extra time to plan and produce
• Advance technology and tools
Disadvantages

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FORMAT-FREE
• Formatting lives outside of the content
(css)

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FORMAT-FREE
• Easily switch out formats
• One set of content can be reused in a
variety of channels
• Print
• Mobile – phones, tablets
• Web
• Agile
• Efficient
Advantages

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FORMAT-FREE
• Difficult environment in which to work
• Advance technology and tools
Disadvantages

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SEMANTICALLY RICH
• Includes machine-readable information
(metadata)
• Needed to process the wide variety of
outputs IC is designed to offer

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SEMANTICALLY RICH
• Customized content
• Improve findability
• Decrease translation costs
• Improves content management
Advantages

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SEMANTICALLY RICH
• Advance technology and tools
• Steep learning curve
Disadvantages

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INTELLIGENT CONTENT RESULTS
• Our content is
• Discoverable: semantically rich,
structured
• Reconfigurable: modular
• Adaptable: format-free, reusable
So in the end…

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INTELLIGENT CONTENT OBERVATIONS
• Advance technology
• Learning curves
• Content Strategy
• Know your existing content
Not easy

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INTELLIGENT CONTENT OBSERVATIONS
• Increasing demands on our content
• Agile development process
• Rapid iteration
• Incremental change
• Global markets
Important why?

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INTELLIGENT CONTENT OBSERVATIONS
• Organizational silos are (or should be)
crumbling
• Technologies are there but we’re stuck in
an aging paradigm
• As IAs we need to take the lead in tackling
these challenges
Important why?

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RESOURCES
- Intelligent Content: The Marketer’s Frontier
- What is Intelligent Content?
- Content Marketing Institute
- Intelligent Content: A Primer
- Reuse is a Good Tactic but a Poor Strategy
- Intelligent Content Archives

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QUESTIONS?
denise.kadilak@blackbaud.com
My contact information: