Content Management Web Delivery 1st Edition

If you are attempting to understand the steps required to move your technical documentation into a content management system... and what to do with such a system afterward, read this book.This book makes few assumptions about what you know about content management; as such it explains the basic material that other books gloss over. Make no mistake, however, this book is not just an introduction - if you follow the excellent examples and illustrations, you will have a good understanding between such items as "your information model" and "metadata" ... and why the relationship is important to content management. Separate chapters progress from beginning to end of the process to help you understand the steps necessary to move your content into a content management system. Roles and responsiblities of team members are discussed; activities such as task analysis are also identified at appropriate steps.If you are attempting to understand why content management is good and how to implement it, read this book; if you have you have implemented a system already and are not pleased with it, read this book to identify what might have gone wrong. Great practical information to understand before you implement your own system or before you discuss your needs with integrators and vendors.This may not be the last book you read on content management however it should be the first.

At first reading, this book was good, but I later found myself confused about the processes Hackos describes. The first chapter is strong in that it provides an overview of the five phases of a content management project, complete with lists of deliverables. The book includes a number of process checklists in the appendices.When I see a book that lays out a process structure in the beginning, I expect the table of contents to follow that structure. This book fails to do that. It can be difficult in the first reading to know what phase of the process is described in any particular chapter. The last two phases of development--the pilot project and the roll out--are not described outside the introductory chapter.Since the content management field is apparently devoid of a conventional vernacular, authors get to invent their own terms for things. I had to read several chapters many times to understand what Hackos means by "information type" and "content unit." It was also difficult to see where metadata fits into the picture. Her information model shows an information repository containing "modules of content", such as reports or manuals. Each module of content may contain one or more "information types", such as letters or recipes. Each information type is constructed of "content units", which can be recipe ingredients or procedure steps. But, you start by defining "dimensions", which become retrieval metadata for the information types.A dimension is essentially an enumerated data type with a set of discrete values. Once you define the dimensions, you can then define information types and, at the lowest level, content units. These dimensions are translated into metadata attached to "modules of content". This is what confuses me. As described in the book the metadata is attached to the highest level of document in the repository, but not the lowest level of content unit. Apparently, the sole function of metadata advocated here is to aid user-level searching and retrieval, and not to support authoring workflow. I find this a significant shortcoming.In summary:Strengths: Strong focus on the end user, case studies, process not overly detailed, a chapter on making a business case, appendices full of checklists, & a good introduction.Weaknesses: Book doesn't follow process flow, the jargon is difficult to grasp, reuse mechanisms are not well covered, uses a weak metadata model, and really only details the first three phases of a five-phase process.Recommendation: A number of people I work with like this book, so maybe I'm just cranky. I would check out the comtech-serv.com website where Hackos lays out the process for you and provides some detail. You should be able to get a feel for her style and process there.

Personally, because I am a beginner at content management, this book seemed a little too technical for me. It is meant to teach someone the process of content management, but somehow it still seems a bit high-level. In any case, the content itself is a good indicator of how the process works. Here are some highlights:* It covers the processes necessary to analyze, create, and manage content, as well as present it on the web.* It includes strategies for separating presentation from content, such as how to analyze documents to break them up into logical units.* It shows how to create an information model (a schema used for defining the structure of the data) and defining content units (logical units in which content is stored); it discusses creating content in that data model using XML.* It includes creating content plans that define how data will be organized and presented to users for both static and dynamic sites.* It focuses on the concept of single source publishing (publishing the same content in multiple ways and formats).* It talks about how to staff a project with advanced content creation experts.* It touches upon advanced concepts such as using topic maps to define advanced presentation.If you are just starting out, this book may be too much for your first stab at learning the material. However, this is a good 2nd book, once the initial idea has been understood.

No two companies have identical content management needs. That means applying a formula is likely to result in disaster. Along with a detailed exposition of how to manage content, this invaluable book shows companies how to adapt the methods to their unique situations.Ms. Hackos relates the creation of a high-level information model with the nitty-gritty details of establishing information types and the units of content composing them, how these units fit in a repository, and how to use various technogies to create, maintain and output from the repository.The book is studded with examples of how content management has been done, both what to emulate and what to avoid. I am sure the principles espoused will be of value, long after any particular technology has been superceded.The best (if not the only) book I have seen about this subject. Highly recommended.