Re: Digest for contentstrategy@googlegroups.com - 3 updates in 1 topic

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Lisa Trager

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Mar 22, 2015, 10:45:03 PM3/22/15
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Great conversation. I think one of the problems we often encounter with people understanding content strategy, relates to the fact that it's even hard to come up with one simple definition of content!

Content is the end product of human communication. As humans have evolved, so have the technical tools of communicating, storing, and retrieving the stories, songs, advertising, scientific information, and other types of human communication.  Content is the expression of human thought and feelings. 

Does it have to be recorded to be considered content?  I think not. Is a song not content regardless of whether it was heard in a concert hall, a record or through Pandora?

Certainly the issue of content engineering is quite germaine when we talk about the technical requirements of intelligent content.

Best,

Lisa Trager

On Mar 22, 2015 4:43 PM, <content...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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> Definition of "content" - 3 Updates
> Definition of "content"
> M Haggerty-Villa <mhagg...@gmail.com>: Mar 22 11:29AM -0700
>
> Thanks to all for an interesting discussion.
>  
> Although it does nothing to define "content," lately I find myself using the term "content data" when communicating with my technical team. Their focus is primarily data, so this term helps remind us that the data that must pass through their services is in fact content. And, candidly, this term also helps the tech team understand why they have to collaborate with a content strategist.
>  
> When working with my user experience and copy teams, I just use the term "content."
>  
> I suppose this might be a bit schizophrenic. I like to think of it as adapting my message (dare I say content?) to my audience.
>  
> Michael Haggerty-Villa
> Jared Spool <jsp...@uie.com>: Mar 22 02:46PM -0400
>
> Content is anything the user needs right now.
>  
> It could be an article or a video. But it could also be an account balance or a computer-generated itinerary. It might be stored in a database, it might be generated by an algorithm, or it might be hard-coded into the software. If the user needs it, it's content.
>  
> Another way of looking at it: Content is anything that, if removed, renders the value of the design useless. Content is why your engineers have jobs.
>  
> Jared
>  
>  
> Rick Yagodich <ri...@think-info.com>: Mar 22 06:55PM
>
> But Jared, all the other stuff that you are choosing - for whatever
> reason - not to display to the user is also content. As is all the stuff
> that you are using to determine what you should display.
>  
> In effect, as someone said the other day (sorry, can't remember who),
> everything you have, everything you do, is content.
>  
> In order to have any meaningful discussion about content, we really need
> to identify the scope of that discussion. All the content for your
> business? (which includes the stuff you have nothing to do with, but
> that is created by others and relates to you). The content for a
> particular communication? Your content pool on a specific subject?
> Available, delivered, irrelevant, or perhaps suppressed content? (I
> could go on.)
>  
> Without a clarification of scope, a definition of content gets very
> close to a definition of data, which is anything that is in some way
> identifiable or recordable… which effectively translates to "the
> universe." The only effective difference being that data is anything
> recordable, content is anything recorded.
>  
> No wonder it is so hard for anyone to pin down what content is, when
> everyone wants an all-encompassing answer, yet so many focus only on the
> aspect that is relevant to them in that particular situation…
>  
> On 22/03/2015 18:46, Jared Spool wrote:
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