{"id":1236,"date":"2015-11-04T10:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/?p=1236"},"modified":"2015-11-02T13:37:13","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T13:37:13","slug":"content-governance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/2015\/11\/04\/content-governance\/","title":{"rendered":"Content Governance: People, Processes and Policies"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not sure why I\u2019ve drawn the short straw here: I get to introduce you all to the idea of content governance<\/strong>. Wait, don\u2019t leave yet!<\/p>\n

2005: we had websites with no direction<\/h2>\n

We only have to roll back about 10 years to see what our website was like with minimal governance. We had duplicated content all over the place. There were\u00a0sites that didn\u2019t follow our branding. We had a\u00a0team of content-putter-uppers who just did but didn\u2019t ask why.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s changed?<\/h2>\n

We still get asked to \u201cjust build a website\u201d or \u201cstick some content on this page\u201d.\u00a0But, nowadays, the answer is just as likely to be \u201cno\u201d as “yes”.<\/p>\n

This is because we have content\u00a0policies, style guides, training and the right people: our\u00a0content governance.<\/p>\n

Going mobile is helping us with content governance<\/h2>\n

We\u2019re using the Go Mobile programme to\u00a0reinforce the importance of governance. There are some elements to making it a success: people, lifecycle, style guides and training.<\/p>\n

People<\/h3>\n

With each new project we\u2019re making sure we have\u00a0at least one named editor<\/strong>. This means we\u2019ve got a person in post whose job it is to manage the website and its content.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re still not 100% there. Web editor\u00a0roles are\u00a0often part of another post\u00a0at the University. We are getting some accountability. And we\u2019re working on making sure content editors have enough time to edit.<\/p>\n

Content\u00a0life cycle<\/h3>\n

Each Go Mobile site development isn\u2019t just a project with an end date. We\u2019re planning\u00a0reviews of site content to make sure we\u2019re maintaining quality<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re working with editors to introduce content management tools. These include\u00a0editorial calendars, analytics and Siteimprove.<\/p>\n

Style guides<\/h3>\n

We\u2019ve had a set of web content standards from day one. We\u2019ve just not been good at letting people know about them or enforcing them.<\/p>\n

Go Mobile is\u00a0raising\u00a0awareness not only that our standards exist<\/strong>\u00a0but also of their\u00a0importance<\/strong>. These are not rules for the sake of it. They\u2019re there to help our site users access the content they need on all devices.<\/p>\n

If content doesn\u2019t meet our standards, we have the authority to say it doesn\u2019t go live.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Training<\/h3>\n

We can\u2019t write a style guide, leave it hidden in a cupboard somewhere and then moan if people don\u2019t use it! So we\u2019ve developed training to help communicate our standards<\/strong>. We\u2019ve produced a demo site<\/a> that presents our new content design in the context of our standards.<\/p>\n

Beyond Go Mobile<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Through Go Mobile, we\u2019re developing a skilled group of content editors. They are\u00a0responsible for our web content and\u00a0will be ambassadors for maintaining quality websites<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve bench-marked our sites. We know\u00a0how well they score for readability and\u00a0whether they follow our new standards.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re planning to review sites around 6-8 months after they\u2019ve launched. This will help us make sure\u00a0we\u2019re maintaining quality.<\/p>\n

Content governance covers much more than I’ve outlined here – if we can get this right though, we’re well on our way to managing our web content effectively.<\/p>\n

Let us know in the comments how you keep on top of content quality. Do you have any formal content governance?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not sure why I\u2019ve drawn the short straw here: I get to introduce you all to the idea of content governance. Wait, don\u2019t leave yet! 2005: we had websites with no direction We only have to roll back about … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3934,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,15],"tags":[99,98,46,40,62,84],"class_list":["post-1236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-content","category-go-mobile","tag-content-calendars","tag-content-governance","tag-content-strategy","tag-editorial-style-guide","tag-quality-assurance","tag-siteimprove"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3934"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1236"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236\/revisions\/1250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}