WEEK 02

CONTENT MANAGEMENT AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT

Overview: There is a need to reconcile the differences in workflow practice associated with content and document management activities. The challenge is to ensure workflow automation occurs in a way that embraces all aspects of user behaviour across the whole life cycle of electronic publishing and document management, including source documents. The inclusion of print workflow and other traditional activities such as records management and archiving will prove to be fundamentally important.

The difference between content management and document management

Document management is an older tradition than content management. The need for document management has arisen from the transition from hard copy file and records management to the management of large numbers of digital documents within organisations. The focus is primarily concerned with whole documents and usually involves the saving and archiving of native file formats. Files are normally generated on PCs or laptops.

In contrast, content management has its origins in website and intranet publishing. There is a strong focus on dynamic links between elements of content. The content management system manages the interconnections between small units of information.

Demarcation between content and document management

Historically, these two domains of practice have remained quite separate. The demarcation has been based on different mark up practices. Document management primarily involves the use of visual markup (the paradigm of the printed page) that is enshrined in software systems such as word processing and publishing packages. In contrast, content management systems have drawn on structural mark up practices that have arisen first from the use of standardised general markup language (SGML), then with hypertext markup language (HTML) and now extensible markup language (XML – the paradigm of the structured document).

Will the workflows of content and document management converge?

The use of extensible markup language (XML) within the document and text processing industries, such as those used each day by knowledge workers is a journey that has hardly begun. Knowledge workers and organisational managers everywhere are beginning to grapple with the challenges as they consider how best to integrate web publishing systems with other activities such as document management, data management, records and archiving management and print on demand. But the shift to fully enabled XML workflow of all documents and information represents a challenge as significant as the invention of the printing press itself in the mid 1400s. As this transformation accelerates almost every aspect of work will be transformed by these new developments.

Enterprise-wide publishing systems as the foci for convergence

In developing new solutions for their customers, media and publishing organisations need to become more aware of the particular strengths of their own traditions. In the years ahead, there will inevitably be a process of mixing and matching the skills associated with the different domains of practice encompassing both content management and document management. Enterprise-wide publishing systems will become the foci through which the domains of content and document management will converge.

Even though these trends are very embryonic, some of the differences as these are beginning to appear today are outlined as follows.

	Content management	Enterprise-wide publishing
System design	Built around technical specifications and consultation with users.	Deeply embedded in human practice management. Specifications arise from placing the user at the centre of design specifications. Integration of all aspects of the document life cycle, including traditional understandings of records and archives management.
Data entry	Use of web forms management.	Use of web forms management and scanning with OCR to database functions (e.g., new Canon photocopier functions).
Data storage	Both XML structured data and use of backend databases such as SQL.	Greater focus on flexibility using XML, but back end databases can also be used.
Data schemas and XML standards	Difficult to change or add different schemas in current IT management systems. Lack of coherent approach to interoperability. Lack of recognition of the relationship between data and records management.	New data schemas are easily introduced to workflow and can be controlled by the user. Strong focus on XML standards Embryonic search for solutions to support semantic interoperability between XML standards. Focus on relationship between data, records management and archiving.
Search	Pre-specified ways of searching leading to narrower research results.	Free format search across all data fields. Leads to more “google” type research results.
Alerting and agent based processing	Human activities, based on manual activities.	Variety of automated functions embedded within the publishing system.
Style sheet rendering	Rendering engines are usually hard coded by software developers.	The user is able to control the rendering instructions.
Presentation management	Limited inclusion of issues to do with colour management and typography.	Strong focus on workflow to support flexibility of resolution for images, colour management, typography, fonts, paragraph justification and copyflow.
Pre-press and renderings	Most often not inclusive of print workflow requirements. Pre-press work is still required.	Multiple renderings with focus on screen reading, readability and print management. Many pre-press functions become more automated. Strong focus on the importance of renderings to support records and archive management.
Management	Strong focus on IT centric management mechanisms.	Completely new work roles will emerge to support the efficacy of enterprise-wide publishing Management roles will be embedded within the social systems of work itself.

KEY IMPLICATIONS

• There is an urgent need for representatives from media and publishing industries, particularly the parts that encompass document management and print rendering part of the sector, to influence the agenda being developed in the content management industries. Physical printing is likely to diminish through time – the survival path is one of visual rendering.
• A key necessity is to ensure the key strengths of the digital imaging industries are built into content management solutions. Two examples include the integration of traditional approaches to records and archives management in the new digital era and colour management across multiple media outputs.
• The development of new solutions will take time, but the media and publishing industries need to get on the front foot to protect their position in the new world of enterprise-wide publishing.