Deane Barker: Content Management and Modeling – Episode 111

Content Strategy Insights

Deane Barker Content programs need to be guided by a sound model and built on a strong foundation. They need to put people first but to also account for the technical systems that handle the details of turning abstract concepts into tangible and useful content artifacts. Deane Barker has been modeling and building content management systems for more than 25 years. In this conversation, he shares some of the insights gleaned during his long and successful career. We talked about: his work at Optimizely (formerly Episerver) on the CMS component of their digital experience platform (DXP) the importance of reifying abstract concepts with a content model before trying to put them into a content management system (CMS) how content modeling provides a solid foundation for a content program the consequences of failing to model your content at the correct level of granularity the hazards of embedding logic in rich-text content objects the "smell" of bad content modeling the crucial differences between suggestive and literal wireframes how CMSs are fundamentally about setting boundaries around content and the benefitsw of using boundaries the importance of crafting a good editorial experience the three levels of content: content, artifact, and qualia (the user's experience of the content) the difference between content authoring and content producing the "race to the middle" in the CMS world: headless CMSs adding artifact-creating capabilities and conventional CMSs providing content-management APIs the concept of the MRU, a minimum reusable unit of content the failure of many organizations to follow through on content-personalization plans the crucial role of understanding human behavior to do good content work Deane's bio Deane Barker is the Senior Director of Content Management Strategy at Optimizely. He’s been working in content management for 25 years and has written four books about the patterns and practices of modeling, creating, managing, and delivering digital content, including “Web Content Management: Systems, Features, and Best Practices” for O’Reilly Media, and the “Web Project Guide: From Spark to Launch and Beyond,” published in Summer 2021. Connect with Deane online DeaneBarker.net LinkedIn Twitter Deane's books Web Project Guide: From Spark to Launch and Beyond, 2021 Things You Should Know: 25 Lessons I've Learned About Buying Content Technology and Services, 2020 Real World Content Modeling: A Field Guide to CMS Features and Architecture, 2019 Web Content Management: Systems, Features, and Best Practices, 2016 Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AtfypIddcw Podcast intro transcript This is the Content Strategy Insights podcast, episode number 111. When you're creating a content program, it needs to be guided by a sound model and built on a strong foundation. It needs to put people first but to also account for the technical systems that handle the details of turning abstract concepts into tangible and useful content artifacts. Few people have as much experience with modeling and building content systems as Deane Barker. In this conversation, he shares insights gleaned in his 25-year content-management career. Interview transcript Larry: Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode number 111 of the Content Strategy Insights podcast. I'm really happy today to welcome to the show, Deane Barker. Deane is the Senior Director of Content Management Research at Optimizely. So welcome to the show, Deane. Tell the folks a little bit more about what you do there at Optimizely. Deane: Thank you very much, Larry. Optimizely used to be known as Episerver, and our core product for many years was a content management system, and we've since changed our branding. We've become Optimizely and we really sell a larger DXP, digital experience platform, now,