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ContentOps edited collection: Content operations from start to scale (podcast)

In episode 153 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and special guest Dr. Carlos Evia of Virginia Tech discuss the upcoming book ContentOps Edited Collection: Content operations from start to scale. This is a free collection of insights from leading industry experts that will be available in October of 2023.

“This is going to be a free book. We are not going to become rich and famous with this book because we decided that we wanted to make the content in the book accessible for everybody who is interested in learning about content operations. It’s going to be published as an open-access book by Virginia Tech Publishing.”

— Dr. Carlos Evia

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AI Industry insights Podcasts

Applications of AI for knowledge content with guest Stefan Gentz (podcast)

In episode 152 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and special guest Stefan Gentz of Adobe discuss what knowledge content is, what impacts AI may have, and best practices for integrating AI in your content operations.

“As a company and as a content producer who’s publishing content, you are responsible for that content and you cannot rely on an agent to produce completely accurate information or information that is always correct.”

— Stefan Gentz

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DITA DITA XML—authors Industry insights Podcasts Structured content

Adapt to evolving content careers with guest Jack Molisani (podcast)

In episode 151 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Bill Swallow and podcast guest, Jack Molisani discuss how content careers have changed through the pandemic, layoffs, quiet quitting, and AI, and what you should do to stay ahead of the curve.

“Rather than applying for a job […] you want companies to come to you and say, ‘Hey, will you come work for us?’ The only way they’re going to do that is if you write articles, if you’re speaking at conferences, and if you position yourself as an expert in your field.”

— Jack Molisani

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Content management Information architecture Podcasts Structured content

How to choose a content model with guest Patrick Bosek (podcast)

In episode 150 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Alan Pringle and special guest, Patrick Bosek of Heretto talk about choosing a content model, factors to consider, and when you should think about customization.

“There’s a valid use case for almost every approach that’s out there. There’s no way around that. I think what it really starts to come down to is making sure that you’re matching the 18+ months [ahead] to the decision you’re making now.”

— Patrick Bosek

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Learning content Podcasts Structured learning content

Content operations for elearning content (podcast)

In episode 149 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and Christine Cuellar discuss the unique challenges, opportunities, and considerations of content operations with elearning content.

As an instructional designer, as a person who’s creating this learning content, you start thinking about, How do I deliver this effectively? How do I ensure that learning actually takes place? That’s our goal here. We want the people to learn the thing.” 

— Sarah O’Keefe

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Industry insights Podcasts

Anthony Olivier unpacks the MadCap acquisition of IXIASOFT (podcast)

In episode 148 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Anthony Olivier, founder and CEO of MadCap Software, and Sarah O’Keefe discuss the MadCap acquisition of IXIASOFT, what’s on the horizon for the merged organization, and explore predictions about the impact of AI in the content industry.

“By acquiring a DITA-based CCMS, it allows us to offer not just an unstructured XML-based solution with cloud-based content management, but also offer a structured authoring solution for our customers who want to make that transition.”

Anthony Olivier

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Change management Podcasts Structured content

“Why do I have to work differently?” (podcast, part 2)

In episode 147 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Alan Pringle and Christine Cuellar continue talking about how teams adjust when content processes change, and tools you can use to navigate the question, “Why do I have to work differently?”

This is part two of a two-part podcast.

“We had a client a few years ago refer to us as content therapists, and that’s not far off. […] We provide a sounding board. We’re a sympathetic ear. We help give you the opportunity to bounce off concerns, problems, issues, and offer feedback. It’s a relationship where we are going to listen and give guidance, because again, we’ve been through this before with other people. Let’s apply that knowledge and make your life as easy as possible during, frankly, what can be a very tumultuous time.”

— Alan Pringle

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Change management Podcasts Structured content

“Why do I have to work differently?” (podcast, part 1)

In episode 146 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Alan Pringle and Christine Cuellar talk about how teams adjust when content processes change, and how you can address the question, “Why do I have to work differently?”

This is part one of a two-part podcast. 

“One of these kinds of business drivers can be a merger or an acquisition. When you end up combining two companies, you can have two separate workflows. Both of them are not going to win — they’re just not. […] But again, I mean, I have a lot of sympathy for these people. A lot of times they are asking this for legitimate reasons. ‘Why is this happening?’ ‘Why am I having to do this?’ That’s when you’ve got to help them step back and look at the bigger business situation.”

— Alan Pringle

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Learning content Podcasts

Optimize learning and training content through content operations (podcast)

In episode 145 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Bill Swallow and Christine Cuellar discuss the impact content operations has on your learning and training content, and how to make the most out of this valuable asset. 

“If the company is looking to implement something within a specific time frame for a very specific business need, and that gets delayed at the beginning when training is being developed, it’s going to snowball down. So, your six-week delay on getting content out the door might turn into a six-month delay on getting the program rolled out.”

— Bill Swallow

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Podcasts

AI: Rewards and risks with Rich Dominelli (podcast)

In episode 144 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Alan Pringle (Scriptorium) and special guest Rich Dominelli (Data Conversion Laboratory) tackle the big topic of 2023: artificial intelligence (AI).

“I feel like people anthropomorphize AI a lot. They’re having a conversation with their program and they assume that the program has needs and wants and desires that it’s trying to fulfill, or even worse, that it has your best interest at heart when really, what’s going on behind the scenes is that it’s just a statistical model that’s large enough that people don’t really understand what’s going on. It’s a model of weights and it’s emitting what it thinks you want to the best of its ability. It has no desires or needs or agency of its own.”

— Rich Dominelli

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Podcasts

Balancing CMS and CCMS implementation (podcast, part 2)

In episode 143 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Christine Cuellar are back discussing the common tripping points companies stumble over while implementing their content management system (CMS) and their component content management system (CCMS). This is part two of a two-part podcast.

“If you’ve got people working in a web CMS and you’ve got people working in a CCMS, and they’ve always worked separately, and then suddenly you ask them to come together and collaborate and maybe have one group or the other choose a new tool so that they can share content, but they’ve never had that process of working together, there’s going to have to be not just a tool solution to get them working together, but a people solution and a whole different mindset in the way that they work together.”

— Gretyl Kinsey

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CCMS CMS Content management DITA DITA XML—authors Podcasts

Balancing CMS and CCMS implementation (podcast, part 1)

In episode 142 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Christine Cuellar discuss balancing the implementation of a content management system (CMS), and component content management system (CCMS). This is part one of a two-part podcast.

“When you have two types of content produced by your organization and different groups in charge of that, and maybe they’re in two different systems, that it’s really important to get those groups working together so that they can understand that those priorities don’t need to be competing, they just need to be balanced.”

— Gretyl Kinsey

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DITA DITA workflow—managers DITA XML—authors LearningDITA Podcasts

What is LearningDITA? (podcast)

March 2025 update: We have moved LearningDITA to a new platform. The Introduction to DITA course is still free, and you can sign up for courses at store.scriptorium.com.

In episode 141 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Alan Pringle and Christine Cuellar discuss the story behind LearningDITA, the free DITA training created by the Scriptorium team.

What we are trying to do with this site is give people a resource where they can go and, at their own pace, learn about what DITA is and how it can apply to their content and their content processes. It’s a way to take some of the technical mystique out of it, to bring it down and help you learn what it is and how it works.

– Alan Pringle

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Podcasts

Éric Bergeron explains the MadCap acquisition of IXIASOFT (podcast)

In episode 140 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and Éric Bergeron, president and CEO of IXIASOFT, share the story behind the MadCap acquisition of IXIASOFT.

“The question that everybody is asking, and we really want the answer to, is this seems like a very sensible combination, but MadCap as an organization has done a really excellent job with their marketing, and much of their marketing has been based on the concept that DITA is not something that you need. Flare is happy and easy and safe and wonderful, and DITA is none of those things. So, when you say this is a bit of an odd combination, I think everybody’s looking at, ‘Well, wait a minute, there’s been a lot of DITA bashing over the past 10 years or so.’ What do you do with that?”

—Sarah O’Keefe

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Podcasts

Unpacking structured content, DITA, and UX content with Keith Anderson

In episode 139 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and special guest Keith Anderson dive into their experiences with structured content, DITA, and user content.

“My definition of context is anything that affects the cognitive processing of information. […] So, whether you’re consuming information by reading or listening, there are so many factors that affect how you process the context of the content.”

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Podcasts

Why information architecture matters (podcast)

In episode 138 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Christine Cuellar talk about a common content strategy trap: what happens when information architecture (IA) is missing, and why you need IA.

“Without IA, you can’t get the most value out of your content. When we think about things like the time it takes to create your content, or getting benefits out of it like reuse, saving money on your translation costs, saving time to market on your translation, all of these things really make your content work for your organization. If you don’t have solid IA in place, it’s going to be really hard to do those things and truly get that value out of your content.”

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CCMS CMS Content management Industry insights Information architecture Podcasts

Content fragmentation with special guest Larry Swanson (podcast)

In episode 137 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and guest Larry Swanson talk about the fragmentation of content over the past 30 years, from the delivery of books to UX writing.

“What are the changes that this fragmentation has introduced from a business or an economic point of view? One is the notion that we’re all publishers now. This is where the whole field of content marketing comes from — this notion that it’s a better way to promote yourself if you demonstrate expertise around what you’re doing.”

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Podcasts

What is a headless CMS? (podcast)

In episode 133 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and guest Carrie Hane of Sanity talk about headless CMSs.

If your organization isn’t already going down this route, it will probably go there soon. Whenever it’s time to get a new CMS or change hosts. It’s usually triggered on the IT side to switch to it. But like I said, the developers love the flexibility and ease of this decoupled tool. Yeah, it’s really technology driven, but it’s a real opportunity for everyone in an organization to rethink how they’re creating and using content.

—Carrie Hane

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Podcasts

Misconceptions about structured content (podcast)

In episode 132 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Alan Pringle and guest Jo Lam of Paligo dispel misconceptions and myths about structured content.

“Science and history shows us that structured content, structured authoring, is actually very intuitive. And if I may rewind back to, say, the paleolithic era where we first started using a lot of symbols, and then eventually converting them into what we now know as letters. Understanding patterns on an extremely micro level, and that’s how we actually learn to read and write.”

—Jo Lam

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Jobs in techcomm (podcast)

In episode 131 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and guest Keith Schengili-Roberts discuss the techcomm job market.

Most of the jobs I see are industry experience … is helpful. Medical device is very helpful. PS, we’d love it if you had these tools. It’s common not to require the tools. It’s common to require domain knowledge and then say tools are a nice-to-have or a strongly preferred, but not an absolute requirement.

—Keith Schengili-Roberts

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Podcasts

The challenges of replatforming content (podcast)

In episode 130 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Bill Swallow and Sarah O’Keefe talk about the challenges of replatforming content from one system to another.

Links are always a problem, especially cross-document links. Reusable content tends to be handled differently in different systems, or almost the same, but not quite, which is almost worse.

—Sarah O’Keefe

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