The Content Strategy Experts podcast
Scriptorium experts and special guests discuss content strategy issues. Podcasts average 15–20 minutes. Just enough for a lunchtime stroll, a short commute, or that delightful wait at the doctor’s office.
Content strategy pitfalls: lacking a unified content strategy (podcast)
November 29, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 107 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Bill Swallow and Gretyl Kinsey are back for another episode in our Content strategy pitfalls series. They talk about what can have happen when you lack a unified content strategy.
Continue reading →“One way to get funding in place is to start the conversation among different groups. Get these groups together and start talking about what their ultimate goals are with their content strategy and their content operations. That way you can have multiple voices coming together and asking for a larger pool of money that can be shared.”
– Bill Swallow
DITA and accessibility (podcast)
November 15, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 106 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Bob Johnson of Intuitive talk about accessibility and the Darwin Information Typing Architecture
Continue reading →“If you’re doing it right, accessibility doesn’t look any different than what you’re doing day to day. You’re just adding accessibility considerations when you author your content.”
– Bob Johnson
Exit strategy for your content operations (podcast)
November 8, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 105 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Alan Pringle and Sarah O’Keefe talk about an exit strategy as part of your content operations planning.
Continue reading →“You need to be thinking about the what-ifs 5 or 10 years down the road while you’re picking the tool. Are we going to have flexibility with this tool? Is it going to be able to help us support things we may not even be thinking about or may not even exist right now?”
– Alan Pringle
Scriptorium’s Content Ops Manifesto (podcast)
October 11, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 104 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Sarah O’Keefe discuss Scriptorium’s Content Ops Manifesto.
Continue reading →“The bigger your system is and the more content you have, the more expensive friction is, and the more you can and should invest in getting rid of it.”
– Sarah O’Keefe
Transitioning to a new CCMS (podcast)
September 27, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 103 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Alan Pringle and Bill Swallow share some considerations for transitioning into a new component content management system or CCMS.
Continue reading →“You need to look at the requirements you have now. Are they being supported or not supported? Do you see this system helping you move forward with your content goals in three to five years?”
– Alan Pringle
The importance of terminology management (podcast)
September 13, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 102 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and Sharon Burton of Expel talk about the importance of terminology management.
Continue reading →“If we don’t give customers the information to understand what we’re telling them, they won’t be successful and we have failed.”
– Sharon Burton
Life with a content management system (podcast)
August 23, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 101 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Sarah O’Keefe talk about what life is like with and without a content management system (CMS).
Continue reading →“You have to decide, by looking at your particular organization, whether you need what a CMS will give you. You will get improvements in consistency and automation for formatting and traceability. You can get improvements in translation because you have more consistent content and better workflows.”
– Sarah O’Keefe
Content strategy success at Crown (podcast)
August 2, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 100 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Bill Swallow and special guest Jodi Shimp discuss their experience with digital transformation and implementing a new content strategy at Crown Equipment Corporation.
Continue reading →“The initial and earliest win in the project was the go-ahead to even bring on consultants to help us determine what the scope would be and what the true need would be across all the different groups.”
– Jodi Shimp
The evolution of smart content (podcast)
July 26, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 99 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Alan Pringle and special guest Larry Kunz of Extreme Networks talk about the evolution of smart, structured content.
Continue reading →“I’m a huge believer in big picture. We really need to stand back and ask ourselves, ‘What is this really all about? What are we trying to accomplish?’ It’s not about the content. It’s about the customer.”
– Larry Kunz
The pros and cons of markdown (podcast, part 2)
July 12, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 98 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and Dr. Carlos Evia of Virginia Tech continue their discussion about the pros and cons of markdown.
Continue reading →“If you want to make a website and you need to write the text in a fast way that does not involve adding a lot of the brackets that are in HTML syntax, I think that’s the main use for markdown.”
–Dr. Carlos Evia
The pros and cons of markdown (podcast, part 1)
June 28, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 97 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and Dr. Carlos Evia of Virginia Tech discuss the pros and cons of markdown.
Continue reading →“I think markdown has a huge user base because most people need to develop content for the web. But there’s a set of people that need to be working in something more structured for a variety of reasons, and those are the ones who use DITA.”
–Dr. Carlos Evia
The importance of content governance (podcast)
June 7, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 96 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Gretyl Kinsey talk about the importance of content governance.
Continue reading →“An important part of governance is knowing that changes can happen. Keep your documentation in a central place where everybody can get to it and understands how it’s updated. If you don’t, some groups may start creating their own and that can result in unofficial documentation that doesn’t necessarily capture what should be captured.”
–Gretyl Kinsey
DITA 2.0: What to expect (podcast)
May 17, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 95 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and Kris Eberlein (chair of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee) discuss the upcoming release of 2.0. What can you expect if you are currently in DITA? And what do you need to know if you are considering DITA?
Continue reading →“If you’ve been shoehorning diagnostic information into troubleshooting topics, you’re going to have a good semantic place to put that content with DITA 2.0.”
–Kris Eberlein
Understanding content migration (podcast)
May 3, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 94 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Bill Swallow and David Turner of DCL take a look at content migration and discuss all of the players and parts involved.
Continue reading →“It’s not just about moving the content and loading it to the new system. You actually have to transform the content from the unstructured formats.”
–David Turner, DCL
DITA for small teams (podcast)
April 5, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 93 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Sarah O’Keefe talk about how to determine whether DITA XML is a good fit for smaller content requirements.
Continue reading →“Scalability or anticipated scale is actually a good reason to implement DITA for a small team.”
–Sarah O’Keefe
How to align your content strategy with your company’s needs (podcast)
March 22, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 92 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Alan Pringle share how you get started with a content strategy project and what you can do if you really don’t have a solid grasp on your needs.
Continue reading →“It’s about opening yourself up to getting feedback from someone who’s done this stuff before, and may come up with some solutions that you didn’t necessarily consider in your own thinking.”
–Alan Pringle
Using text strings and microcontent (podcast, part 2)
March 8, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 91 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Simon Bate continue their discussion about using text strings and microcontent. This is part two of a two-part podcast.
Continue reading →“Make sure that their voice is heard. All groups that are using your strings need to have some input or have a way of communicating their needs to the organizations controlling those strings.”
– Simon Bate
Using text strings and microcontent (podcast, part 1)
March 1, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 90 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Simon Bate talk about using text strings and microcontent. This is part one of a two-part podcast.
Continue reading →“They’re starting to get the idea of taxonomy and how important it is for all parts of their business to communicate using the exact same language. If this can be captured and put in one place, then those strings can be available to everybody.”
– Simon Bate
The misuse of metadata (podcast)
February 15, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 89 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Bill Swallow talk about strategies for avoiding the misuse of metadata and DITA XML-based content.
Continue reading →“The more you fine-tune how your content model needs to operate, the easier it’s going to be to move it forward over time. The more you start taking shortcuts and using metadata for purposes other than what it was intended for, the more problems you’re going to have.”
– Bill Swallow
Understanding information architecture (podcast)
February 1, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 88 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Alan Pringle and special guest Amber Swope of DITA Strategies talk about information architecture.
Continue reading →“Information architecture is a role, not necessarily a position, but by ignoring it, you end up without the discipline and the consistency that really enables great customer experiences.”
– Amber Swope
Finding the value when selling structure (podcast)
January 11, 2021Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 87 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and special guest Nenad Furtula of Bluestream talk about finding the value when selling structure. Why do so many tech pubs departments fail to get support for structured content and what can we potentially do to change that?
Continue reading →Steps to structured content (podcast, part 2)
December 14, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 86 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Bill Swallow continue their discussion about the steps to structure, how to move from unstructured content to structure, and what each level of maturity looks like.
Continue reading →“Step five is when you’re thinking even your structure is structured. You’re really thinking about how to take this to the highest possible level, how to get the most out of your automation, and how to make sure that the way you’re delivering your content is maximum efficiency.”
– Gretyl Kinsey
Steps to structured content (podcast, part 1)
December 7, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 85 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Bill Swallow talk about the steps to structure, how to move from unstructured content to structure, and what each level of maturity looks like.
Continue reading →“It’s important to keep in mind when you move from step two to step three that your authoring tools may change. The writers might have gotten used to working with one set of tools in steps one and two. But as you move to structure, the tools that you’re using for unstructured content may not support the underlying framework for the structure that you’re moving forward with.”
– Bill Swallow
The personalization paradox (podcast)
November 16, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 84 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe talks with Val Swisher of Content Rules about why companies fail and how to succeed at delivering personalized experiences at scale.
Continue reading →“It all has to be completely standardized in order to be successful. There have to be small, individual, standardized chunks of content that are devoid of format that can be mixed and matched. Then the output can be personalized to the person who asked for it and sent to them at that moment in time.”
—Val Swisher
DITA: The next generation (podcast)
November 9, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 83 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Jake Campbell talk about the next generation of DITA. What happens when you need to update your existing DITA structure?
Continue reading →“When you’re building everything out the first time around, you can do as much user acceptance testing as you want—but the best user acceptance testing is going to be live testing.”
—Jake Campbell
Taking a phased approach to your content strategy (podcast)
October 26, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 82 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Bill Swallow talk about taking a phased approach to content strategy when you have limited resources and how you can prioritize that approach.
Continue reading →“It’s really easy to allow your scope to expand. Try to keep it finite. Try to keep the phases small.”
—Elizabeth Patterson
Document ownership in your content development workflows (podcast)
October 5, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 81 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Alan Pringle discuss document ownership and the role it plays in content development workflows and governance.
Continue reading →“You’ve got to quit the focus on the tools. The tools are not going to solve mindset problems. Those are two distinct different things. You’re talking about technology, and you’re talking about culture. Culture is a lot harder to change.”
—Alan Pringle
Information architecture in DITA XML (podcast)
September 14, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 80 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Sarah O’Keefe discuss information architecture in DITA XML and other forms.
Continue reading →“You have to look at information architecture in metadata starting from a taxonomy point of view. This means you are looking at the structure of the content as well as the organization of the data that’s used for search and filtering.”
—Gretyl Kinsey
The true cost of quick fixes (podcast, part 2)
July 20, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 79 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Bill Swallow continue their discussion and talk about solutions to quick fixes.
Continue reading →“A big part of your content strategy should be how requests come in, how the timelines are built, and what you’re responding to and how you’re responding to them in the first place.”
—Bill Swallow
The true cost of quick fixes (podcast, part 1)
July 13, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 78 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Bill Swallow talk about the true cost of quick fixes in your content strategy.
Continue reading →“Even if a quick fix might save you some time or a little bit of upfront cost or upfront effort on planning, it’s almost always going to add costs in the long run.”
—Gretyl Kinsey
Content reuse: different industries, same problems (podcast)
June 15, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 77 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Alan Pringle talks with Chris Hill of DCL about content reuse and what it looks like across different industries.
“You really have to start seeing content creation as a collaboration and build trust between the people who create content.”
—Chris Hill
Continue reading →Moving to structured content: Expectations vs. reality (podcast)
May 18, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 76 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Alan Pringle talk about expectations versus realities of tools when moving to smart structured content.
Continue reading →“You can have different people using different tools and still pour all of the content into the single content management system. People connect to it differently based on the authoring tool that they prefer, and what works best for them.”
—Alan Pringle
Saving localization costs with content reuse (podcast)
April 20, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 75 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Bill Swallow talk about how content reuse can help you save on your localization costs.
Continue reading →“The savings you get from a reduced word count is all fine and good, but the translation is only as good as the quality of the translation itself.”
—Bill Swallow
The benefits of a taxonomy (podcast, part 2)
April 6, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 74 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Simon Bate continue their discussion about the benefits of establishing a taxonomy.
“Communicate with the stakeholders. Don’t just get their input and then go away. Communicate all along what you’re doing and identify your benefits.”
—Simon Bate
Continue reading →The benefits of a taxonomy (podcast, part 1)
March 30, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 73 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Simon Bate talk about the benefits of establishing a taxonomy.
“Filtering is possible through the use of taxonomies. They have a real world benefit for people looking to find something.”
—Simon Bate
Continue reading →Getting started with DITA (podcast, part 2)
March 16, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 72 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Barbara Green of ACS Technologies continue their discussion about getting started with DITA.
“We experienced far more change than I anticipated from the time Scriptorium first came in to evaluate our situation. I remember you saying, “Expect change, expect resistance to change,” but reality is the great teacher of life.”
—Barbara Green
Continue reading →Getting started with DITA (podcast, part 1)
March 9, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 71 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Barbara Green of ACS Technologies talk about getting started with DITA.
Continue reading →“We ran the conversion and got the content in DITA. It wasn’t structured the way it would be if you had started writing in DITA from the beginning. If I ever had another project, I would know to really take that into consideration.”
—Barbara Green
LearningDITA Live 2020 highlights (podcast)
February 24, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 70 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Elizabeth Patterson shares some highlights from LearningDITA Live 2020.
Continue reading →“Structured content is a way to strategically optimize your content so it frees your content from the format. Because it’s free of the format, it also frees it from tools.”
—Bernard Aschwanden
DITA projects with a scaled approach
February 3, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 69 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Bill Swallow and Stephani Clark of Jorsek talk about using a scaled approach with DITA projects.
Continue reading →“The desktop publishing and single user tools are always going to have a much lower price tag than a DITA CCMS will, but there’s a trade off for what you’re getting.”
—Stephani Clark
Unusual DITA outputs
January 20, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 68 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Simon Bate talk about unusual outputs from DITA sources.
” With DITA, it’s incredibly flexible. We can generate almost any type of output that we want to with it.”
—Simon Bate
Continue reading →Content accounting: Measuring content value (podcast, part 2)
January 6, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 67 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Kaitlyn Heath and Sarah O’Keefe continue their discussion on measuring content value based on accounting principles.
Continue reading →“Language evolves. Your content actually needs maintenance, just like your house.”
—Sarah O’Keefe
Content accounting: Measuring content value (podcast, part 1)
December 16, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 66 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Kaitlyn Heath and Sarah O’Keefe discuss measuring content value based on accounting principles.
Continue reading →The need for a localization strategy (podcast)
December 2, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 65 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Bill Swallow talk about the need for a localization strategy.
Continue reading →“There may be things you’re writing in your source content that you don’t want literally translated. In many cases, there are stark cultural differences between one location and another. Writing something at all may be inappropriate for another audience.”
—Bill Swallow
Small scope content strategies (podcast)
November 18, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 64 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Alan Pringle talk about content strategies that have a limited or smaller scope.
Continue reading →“When you are limited it may slow you down, but at least you’re moving forward. It’s baby steps. It’s increments. It’s important to realize, yes it’s limiting, but you can take that and make it an advantage.”
—Alan Pringle
Subject matter experts as authors and reviewers (podcast)
November 4, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 63 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and Chip Gettinger of SDL chat about subject matter experts and their role as authors and as reviewers of content.
Continue reading →“One of the most important things about working with SMEs is to meet them where they are. It’s important to understand where they’re coming from and their perspective. Understand what issues matter to them.”
—Chip Gettinger
Content strategy pitfalls: best practices (podcast, part 2)
October 21, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 62 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Bill Swallow continue their discussion from episode 61 and talk about best practices for planning.
Continue reading →“You need to be mindful about how what you’re doing is going to impact other groups. You can’t just assume they’re going to play ball when you start rolling out a new strategy. Make sure they’re not only on board in theory, but that they are pretty much committed to the success of the project because they should have a stake in it in some form as well.”
— Bill Swallow
Content strategy pitfalls: planning (podcast, part 1)
October 7, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 61 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Bill Swallow return to our content strategy pitfalls series with a discussion about planning.
Continue reading →“Another thing that is really helpful is doing a pilot project or proof of concept, because that can help you look at a small but essential piece of your strategy and see how that works, and what goes wrong or what goes in an unexpected direction during that pilot.”
— Gretyl Kinsey
Reuse in DITA and beyond (podcast)
September 23, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 60 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Gretyl Kinsey discuss content reuse, how it specifically applies to DITA, and how it can benefit your organization.
Continue reading →“So often we see companies wasting a lot of time copying and pasting. This idea of reuse saves time and money, and then it also helps to maintain that consistency across your organization.”
— Elizabeth Patterson
Using the Learning and Training specialization for your content (podcast)
September 9, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 59 of the Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Alan Pringle and Kaitlyn Heath discuss how you can apply the Learning and Training specialization to your content.
Continue reading →I think the conditional processing is a huge benefit as well. You can have a lot more interactivity built in without that human interference.
— Kaitlyn Heath
Unifying content after a merger (podcast)
August 26, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 58 of the Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Sarah O’Keefe discuss how to unify content after a merger.
Continue reading →In terms of pushback or in terms of change management, what we have to do is ask, “What does this other team do really well that potentially is going to be asked to change tools? How do you do this well?” And position the change as an opportunity.
— Sarah O’Keefe
Enterprise content strategy: Putting the pieces together (podcast)
August 12, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 57, Sarah O’Keefe and Bill Swallow look at content strategy across different disciplines and how an enterprise-level content strategy can grow from departmental efforts.
Continue reading →Calculating return on investment for your content strategy (podcast)
July 29, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 56 of the Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Alan Pringle discuss how to calculate return on investment for your content strategy even if you’ve never measured anything before.
Continue reading →The Scriptorium approach to content strategy (podcast)
July 15, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 55 of the Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Sarah O’Keefe discuss Scriptorium’s approach to content strategy.
Continue reading →Evolution of content (podcast)
June 24, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 54 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson interviews Sarah O’Keefe and Alan Pringle about what’s changed and what hasn’t changed in content over the years.
Continue reading →Rebranding as a business case for smart content (podcast)
June 10, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 53 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Bill Swallow discuss rebranding as a business case for smart content. How can you make sweeping branding changes as quickly and as painlessly as possible?
Continue reading →Content conversion (podcast)
May 28, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 52 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey talks with Mark Gross of DCL about content conversion. They explore some of the use cases they have seen and what partial conversion looks like.
Continue reading →CMS/DITA NA conference interviews: part two (podcast)
May 6, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 51 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Gretyl Kinsey talk with vendors at the CMS/DITA North America conference about how they have seen DITA evolve during their time in the industry. This is part two of a two-part podcast.
Continue reading →CMS/DITA NA conference interviews: part one (podcast)
April 29, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 50 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson and Gretyl Kinsey talk with attendees at the CMS/DITA North America conference about how they have used DITA in their career and the challenges they have overcome. This is part one of a two-part podcast.
Continue reading →Building a business case for structured authoring (podcast)
April 8, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 49 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Bill Swallow of Scriptorium and Stephani Clark of Jorsek discuss the value of structured authoring and building a business case for it.
Continue reading →Open file formats in your digital transformation (podcast)
April 2, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 48 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Alan Pringle, Sarah O’Keefe, and Bill Swallow discuss the importance of using open file formats in your digital transformation. How does content strategy fit within digital transformation?
Continue reading →LearningDITA Live 2019 highlights part 2 (podcast)
March 18, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 47 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson shares some highlights from LearningDITA Live 2019, a web conference focused on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) XML standard. This is part 2 of a 2-part series.
Continue reading →LearningDITA Live 2019 highlights part 1 (podcast)
March 11, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 46 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Elizabeth Patterson shares some highlights from LearningDITA Live 2019, a web conference focused on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) XML standard. This is part 1 of a 2 part series.
Continue reading →Smart content in unexpected places (podcast)
February 18, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 45 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Alan Pringle, Sarah O’Keefe, and Bill Swallow discover the unexpected places where organizations are using smart, structured content.
Continue reading →What is content strategy? (podcast)
February 4, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 44 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Bill Swallow and Sarah O’Keefe take a look at several definitions of “content strategy”. Do they work? Are they accurate?
Continue reading →Tools selection podcast
January 21, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 43 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Alan Pringle discuss how and when to identify the proper tools for developing and managing content.
Continue reading →LearningDITA Live 2019 podcast
January 7, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 42 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Bill Swallow and Kaitlyn Heath talk about Scriptorium’s online event, LearningDITA Live 2019.
Continue reading →Content strategy stakeholders podcast
December 17, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 41 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Alan Pringle, Bill Swallow, and Sarah O’Keefe identify the obvious (and not-so-obvious) stakeholders of content strategy processes: who should have input on a project and why?
Continue reading →Potluck strategy podcast
November 30, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 40 of the Content strategy experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe, Bill Swallow, and Gretyl Kinsey create a food-themed facade for content strategy. Abundant potluck metaphors illustrate some of the most important content strategy decisions.
Continue reading →LavaCon 2018 recap podcast
October 29, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 39 of the Content strategy experts podcast, Bill Swallow briefly interviews attendees and vendors at LavaCon 2018 about trends, challenges, and take-aways from the conference.
Continue reading →Content strategy step one podcast
October 22, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 38 of the Content strategy experts podcast, Kaitlyn Heath and Gretyl Kinsey discuss the beginning steps in implementing a new content strategy.
Continue reading →Content strategy failure podcast
October 8, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In episode 37 of the Content Strategy Experts podcast, Alan Pringle and Sarah O’Keefe teach you how to ensure your content strategy fails. From experience, they give examples of exactly what makes a content strategy unsuccessful.
Continue reading →Lightweight DITA podcast: part 2 with guests Carlos Evia and Michael Priestley
September 10, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In part two of two, Lightweight DITA (LwDITA) committee co-chairs, Carlos Evia and Michael Priestley, elaborate on LwDITA’s development, including use scenarios and user testing.
Continue reading →Lightweight DITA podcast: part 1 with guests Carlos Evia and Michael Priestley
August 27, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In part one of this two-part podcast, Carlos Evia and Michael Priestley talk to Gretyl Kinsey about Lightweight DITA (LwDITA): how it was conceived, the target audience, and the problems they hope it will solve.
Look out for part two on September 10th.
Continue reading →Battling content strategy inertia podcast
August 13, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and Alan Pringle discuss inertia. How do you build enough momentum for big content strategy changes?
Continue reading →Content strategy pitfalls podcast: migration
July 30, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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The next installment in an occasional series on how to avoid pitfalls in your content strategy.
In this podcast, Bill Swallow and Alan Pringle tackle the pitfalls that occur during content migration.
Continue reading →Content strategy pitfalls podcast: risk management
July 16, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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The next installment in an occasional series on how to avoid pitfalls in your content strategy.
In this podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Jake Campbell talk about the risks involved with putting a new content strategy in place and what you can do to minimize them.
Continue reading →DITA is everywhere podcast
July 2, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, Alan Pringle and Bill Swallow discuss various industries adopting the DITA standard and what kinds of content they produce.
Continue reading →Podcast: content (conference) strategy
June 18, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Jack Molisani talk LavaCon: What goes into planning the conference and how can you get the most out of it?
Continue reading →Content strategy pitfalls podcast: change management
June 4, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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The next installment in an occasional series on how to avoid pitfalls in your content strategy.
In this podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Bill Swallow discuss common change management problems and how to make sure your content strategy accounts for them.
Continue reading →Podcast: content strategy and management consulting
May 14, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Sarah O’Keefe, Bill Swallow, and Alan Pringle discuss the connections between content strategy and management consulting.
Continue reading →Podcast: You are not unique
April 30, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, Bill and Alan discuss the myth of uniqueness; the unique needs of published content are not always the best criteria for determining content processes.
Continue reading →Content strategy pitfalls podcast: silos
April 17, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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The next installment in an occasional series on how to avoid pitfalls in your content strategy.
In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe, Bill Swallow, and Alan Pringle discuss content silos, how they come to be, and how to deal with them.
Continue reading →Content strategy pitfalls podcast: tools
March 26, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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The first in an occasional series on how to avoid pitfalls in your content strategy.
In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe, Bill Swallow, and Alan Pringle discuss how to dodge tool-related traps in your content strategy.
Continue reading →Content strategy across the enterprise podcast with guest Alyssa Fox
March 12, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, we interview Alyssa Fox about aligning content strategy across marketing and technical communication and discuss her leadership role in the Society for Technical Communication.
Continue reading →LearningDITA Live 2018 podcast
February 15, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Alan Pringle discuss LearningDITA Live 2018, a free web-based conference that takes place February 26–March 1, 2018. This event offers something for everyone—case studies, DITA overviews, writing advice, and more.
Continue reading →Podcasting strategy podcast
February 1, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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This podcast features special guest Ed Marsh of the Content Content podcast. Scriptorium’s guest appearances on the Content Content podcast inspired us to start our own. In this episode, Gretyl Kinsey and Ed Marsh discuss content strategy and how it applies to the world of podcasting, solutions to the ever-present problem of content silos, how to find your tribe at events like LavaCon, and more.
Continue reading →Is Google Translate good enough (podcast)
January 18, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Bill Swallow discusses the possibilities and the limitations of machine translation tools such as Google Translate.
When is Google Translate good enough and when do you need professional (human) translation?
Continue reading →New Year’s resolutions for content (podcast)
January 4, 2018Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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For the New Year, we have a set of content-related resolutions. Our content needs to lose weight, exercise, and much more. Sarah, Bill, and Alan discuss how to improve content in 2018.
Continue reading →Best practices for localizing DITA content (podcast)
December 14, 2017Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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There are special considerations when localizing DITA content. In this podcast, Bill Swallow and Simon Bate discuss the conventions available in DITA for localization, and share anecdotes and advice to help you circumvent localization problems.
Continue reading →Cancer staging information podcast
November 30, 2017Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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How can faster access to cancer staging information lead to better diagnoses and improved patient care? What if cancer staging content could be integrated into electronic medical records and accessed via API instead of just in a printed book? We discuss these questions and more with guest Laura Meyer Vega of the American Joint Committee on Cancer in this podcast recorded at LavaCon 2017 in Portland, Oregon.
Continue reading →The death of PDF (podcast)
November 9, 2017Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, Alan Pringle and Sarah O’Keefe discuss the history—and health—of the PDF format. Is it still useful in today’s connected world? Are there business reasons to distribute PDF files—and not to?
Continue reading →DITA specialization (podcast)
October 26, 2017Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Sarah O’Keefe discuss DITA specialization, or the process of creating new structures from existing ones. What is involved in developing and testing a DITA specialization? What are some risks and benefits you should consider before specializing your DITA content?
Continue reading →Finance for technical communication with guest Erin Vang (podcast)
October 12, 2017Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Erin Vang of Global Pragmatica LLC discusses the basics of finance for technical communication managers. What do you need to know about budgeting and corporate finance to make your department run smoothly?
Continue reading →DITA Learning and Training (podcast)
September 28, 2017Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, Gretyl Kinsey and Simon Bate discuss the DITA Learning and Training specialization. How does this specialization work? What are some ways an organization might benefit from using Learning and Training to structure its educational content? What should you consider before implementing a DITA authoring environment with Learning and Training?
Continue reading →Content strategy ROI (podcast)
September 14, 2017Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, Alan Pringle, Sarah O’Keefe, and Bill Swallow discuss ways of measuring the return on investment in a content strategy implementation. A content strategy is tied to specific business goals; it’s designed to either solve a business problem with content or better position your company to meet current and future business goals. Like any business strategy, it needs to be measured over time to determine its effectiveness in achieving those goals.
Continue reading →The death of training (podcast)
August 31, 2017Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, Alan Pringle and Sarah O’Keefe discuss the shift in training priorities. In the past, companies would train employees to avoid dependence on Evil Outside Contractors. Today, companies don’t want to invest in training their employees (“They might leave!”), so instead they farm out specialized tasks to expert contractors.
Continue reading →Transitioning from strategy to implementation (podcast)
August 17, 2017Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, Alan Pringle and Bill Swallow discuss transitioning from a developed content strategy to implementation of that strategy. What’s involved in a content strategy implementation? What should you be mindful of? How should you handle change?
Continue reading →The client-consultant relationship (podcast)
August 3, 2017Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and Bill Swallow discuss the client-consultant relationship. What is it like working with a content strategy consultant? How can consultants help? How deep do such engagements go?
Continue reading →Highly designed content (podcast)
July 20, 2017Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Highly designed content uses presentation to call its audience’s attention to the most important information. This kind of content requires more attention to detail and exceptions to the standard layout than content with a purely functional design. In this podcast, we discuss strategies for producing highly designed content and solutions for exerting more control over your design in a publishing environment with automated formatting.
Continue reading →20 years of content strategy (podcast)
July 6, 2017Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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2017 marks 20 years of business for Scriptorium. In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe, Alan Pringle, and Bill Swallow reflect on changes in the content industry over the past 20 years and on how Scriptorium came to be. From content development approaches to professional development resources… What’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and what does the future look like?
Continue reading →