September 23, 2013
Thanks to digitization and the web, content access and content sprawl create an ocean of items quickly absorbing all new contributions with a huge occurrence of unpredictable resurfacing.
In this environment, the runaway popularity of "sharing" has well-warranted value, but many publishers work specifically to assure that a community of common interest is being productively enriched by its supply of content. In this case, individual access to group-targeted content falls under management that intends for the access to be constructive. The ubiquity of content can be convenient, but managed convenience is prescriptive. This means that while content producers continue to increase in numbers and range of interests, the user's interface for navigating content should align with the publisher's perspective.
Publishers should understand that programs, portfolios, catalogs and libraries are distinct vehicles that can excel for different purposes. These diferences become more and more important in the face of content sprawl and the basic actions performed on already-available content. Users should not be encouraged to disregard these differences, but instead should be encouraged to effectively exploit them. The fuller implications of this basic understanding are covered in the pdf available here.
Posted by Malcolm Ryder at September 23, 2013 5:38 PM