Four years and still going strong
Four years ago today I started Enter Content Here with a post defining content management. The post focused on what was being managed and how to differentiate that from other types of data. Over the past years this blog has reported and explored lots of ideas but content (or, as Bob Boiko would say "Information") has always remained in the center of it all. I am still interested what distinguishes content from other data but I think the focus needs to shift to the "management" end of the phrase "content management."
I like the saying "content management is a verb not a product" because it emphasizes the effort and process required to effectively create and use information. However, there are better verbs to describe this effort than "management" - a vague word that often connotes what we do with undesirable things like risk, waste, and stress. Content is an asset, not a liability (unless you are getting sued and you need to pay lawyers to read it), and working with it should be described in more positive and active language: communicating, creating, educating, publishing, collaborating, connecting, etc.
There is still much more to write about the processes and technologies that people use to release value from information. It has been four years and I feel like I am just getting started.