[Web4lib] decentralized web content

[Peter Morville]

There are some good books and seminars on this topic...

http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/

http://www.amazon.com/Content-Strategy-Web-Kristina-Halvorson/dp/0321620062/

http://2011.iasummit.org/program/how-to-do-content-strategy/

...some focus on the writing component while others put writing into context within a broader "content strategy" framework.

Peter Morville
President, Semantic Studios
http://semanticstudios.com/
http://findability.org/




On Jan 14, 2011, at 2:39 PM, Karen Merguerian wrote:

> 
> We are wondering what training and support libraries offer to content creators on "Effective Writing for the Web."
> 
> We find a few people seem to have a knack for it.  Most don't, but it is a skill that can be learned with support and practice.
> 
> Our staff are interested and motivated to have great up-to-date web content and we want to offer "how to write for the web" training to take advantage of their enthusiasm.  We're concerned about appropriate information being published, making it readable and jargon-free, organizing it for simplicity and easy scanning, etc...We're less worried about technical issues because so many of our staff have used wikis and blogs already and can adapt to more-or-less arcane editors.
> 
> But even with a workflow of write/edit/approve/publish, I don't think the editors, approvers and publishers have the time to do heavy editing of others' content, especially when editing seems to offend the ego of so many writers.    
> 
> So my question:
> 
> Do you offer/require in-house or outsourced training on how to write for the web?  In-person? Online?  Is it ongoing or one-time?  Is it required before getting an account on the CMS?  Any suggestions about training staff to write effectively for the web would be much appreciated.
> 
> Karen Merguerian
> Northeastern University Libraries
> Boston, MA
>