The challenges of unified content v1.0
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The Challenges of Unified Content
GovCamp 2011Matt Johnson, Eduserv
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In the beginning was the hand-crafted Web
• 1994: HTML 2 (draft), browser-specific tags• First UK (non-academic) websites
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We started reusing common content…
• 1995: Server Side Includes gain traction• 1996: Server-side scripting (including ASP)
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…and separating content and presentation
• 1997: CSS v1 published by W3C• Very limited browser support (Netscape 3)
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Then the rise of the CMS…
• 2002: Adoption of custom CMS within government• Basic page-based functionality
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…and more content-presentation separation
• 2009: Content-based CMS widely available• Web-standards support (RDF, HTML5, CSS3)
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Public sector websites at the start of 2011
• Predominantly CMS-driven (both CoTS and OSS)• Page-based content editing• Hierarchical Information Architecture
• Accessible (mostly), but not always usable• Growing problem of content archiving / “findability”
• Content is mostly held within departmental websites• RSS (and now RDF) offer a partial sharing solution• DirectGov an attempt to centralise some content
• Is there an alternative approach?
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One concept: Unified Content Platform
• One store of information• Content + Metadata• Workflow and versioning
• Many delivery endpoints• Websites & CMS integration• RESTful API with RDF / XML outputs
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The benefits of unified content…
• True separation of content and presentation/delivery• Content authors do not determine URIs• Web teams define site structure and appearance
• Dynamic site architecture• Content is delivered based on associated metadata • Content can appear in multiple places
• Content reuse• Content is open and accessible• Machine-readability (almost) out-of-the-box
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…and the drawbacks
• Content authoring is different• Users are used to thinking in pages, not articles…• …and don’t like the lack of control…• …hence the demand for in-context visual previews
• Multi-tenancy complexities• Workflow integration with shared content• Security and permissions need standardisation• Common templates & vocabularies are needed
• Requires replacement of existing systems
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So how about a Unified Data Platform…
ContentEditor
Author
Author
Author
DataStore
API
Users
Simpleinterface
Dept ACMS
Dept BCMS Dept ..
CMS
SharedPlatform
Unified Data Platform
Full CMSinterface
3rd party
Users
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…offering the possibilities of a hybrid model
• Gives the best of both worlds• Traditional structures for regular website content• Metadata driven structures for data collections
• Ease of integration• With existing CMS / content services• Could build on the Data.gov.uk model
• (Relatively) simple to deliver• Most of this already exists• Provides a platform for transparency
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Finally, some things to think about
• Is truly “unified” content desirable…• …do public sector want and/or need to share content?• If so, how much is that worth (effort, money)?
• How much appetite is there for standardisation…• Different for content and data?• …are sector-wide content templates a possibility?• Can we agree on standard APIs / interfaces?
• Who are the trailblazers?
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Questions?
Matt Johnson
Head of Research email: [email protected] twitter: @mhj_work web: http://labs.eduserv.org.uk/