> Content Post

"Civilizations are built from the rubble of war," I could begin, just to begin somewhere. But that sentence is a metaphor. While structures may be built from rubble, civilizations are not just the use, abuse, and reuse of materials. There are so many more metaphors I could make up or artificially generate. Whether some are better than others is kinda judgy, along the lines of measuring some civilizations as better than others. What I'm more interested in is how words, metaphors, allegories, and narratives get developed and adopted, and what that might result in (civil facilitation, appropriation, orchestration, agency...).

Civilizations are built, in part, through metaphor development. Utterances and gestures are word-parts linked into words > associations > familiarity > shared narratives > documentation > histories... > civilization.

This includes imagery, such as the right bracket I just used: >. It uses the simplicity of an angle bracket > pointing right > signifying computational redirections > and the mathematical weight of a greater-than sign > to provide a map-graph that directs the user to step through a navigational hierarchy.

Step by step, civilizations are built from the particles of Content developed into meaningful, applicable, and yes even agentic, actuators.

Capital "C" Content

The capital "C" in Content, as I'm writing it, then, indicates something more than language generation, it implies a consciousness creativity in praxis, an ethics of attention, principled development, a faith and practice in Content generation.

For the past 30 years, I have been funded by — but rarely managed by — people in tech who have sensed that content plays some part in their success. Content is an overloaded term in most organizations. Often what is paid for first is marketing content, then customer help, then productization specifications like developer documentation. In most organizations content production is declarative and perfunctory, and often pedantic.

What is not paid for, let alone valued, is intentional Content generation. Along with writing words, this means making sense of a world. Creating architectures, information systems designs, information and knowledge architectures, metadata and lifecycle planning.

The secret most stakeholders don't know: Content is the through line from vision > problem statement > mission > business objects > product definitions > engineered objects > deliverables > the manifest solution > and how humans use it in their context.

What is the theme? In practice, what are the consistent elements that course throughout the whole chain? How do you annotate them to make sure everyone along the chain is identifying the same element? How do you track them? Are they in alignment or complimentary with the theme? Do the elements, as originally conceived, still sparkle so the user senses the magic?

It's a secret because most stakeholders don't know what's missing nor what to ask. And most content developers are not inclined nor in the position to inject themselves high enough into strategy and design decisions.

The Design-Thinking craze was very apparently overdue. Whole reorganizations took place to absorb the fresh, the clean, the beautiful. Too often, however, it resulted in a cosmetic facade that ignored any ambiguity or disorganization. Content-Thinking, however, can structure every design and data discussion, keep institutional knowledge available in context, and retain the magic.

It's the pragmatic aspect most stakeholders don't know: Content is already the binding agent of strategy, design, data, development, and discovery. As such, how Content is integrated into the organization is a leading indicator of vision, organizational health, and target and course.

Now more than ever — from LLMO strategies to reorganization in preparation of GenAI — Content leadership is critical, sitting in the same room as the CEO and the CTO. This ensures a deep understanding of the Content generation that makes up the organization, how to steward it, and how to share it in the right channels for posterity and for profit —

and for humanity

The symbol > conveys a visceral understanding, whether it's just words like greater than, pointer, forward, output, redirection,

or an advisory alignment sign:

or the Pride flag that includes trans, people of color, and indigenous people:

The sense is, "Pay attention. This sign means movement. There's a force behind this sign."

The > symbol is tiny. But it can be mighty. The precise meaning can be obvious, or it can be obscure, overloaded, or obfuscated. And often, the more it's analyzed, the less it can signify.

The point isn't to pick apart a little sign until it means nothing. The point is to pay attention. Something's moving. It's exciting. But just as if you're driving your children around in the car, or looking out for a dear friend, you maneuver skillfully. Kindness through precision.

Operational Content

So there's generating content to check off a box, and then there's generating Content with intelligence, purpose, and magic. Content that imbues vision, force, direction, into the organization. Shareable Content. Agentic Content that empowers others.

That's what I'll be sharing here: how to think about Content and how to generate it skillfully.

And you?

What do you think? Whatcha doing? I'd love to hear about all about it! Also, you can subscribe if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content is published!