28 July 2003

Putting the Citizen First: The Challenge of Content Management for Government

By Gerry McGovern

Government faces two important challenges in relation to content management. Firstly, government needs a clear view of who it is really needs content and exactly what content these people need. Secondly, government needs to create an information architecture that allows people quickly find the content they are looking for.

In the last six months, I have been lucky enough to be able to explore government web initiatives in the United States, Australia, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. I have found that many of the web initiatives I came across were at a similar stage in evolution. There were similar problems. And there was quite similar thinking in relation to how to address these problems.

Many government websites have come through the phase of: 'Let's get our website up and lets put as much content on it as possible.' Websites and content have proliferated. This is not necessarily a good thing. Much of the content is unnecessary—nobody is that interested in reading it. Much of it is out-of-date. Much of it was copied from print and does not read well on the Web.

Governments have labyrinthine structures and the government web can be a labyrinth. Figuring out which is the right website to go to can be a task in itself—let alone where to find the content when you get to the website. When someone has a problem they think about the problem itself—not the department or set of departments that might solve the problem.

Content management is not data management, though many governments are struggling to see the difference

Content management is not data management, though many governments are struggling to see the difference. Data management is about storing stuff. Content management is about publishing the really good stuff.

The reality is that people are not even remotely interested in reading the vast majority of content a government publishes. This is not just true for governments. Ninety nine percent of the people who visit Microsoft.com, read one percent of the content. Over 30 percent of the content on Microsoft.com has never, ever been read.

Talk to most people involved in government websites and they readily admit that they publish too much low quality content. However, they are in a quandary. The problem is Freedom of Information legislation. Most don't understand exactly what is demanded.

So, there is a strong impulse to just publish everything you can lay your hands on. Then when someone rings up you can tell them it's on the website. When they ring back saying that they couldn't find it, you can reply: "I said it was on the website. I didn't say you could find it."

Freedom of Information legislation is a good idea. It would be sad if it was used as an excuse to create great sprawling dumps that are excuses for websites. Websites should have a tight publishing focus. They should publish the right content for the right person at the right time at the right cost.

Who is the right person? Well, for starters, it's not all citizens. Very little content is of interest to everybody. Most useful content tends to be targeted at and written for tightly defined readerships. Governments are only beginning to get their heads around this critical point.

Figuring out who is interested in your content must be the first step in any professional publishing strategy. Figuring out exactly what content you should publish for this reader is the next step. Remember, a good publisher will reject far more than they will publish.

Professional information architecture design is a major challenge. There are too many government websites and many of them are poorly organized. Having said that, I have seen significant improvements over the last couple of years in relation to basic website design principles. Government websites are definitely exhibiting cleaner, more functional designs.

The problem of multiple websites remains. I have had a number of conversations with managers struggling with this problem. Practically all realise that having lots and lots of websites is not serving the citizen. If anything, it is confusing them.

While the need to centralise information architecture design is recognised, how to go about it is less clear. Some managers are put off by the sheer scale of the task. Creating a central information architecture design for government websites is a mammoth undertaking. It requires serious planning and design, and substantial resources. Some feel that the problem will have to get worse before the bullet is finally bitten.

It is also pointed out that departments and agencies like having their own website designs. There are those who feel that they must control the font type and size; that to be able to choose a three column layout or not, is a fundamental right. Ego and turf wars abound as a move towards a centralised architecture progresses.

The citizen doesn't care. They just want to quickly get the content. In fact, they like a consistent, central information architecture. It's familiar. It helps them get from A to B. In some ways, it's like driving.

For those who say we can't have a centralised information architecture for government websites, I would like to point out that we have one for our roads. I don't hear too many councils objecting to the traffic light colours. It doesn't make the country dull and boring because every traffic light uses red, amber and green. (Would that we could get the same consistency in hypertext colours!)

Governments design road signs in certain ways. They design road markings in certain ways. There are common rules of the road. Governments need to develop common rules of the road for how their own websites are designed. It will happen. The question is: How long will it take?

Gerry McGovern is an internationally renowned content management author and consultant. He will be running a series of two-day content management workshops in Belfast (November 20-21) and London (November 24-25). For more information, please send an email to: info@gerrymcgovern.com

www.gerrymcgovern.com