Content Strategies for the Future

In his new book, Deane Barker examines how content is modeled within a CMS – in the real world, as he emphasises. “Real World Content Modeling“ provides the tools for intelligent, future-oriented content strategies.

In recent years, content modeling has gained tremendous importance, not least due to the arrival of headless CMS and multi-channel solutions. Deane Barker defines content modeling as a “conceptual term for the collection of content types, attributes, relationships, and data types in order to precisely describe a logical content domain”.

In his latest book, Deane describes the problems that often arise when developing content models: Too often, content models are designed without taking into account the system in which they are supposed to work. This leads to a poor editorial experience – one of the most overlooked topics in today’s digital workplace.

Deane reports that content strategists tend to develop their content models in a bubble, as they do not know in which system the content will later be edited. Sooner or later this often leads to issues, because: no content strategist is an expert for every single CMS. So, the challenge is to design a content model that fits the present CMS – or vice versa, to choose a CMS that can best implement the desired content models.

Content modeling is a complex topic that will undoubtedly keep us busy for a long time coming. In his new book, Deane discusses a series of questions that everyone should answer individually before implementing a content model – questions that were previously either completely undocumented or remained in the realm of ​​specific implementations by agencies and providers. “Real World Content Modeling” therefore not only provides a new perspective, but also gives valuable practical techniques for content strategists, developers, architects, and everyone who wants to equip their company with useful processes for tomorrow.

Excerpts of this article are based on the blog post “Happy Editors Make Better Content“ by Janus Boye, whose digital pioneer network byte5 and also Deane Barker belongs to.