Live from Gilbane: Collaboration challenges of sharing content

Today, at the sixth annual Gilbane conference in Boston, a panel discussed the direction ad hoc information exchange is headed in the digital age. While the word "collaboration" is thrown around a lot in the content management market, it was evident that it is not simply a "holy grail" type of concept.

Panelist, Bob Lindenberg of Putnam Investments explained: Content will continue to move in the direction of collaboration because email taps the minds of people you know, but collaboration tools help users find unexpected sources of information.

But collaboration is easier said than done. "People need to be weaned off of email at least for some things...I think that will happen but the alternatives have to be compelling enough for people to make that switch," says Lindenberg.

The problem with email is that it prevents users from seeing the big picture and consider the lifecycle of the document they are creating. When employees consider the bigger picture it can improve workflow and information.

"But sometimes you have to de-organize before you can re-organize," says Ginger Richards of Pew Research. Changing the workflow can create more organization--teams managing their own content and making content keyword searchable--but sometimes things also become more disorganized because there is pushback in adoption.

"I create teams because the content creators are the ones who really know what they're working with," says Richards. She suggests content managers set team leaders that will organize categories and define taxonomies. Then, as a team member, that person can more persuasively lead the transition to a new system. "Find people within each department who actually want to do it and want to be involved."

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