Estimating the Value of Content

If you empty your pockets and there's a lighter, a pen, the keys to your home and your wallet - what would you care about putting in a safety deposit when you go swimming?

Estimating the value of content is key to efficient content management. Depending on how valuable the content is, it needs to be managed differently. Content that is estimated to be very valuable for the business should be considered as assets and managed with the same care as other kinds of assets. Content that is more or less worthless should be terminated - if it worth the effort to terminate it. Simply speaking.

Seth Gottlieb shares some very sharp insights on this subject in his post "CMS Business Case":
"There has been an enormous amount of writing and discussion about building a business case for a CMS and I don't have much to add other than to say that most of what I have heard is totally wrong ...//...In my opinion, the business case discussion should be around the content itself - not the technology used to manage it"

"At cmf2007, Bob Boiko's keynote talked about how we are not yet in the information economy because we have a hard time determining the value of content and the markets for trading information are primitive. Content managers are put into the subservient role of having to post everything that they are given. I would tend to agree with him. I do not feel like companies are any better at deciding what content to keep than the parent of a prolific three year old artist. In fact, I feel like the parent has the edge because he has a finite amount of refrigerator door space."

Very well said by both Seth and Bob Boiko.

Finally, here are some of the posts on this blog related to the subject of content value: