Comments on: Power to the People (reprise) http://www.sarahlay.com/2009/10/devolving_authorship/ Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:56:30 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Sarah http://www.sarahlay.com/2009/10/devolving_authorship/comment-page-1/#comment-1096 Sarah Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:01:37 +0000 http://www.sarahlay.com/?p=229#comment-1096 Hi Helen, I have seen this comment and had a quick skim of the discussion. I haven't had time to read the posts fully but once I have I will join the dicussion! Hi Helen,
I have seen this comment and had a quick skim of the discussion. I haven’t had time to read the posts fully but once I have I will join the dicussion!

]]> By: Helen Williams http://www.sarahlay.com/2009/10/devolving_authorship/comment-page-1/#comment-937 Helen Williams Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:35:20 +0000 http://www.sarahlay.com/?p=229#comment-937 There's a discussion going on at the moment on this topic in the Web Improvement and Usage Community - see http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/c/1212756/forum/thread.do?backlink=ref&id=2512817 It would be great if you could come and add your words of wisdom and link back here! Have already got a link to your blog in our feeds section. There’s a discussion going on at the moment on this topic in the Web Improvement and Usage Community – see http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/c/1212756/forum/thread.do?backlink=ref&id=2512817

It would be great if you could come and add your words of wisdom and link back here! Have already got a link to your blog in our feeds section.

]]> By: Sarah Lay » Blog Archive » Do councils need websites? http://www.sarahlay.com/2009/10/devolving_authorship/comment-page-1/#comment-789 Sarah Lay » Blog Archive » Do councils need websites? Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:47:07 +0000 http://www.sarahlay.com/?p=229#comment-789 [...] authorship – a really nice theory but almost no-one has got it working right. I blogged about this separately as it was also the theme of the session I ran later in the [...] [...] authorship – a really nice theory but almost no-one has got it working right. I blogged about this separately as it was also the theme of the session I ran later in the [...]

]]> By: Sarah http://www.sarahlay.com/2009/10/devolving_authorship/comment-page-1/#comment-786 Sarah Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:34:13 +0000 http://www.sarahlay.com/?p=229#comment-786 Thanks Helen. I can see this would be true - especially given that in most cases the size of the web team doesn't grow in tandem with the size of the website. This is one of the possible topics for my dissertation next year (MA eCommunications) and the more people I speak to, comment or blog in response the more interested I become in the issue. Talking about using other online channels is exciting and important but we need to remember we do have a website to maintain to excellent standards and if we haven't got the authorship model right we're in danger of undermining all our online publishing efforts. I'm sure this won't be the last time I blog about this! Thanks Helen.
I can see this would be true – especially given that in most cases the size of the web team doesn’t grow in tandem with the size of the website.
This is one of the possible topics for my dissertation next year (MA eCommunications) and the more people I speak to, comment or blog in response the more interested I become in the issue. Talking about using other online channels is exciting and important but we need to remember we do have a website to maintain to excellent standards and if we haven’t got the authorship model right we’re in danger of undermining all our online publishing efforts.
I’m sure this won’t be the last time I blog about this!

]]> By: Helen Williams http://www.sarahlay.com/2009/10/devolving_authorship/comment-page-1/#comment-779 Helen Williams Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:19:56 +0000 http://www.sarahlay.com/?p=229#comment-779 Hi Sarah, Thanks for a thought-provoking post. It has been our experience doing the Better Connected reviews that over the years as council sites have become so much bigger, they have also become much more patchy in the quality of the content - I am sure that devolved authorship must be at the root of this! From a user perspective, consistency in the style of writing and the 'voice' used is obviously helpful. Some councils do largely manage this, but I have noticed that they are often small district councils where perhaps the smaller size of the site has allowed one person or a small team to carry out more of the authoring. The larger the organisation, the harder it is to achieve the consistency that makes for a good user experience. I think this goes some way to explaining why sometimes smaller councils with fewer resources still manage to do very well in Better connected. Hi Sarah,

Thanks for a thought-provoking post. It has been our experience doing the Better Connected reviews that over the years as council sites have become so much bigger, they have also become much more patchy in the quality of the content – I am sure that devolved authorship must be at the root of this! From a user perspective, consistency in the style of writing and the ‘voice’ used is obviously helpful. Some councils do largely manage this, but I have noticed that they are often small district councils where perhaps the smaller size of the site has allowed one person or a small team to carry out more of the authoring. The larger the organisation, the harder it is to achieve the consistency that makes for a good user experience. I think this goes some way to explaining why sometimes smaller councils with fewer resources still manage to do very well in Better connected.

]]> By: Sarah http://www.sarahlay.com/2009/10/devolving_authorship/comment-page-1/#comment-706 Sarah Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:12:57 +0000 http://www.sarahlay.com/?p=229#comment-706 Hi Sarah, Thanks for sharing your model and experience with me. It sounds as if you have a very similar model to us - we provide Writing for the Web (course developed in-house) and training to use our CMS - this has been done both classroom style and 1-2-1. I found the same varying success you describe and feel that at this point it comes down to the individual - what is their position, how big and 'official' part of their job is the web author role, how empowered are they, how interested are they in publishing to the web? We have 300 authors listed to publish, variously, to 12 sites at the moment. Due to work on our CMS we are in a position where all authors need retraining hence the reason I am so interested in hearing what models people have! It took me two years to get to the point where maybe 25 out of 200 were working without much interjection through workflow or re-training and although there are now two additional officers in my post it's a commitment the authority wants to make sure is the right one in terms of working in the most efficient way as a whole organisation publishing to the web and using the resources from our team. It's really interesting to hear how people are getting on - seems most of us have started from the same basic model and have tweaked or abandoned depending on resources and the people selected to be authors. Anyone agree? Disagree? Sarah Hi Sarah,
Thanks for sharing your model and experience with me.
It sounds as if you have a very similar model to us – we provide Writing for the Web (course developed in-house) and training to use our CMS – this has been done both classroom style and 1-2-1. I found the same varying success you describe and feel that at this point it comes down to the individual – what is their position, how big and ‘official’ part of their job is the web author role, how empowered are they, how interested are they in publishing to the web?
We have 300 authors listed to publish, variously, to 12 sites at the moment. Due to work on our CMS we are in a position where all authors need retraining hence the reason I am so interested in hearing what models people have! It took me two years to get to the point where maybe 25 out of 200 were working without much interjection through workflow or re-training and although there are now two additional officers in my post it’s a commitment the authority wants to make sure is the right one in terms of working in the most efficient way as a whole organisation publishing to the web and using the resources from our team.
It’s really interesting to hear how people are getting on – seems most of us have started from the same basic model and have tweaked or abandoned depending on resources and the people selected to be authors. Anyone agree? Disagree?
Sarah

]]> By: Sarah Gray http://www.sarahlay.com/2009/10/devolving_authorship/comment-page-1/#comment-700 Sarah Gray Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:05:46 +0000 http://www.sarahlay.com/?p=229#comment-700 Hi Sarah. Our authority has devolved content creation with the approval process ending up at the web team to meet accessibility / house styles, similarly to how you and others have described. All our authors receive initial basic training in use of the CMS prior to being released in their service area as a web author. As you have said, the standards of content does vary although I have found that, in most cases, the only way to get good content which utilises the power of the CMS beyond using it as a replacement for Word, is 1-2-1 time once they have created/edited a few pages as this helps them expand on their initial knowledge and also allows us to teach them a few tricks which makes their life easier and therefore they buy into the concept of being willing and able to use the CMS to get the content out in a way that best suits the recipients (residents) and the requirements of the organisation. This approach may seem very time intensive and yet, in my experience, I have found it produces some great web authors who then produce great content and also (because we have so many authors across the organization) can act to assist other new authors in other services, thus saving our team time. I regard it as time well invested. This is a very interesting subject and I am keen to see what others have to say about their ideas and what works and does not for their organization. Sarah Gray Twitter: @sarahjaneuk Hi Sarah.
Our authority has devolved content creation with the approval process ending up at the web team to meet accessibility / house styles, similarly to how you and others have described.
All our authors receive initial basic training in use of the CMS prior to being released in their service area as a web author. As you have said, the standards of content does vary although I have found that, in most cases, the only way to get good content which utilises the power of the CMS beyond using it as a replacement for Word, is 1-2-1 time once they have created/edited a few pages as this helps them expand on their initial knowledge and also allows us to teach them a few tricks which makes their life easier and therefore they buy into the concept of being willing and able to use the CMS to get the content out in a way that best suits the recipients (residents) and the requirements of the organisation. This approach may seem very time intensive and yet, in my experience, I have found it produces some great web authors who then produce great content and also (because we have so many authors across the organization) can act to assist other new authors in other services, thus saving our team time. I regard it as time well invested.
This is a very interesting subject and I am keen to see what others have to say about their ideas and what works and does not for their organization.
Sarah Gray
Twitter: @sarahjaneuk

]]> By: uberVU - social comments http://www.sarahlay.com/2009/10/devolving_authorship/comment-page-1/#comment-695 uberVU - social comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:55:47 +0000 http://www.sarahlay.com/?p=229#comment-695 <strong>Social comments and analytics for this post...</strong> This post was mentioned on Twitter by danslee: Who should add content to a big organisations website. Many or few? @sarahlay http://bit.ly/44smWW #lgclincoln... Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by danslee: Who should add content to a big organisations website. Many or few?
@sarahlay http://bit.ly/44smWW #lgclincoln…

]]> By: Tweets that mention Sarah Lay » Blog Archive » Power to the People (reprise) -- Topsy.com http://www.sarahlay.com/2009/10/devolving_authorship/comment-page-1/#comment-692 Tweets that mention Sarah Lay » Blog Archive » Power to the People (reprise) -- Topsy.com Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:44:31 +0000 http://www.sarahlay.com/?p=229#comment-692 [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by danslee, sarahlay. sarahlay said: Blogged: Looking again at the issue of devolved authorship for websites: http://bit.ly/44smWW my session at #lgclincoln [...] [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by danslee, sarahlay. sarahlay said: Blogged: Looking again at the issue of devolved authorship for websites: http://bit.ly/44smWW my session at #lgclincoln [...]

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