Content strategy linkapaloosa

With UK GovCamp fast approaching (Friday 20 and Saturday 21 January) I’m starting to think about sessions I’d like to attend or could pitch.

Top of my list is content strategy in government and I’m hoping that this could make a good practical session on Saturday (or equal would make a good chatty session on Friday). Either way I thought it would be as useful for me as anyone else to pull together some of the people and resources I’ve been finding helpful or inspirational on this topic.

Local Government-wise I’m not aware of many people actively working on content strategy. When I started research my disseration back in 2010 I found that while lots of us have a content strategy we haven’t actually documented it or do particularly well in using it as a living strategy.

Anyway – here’s some useful content strategy links to people and resources:

• Not sure of what content strategy is? Good, brief description in this article by Rahel Bailie or in Content Strategy for the Web – basically content creation, curation, delivery and governance.
• Carl Haggerty is probably the most active local government content strategist that I know of at the moment and I’m grateful that he’s been sharing his progress with me. Not only is it hugely interesting but it’s exciting and inspiring too! If you don’t already keep an eye on his blog for updates on his learning and how they’re developing content strategy in Devon.
• Kevin Jump and Conor Moody are also doing good things with content strategy and the wider practice of user-centred design and information with the Liverpool site. They’ve shared their experience and knowledge at a few conferences and are generally pretty helpful and open folk.
• The Government Digital Service and the project to bring Government departments under a single domain. Taking an Agile approach to development content strategy has been a part of their Alpha and Beta releases. I’m hoping to get to speak to them at UKGC12 as I have many, many questions but you can also check out the GDS blog.
• Kristina Halvorson – author of the ‘Content Strategy for the Web‘, useful links and support for those grappling with content strategy, UX and the emergence / convergence of this new discipline.
• The Brain Traffic blog – lots of great articles and useful info in their content strategy archive.
• Diana Railton – content strategy and communication – posts lots of useful links to content strategy articles and thinking.
• Rahel Anne Bailie – content strategist in US who has just written a chapter on content strategy in government for forthcoming book
• Gather Content – the twitter account for a product (which I haven’t seen as it’s still in private beta) but posts useful links to other resources and things that anyone who has managed online content can relate to.
• Contents – online mag for content strategy and digital publishing. Also on Twitter as @Contents.
• #contentstrategy – a useful hash tag on Twitter for links to articles and people talking about content strategy and related disciplines.
• Content strategy knol – online community for practitioners to explore and define the field.
• My brief summary of the findings of my dissertation – Content strategy to support eGovernment principles in local government.

Looking for something more detailed or that you can hold in your hand? As a start, I found these books useful in my dissertation:

• Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson
• The Web Content Strategist’s Bible by Richard Sheffield
• Letting Go of the Words by Ginny Redish

So, there we go. A brief list of content strategy resources and people. Now to work on that pitch for #ukgc12 – see you there?