Leveraging Content Pt. 1

So what does it mean to "leverage"? In short, it means to create something once and then reuse it elsewhere. A pretty simple but valuable concept. In the financial industry, the word "leverage" means: "The use of a small initial investment...to gain a very high return in relation to one's investment" (Dictionary.com). Note the phrase "a very high return." Ideally, that's the goal of well-leveraged content--you invest once in its creation to see a return on that investment grow as the content is reused.

Thinking about this reminds me of a conference call with a gentleman in the online courseware industry several months back. He too was very familiar with the concept of leveraging content and knew the significance of its potential ROI. He spoke unabashedly about creating a course once and then reselling it to a broad spectrum of customers. He could switch out one color scheme and company logo for a different one, and bam, he'd have a branded course ready to go for the next customer. In every case, his initial investment was blown out of the water by the amount he made back. (Before we go leaping from our seats to enter the online courseware industry, it is important to note that he also had several elements in his favor--in almost all cases, he was his own subject matter expert, course designer, and content creator, reducing his overhead, and he focused on soft skill learning.) His enthusiasm for his courses was infectious and serves as a good example of an individual successfully leveraging content.

Umbraco - Open Source CMS

Umbraco is an open source content management system (CMS) from Denmark. I've been working with it professionally for more than two years to manage some 15 websites and white labels. The key to getting it to work for you is to assemble a good team of knowledgeable people to develop, manage, and use the CMS. The ideal team should include a developer and a content manager at minimum who share and understand a vision of how it will be used. In my case, our team included, depending on the situation: two developers, a content manager (me), an outside web design company (sometimes), and a technical illustrator. Check this CMS out at http://umbraco.org/. Have you used Umbraco before? If so, I'd love to hear the pros and cons of your experience.

Commas in a [Complicated] Series

"This product was chosen because it offers a high thermal performance for its cost, the ability to act as a drainage plane, a sufficient performance as an insulating sheathing material, and a favorable demonstration of cold climate permeability characteristics."

At the basis of this sentence is the following meaning--here is a product that offers four benefits. These four benefits are listed as a series separated by commas. Each comma has an important purpose in the sentence. It tells the reader that one item in the list is ending and a new one is beginning. Basic grammar. However, there are two camps regarding the final comma in the list--the one before the word "and." The first camp says that a comma isn't needed before a conjunction, and the second says that a comma is needed before it. Whether or not you fall into either of these two camps, there are certain cases where a comma is important to ensure the clarity of the sentence, and a complicated series is one of these cases.

What do I mean by a complicated series? While there are different types of complicated series, the one is the example lists items that are composed of numerous words. Here's a recap of the items:

• a high thermal performance for its cost
• the ability to act as a drainage plane
• a sufficient performance as an insulating sheathing material
• a favorable demonstration of cold climate permeability characteristics

At 7-8 words each, the items are lengthy. Commas remind readers that they are seeing a list of items and that they can pause for breath between them. By leaving out the final comma, the writer robs the reader of these reminders. Take a look at the sentence again without the final comma:

"This product was chosen because it offers a high thermal performance for its cost, the ability to act as a drainage plane, a sufficient performance as an insulating sheathing material and a favorable demonstration of cold climate permeability characteristics."

See how the last two items in the list merge? Adding a comma before the conjunction requires little effort on the writer's end and can offer a big benefit on the reader's end--clarity.

Writing with Style: Rules vs. Folklore

"Distinguish real grammatical rules from folklore." - Joseph M. Williams' #1 principle for writing clearly.

There's a real difference between what we learn in high school English class and what we do in real life. In high school essays, we are taught to never begin a sentence with the words "and" or "but," never use a contraction, never use the word "thing," never write using the words "we" and "you," and to always remember to not place a comma before the conjunction in a simple series.

Wait a minute. I was taught to put a comma before the conjunction. And do you know what, sometimes I like starting a sentence with a conjunction! Williams' advice never held so much truth. In fact, we're crossing into the land of re-considering what you learned in grade school to arrive at a different truth--that once you're an expert in the rules of writing, you can refine and manipulate them in order to be a successful communicator. You may have learned one rule in fifth grade and another in ninth, but it's up to you and your style guide to select the proper one based on the overall picture. If you've analyzed the context; the concept; the who, what, when, where, and why; and arrived at the conclusion that you are going to write the piece using the word "you," then go into it with confidence.

Getting Published!

Looking forward to the release of a new book—Creer avec SketchUp (To Create with SketchUp)—in November 2009. We're in the final stages of getting it wrapped up before going to print. The book brings together 16 case studies from a variety of people on different uses of Google SketchUp. I co-authored Projet 5: Creer une Documentation with James Steacy. It's a piece that goes in-depth into the story of crafting a technical step-by-step document for construction trades who need to install a window. It's been several months of off-and-on work. A description is on the publisher's website at http://www.pearson.fr/livre/?GCOI=27440100233890.