content creation – how to measure it
March 9th, 2010 | Published in Ankündigungen
Note: Yes, that title sounds really boring, a bit academic, but I’m getting warmed up to writing my bachelor’s report, so what do you expect?
When creating content for digital distribution, a plethora of tools are available to the writer(s) and producer(s). In this section, we will find an overview of the primary criteria for evaluating them.
For a simpler navigation, the three main dimensions can be arranged as a triangle:
Each criterion can be viewed as a continuum between two extreme points. While some cases allow for a black- and white answer, most other measures have an important middle ground. It is important to note that all factors have only a qualitative dimension and are thus hard to quantify.
Furthermore, each factor can be seen as a subset of the continuum between the general notions of control and chaos.
| control |
| ? |
| chaos |
| people | individual | observed | transactional | synchronous |
 |
? | ? | ? | ? |
| group | self-paced | poetic | asynchronous |
| technology | process | centralized | integrated |
 |
? | ? | ? |
| artifact | distributed | loosely coupled |
| content | consume | perfect | private |
 |
? | ? | ? |
| collaborate | good enough | public |
- individual – group: how many people? (Blog, Google Docs, Wikipedia, World of Warcraft)
- observed – self-paced: how much oversight is necessary, wanted? (hand-holding, individual coaching or self-directed, reflecting work with own methods)
- transactional – poetic: tho what extend is the task creative? (straight to the point email with less than 5 sentences or complex, nuanced and well-crafted editorial work)
- (a)synchronous: are people working on it at the same time, and over what time frame? (just-in-time meeting or letter writing)
in short: social, autonomous, creative, timely
technology
- process – artifact: is the tool geared towards a specific way of working (sketch, review, comment, publish) or does it put the final product center stage? (ECM(S), BPM – Wordpress - DIGG)
- centralized – distributed: is the tool usable in various (physical) situations? (heavy copy machine in office corner or online-CRM with mobile access on laptop/mobile phone)
- integrated – loosely coupled: how well can this piece be integrated with others? how high is the switching cost, friction for the end user when performing a range of tasks? (one system to rule them all, having all solutions in one place or niche- and task-specific situational applications)
in short: bendable, movable, pluggable
content
- consume – collaborate: how much interactivity is necessary to be done? How involved are you? (iTunes – YouTube – Google Docs)
- perfect – good enough: how much effort is put into making the final result “stand out”? how is quality judged? (WIRED has lots of good examples: SLR vs. flip camera, Skype, etc. On a more controversial note: Apple product vs. others hardware and software)
- private – public: how much control is necessary for the final result, what implications arise from the type/size of our audience? (eMail leaks, groups/tribes/clans, crowd-inclusive online-learning like CCK 08)
in short: interactivity, polish, delivery
This section was meant as a broad overview of the metrics, soon a more detailed discussion of specific examples across all factors will follow.
Until then, please provide your comments on the applicability of these measures and share your examples of a product, service or person that was too chaotic, strict, formal, complex or boring for you to continue using.
