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I assume the distributed content means you have multiple content servers.
If you consolidate your 29% common content in one physical location, then 29% of your content will be accessible only as long as the links stay up. If you consolidate that 29% in the US and a winter storm blows down half the lines between here and Canada, then your Canadian users have a problem. Users in the UK would have to be able to get reliable round-trip connections across the Atlantic. The longer your communications chain is, the more vulnerable it is. Your company isn't hurting for storage space, is it? I would say keep the distributed iterations of the common content but set up a system that allows you to push content changes from a centralized source. That could be a software system or, in the right circumstances, it might simply be a procedural change.
--- On Tue, 2/1/11, John Posada <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
From: John Posada <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Best Practice...Reuse Content
To: "List,Ã Techwriter" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tuesday, February 1, 2011, 5:00 PM
Humor me for a minute
I'm now a Knowledgebase analyst with an opportunity to present a case
to rearchitect my company's extrernal knowledgebase that is used for
customer self-help support.
Understand that to do what I'm asking, there will be changes at the
code level, so I need to build a pretty strong case.
We currently have three regional knowledgebases; US customers,
Canadian customers, and UK customers.
Based on an analysis that I recently performed, 29% of the content is
almost identically replicated in all three regions. Let me say that
again. 29% of the content appears pretty much the same in three
regions. So, if it takes 50 words to describe something, we have 150
words doing it; 50 in each region.
I've made a recommendation that we have one pirce of content, written
once and shared by the three regions. Pretty simple, huh?
You and I know the benefits to this...that is not my question and I
have some interest in this concept from some levels in this company
.However, the person I have to convince is pretty high up on the
ladder and her hot buttons are "best practices prescribed by experts"
Therefore, I'm interested in material that backs me up on the premise
that there shouldn't be the same content written more than once,
preferably from people with name recogintion.
--
John Posada
Senior Analyst â Knowledge Management
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