What is Content? & Why Does it Matter?

One of the problems with the term 'Content' is that few people outside of the self-designated Enterprise Content Management (ECM) field understand what it means. Ironically most end users have more personal experience with the types of Unstructured or Semi-structured Information that we designate as Content - namely electronic documents, email, pictures and videos - than they do with Structured Information in databases. They create data by their actions (e.g. buying shoes online) but have little sense of what is happening 'under the covers.'

With the recent growth of OpenText into the adjacent market of Business Process Management and Analysis software through the acquisitions of Metastorm and Global360, I have found myself having to explain the term 'Content' as well as why it matters to organizations. For that reason this new video is very timely:

Of course you can go into more detail, and specifically you have to talk about how content plays a role in most business processes. I did that last week in my talk to Knowledge Managers in Toronto.