Users and systems have been trying to place context around their content in order to make it easier to find for many years. On a file system the context is provided by the folder structure. For example, many companies will create a network file share for their marketing department and then create subfolders for product lines and finally products. The context provided by the folder works very well to find the files that apply to this particular product. However, if you are unfamiliar with the hierarchy or if you need to package up all of your product brochures to send off to a temp agency to have a new corporate address added, the context of folders organized by each individual product is of little use.
Metadata
The next natural step in the evolution of providing better context around content was to add metadata for searching. Want to find all the brochures? Just pick brochure in the Document Type field and click search. Need to see the marketing materials for a specific product? Pick the product from a drop down list and *BAM* an instant list of your product data. With metadata you are no longer tied to a single hierarchy, but you now have to try and figure out an often complex metadata model that users will rarely follow because it is either too hard to understand, or too much work to enter the information.
Websites
Websites developed using tools like Site Studio did a great job of providing robust context that could clearly describe the workspace and provide links to the relevant documents. Web pages allow the owner to provide links to relevant content and a way to explain to the user a little bit about the content that is presented. However, Site Studio was designed to be used to create websites (which are a great way to consume data) but didn’t solve the problem of allowing users to generate and edit the content that they use every day.
E2.0
The promise of E2.0 will change all that by empowering users to not only create content, but also create the context around content. Tools like wikis enable the masses to update the content that they use, which makes the actual content more accurate and valuable. Blogs, comments, and discussion threads combine to allow those same users the ability to share their thoughts and feedback on content or projects, making collaboration across the country or (over the cube walls) more achievable.
Bringing It All Together
Tools like CollabPoint combine the various aspects of an E2.0 environment that allow for easier content creation with the ability for end users to create and manage the context around this content. Users are no longer at the mercy of the IT department to create a website for their department or project, and can now create the context themselves. Blogs, wikis , office document libraries, etc. can all be combined and organized into the same workspace to provide a single location to access and link to the related information without IT intervention.
A successful ECM implementation requires that users can actually find the information that they need. Allowing users to create the context for their content makes finding that content much easier. The natural evolution of ECM systems will include tools like CollabPoint to make both content and context creation easier, which will increase user adoption and the value of the entire ECM system.
