This talk was delivered as the opening keynote for the virtual track at Lavacon Dublin 2017. It's primary intent is to explore the implications of Digital Transformation for Profession Communicators and for the Content Standards and Technologies that they use.

1. Digital
Transformation
& the Business
of Content
Joe Gollner | @joegollner
Managing Director
Gnostyx Research Inc.
info@gnostyx.com

2. Digital Transformation & Content
Digital Transformation (DX)?
What does DX mean for
Professional Communicators?
Content Standards & Technologies?
Management Practices?
What do we bring
to the DX table?
@joegollner 2

3. Digital Transformation (DX)
What does it really mean?
@joegollner 3

4. @joegollner 4
Digital Technology
Digital Strategy
Digital Disruption
Digital Economy
Digital Society
Digital Natives
Digital Competitors
Digital Skills
Digital Entrants
Digital Agility
Digital Talent
Digital Traction
Digital Metrics
Digital Operations
Digital Product Lifecycle
Digital Workforce
Digital Process
Digital Design
Digital Operating Models
Digital Maturity
Digital Impact
Digital Transformation
Digital OfferingsDigital Channels
Digital Infrastructure
Digital Platforms
Digital ServicesDigital Unicorns
Digital Organizations
Digital Innovation
Digital Lifecycle
Digital Monetization
Digital Capabilities
Digital World
Digital Awareness
Digital Consumption
Digital Leaders
Digital Business
Digital Culture
Digital Capital
Digital Differentiation
Digital Flexibility
Digital Governance
Digital Partners
Digital Consumers
Digital Industry
Digital Future
Digital Ecosystems
Digital Jobs
Digital Information
Digital Value Digital Supply Chain
Digital Mind
Digital Laggards
Digital Content
Digital Competence
Digital Era
Digital Framework
Digital Revolution
Digital Media
Digital Networks
Digital Communities
Digital Tribes
Digital Ventures
Digital Experiments
Digital Enterprise
Digital Nomads
Digital Crowd
Digital Humanities
Digital Manufacturing
Digital Landfill
Digital Experience
Digital Landscape
Digital Customers Digital Marketplace
Digital Literacy

5. Digital Technology
Everything
becomes digital
Everything happens
in a digital landscape
There is nothing that
is not altered by
Digital Technology
@joegollner 5

6. Digital Disruption
Established ways
of doing things are
disrupted
Alternatives appear
that change the
marketplace
Change is mandatory
@joegollner 6

7. See: Content 4.0
http://www.gollner.ca/2016/12/content_4-0.html
The Digital Enterprise
End-to-End Digitization
Human-Cyber-Physical
Systems
Human-guided automation
Completely virtualized
Technology becomes a
marketplace commodity
7

8. @joegollner 8
Digital Operating Models
Digital Transformation Initiative
World Economic Forum – 2017

9. Authoring Experience becomes Customer Experience
See Conway’s Law: “organizations which design systems ... are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the
communication structures of these organizations” Melvin Conway (1967)
Digital Workforce
Distributed & Mobile
Diverse, on-demand &
multi-generational
Bring-Your-Own-Device
(BYOD)
Standardized &
interchangeable tools
9

10. Digital Information
Relevance is
the new
currency
(McKinsey)
• Minimalist
• Personalized
• Continuous
• Proactive
• Instantaneous
@joegollner 10

11. Digital Transformation
The changes that must be made to
Organizations
Processes
Products & services
Everything is subject to
Review
Redesign
Re-expression
@joegollner 11

12. @joegollner 12
Tweetable Moment
Under #DigitalTransformation
we want to capitalize on what has worked well
while we leverage what is genuinely new.
Trans-Form.

13. Everything 4.0
Industry – Technology – Web
Information – Consumer – Content
@joegollner 13

14. Everything 4.0
14
Parallel
streams of
innovation
The effects
of ubiquitous
automation
@joegollner

15. Everything 4.0
15
Digital
Technology
changes
how we
communicate
& what we
communicate
@joegollner

16. @joegollner 16
Tweetable Moment
Consumer 4.0 – It’s a Thing!
Associated with the emergent concept of
Conducers (consumers that are producers).
Infinite network of reuse.

17. Everything 4.0
17
What is
produced
is consumed
to be
re-produced
as something
new.
True for
Content too.
@joegollner

18. Endless Computing & Content
@joegollner 18
Computers for
Everyone,
Everywhere
Case
Study
endlessos.com

19. Impacts on the Business of Content
For Professional Communicators
For Content Standards & Technologies
For Management Practices
@joegollner 19

20. DX  Professional Communication
Communication changes
Business / Technical / Marketing communication
become integrated & coordinated
• Communicators traverse the boundaries
• Integrated, evidence-based system-approach adopted
Shift in Focus
• Marked increase in Design & Process Documentation
• Digital content becomes digital products & services
• Digital content rewires the enterprise / integrates silos
• Marked decrease in End-User Documentation
@joegollner 20

21. Digital Content Lifecycle
Adapting the Content
Lifecycle for a Digital World
Balancing concerns
• Internal / External
• Efficiency / Effectiveness
• Communication / Control
Connected to main objectives
of Enterprise activities
• Role of Content Strategy
Connected to outcomes!
21
Content
Acquisition
Content
Management
Content
Delivery
Content
Engagement
Content
Strategy
Internal External
Author Experience Customer ExperienceEfficiency
Effectiveness
@joegollner

22. DX  Content Standards & Tools
Content Standards & Technologies
must enter the Mainstream
They must change (transform) radically
• to remain relevant
• to avoid digital replacement
A sense of this is building only now
Digital Disruption is coming to our industry
@joegollner 22

23. DX hits the Content Threshold
Content is central
Everything
depends on
handling
content
well & on
handling it
as content
@joegollner 23
Digital
Progress
Information
Knowledge
Content
Data
Content
Barrier
Content
Threshold may
be a better term
than Content
Barrier (less
negative)

24. @joegollner 24
Tweetable Moment
Content standards & technologies
are at a digital crossroads. Will they
transform to enable progress or not?
The next 5 years will tell.
Commentary
Without change, many content standards & tools
will not fare well in the new Digital landscape.
Indeed that may not survive at all. The need to
handle content well will become too important to
not receive a sound digital handling. #Ominous

25. DX  Management Practices
@joegollner 25
Many management fashions are at risk
Digital disruption will expose weaknesses
Sound management practices will thrive
Enabling communication
Cultivating executable knowledge assets
Adopting a truly digital posture
Empowering “conducers” to multiply value
Innovating without limits

26. Digital Content Solutions
@joegollner 26
Knowledge
Integrated & Executable
Agile
Development
Digital
Enterprise
Content Solutions
Content Engineering
Content
Acquisition
Content
Management
Content
Delivery
Content
Engagement
Content
Strategy
Content Technology
Content Solutions

27. @joegollner 27
Tweetable Moment
If content truly lies at the center of the new
digital enterprise, then how we handle content
must fit in & must be able to take the heat.
Commentary
In my rubric, content solutions become a central enterprise building block –
establishing the platform on which enterprise communication happens. The good
news is that this places communication, and content standards and technologies, at
the center of attention. The bad news is that they move to the center of attention.
Are we are an industry & community ready for the spotlight?

28. The Example of Jonathan Swift
@joegollner 28
1667 – 1745
Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin
Pamphleteer, Satirist, Poet
Classically educated / Conservative disposition
Immersed in radical change
Party Politics
Free & Combative Press (the media age)
Adapted to become highly influential
then & now & in many ways

29. Connections
@joegollner 29
Joe Gollner
Managing Director
Gnostyx Research Inc.
Ottawa, Canada
www.gnostyx.com
jag@gnostyx.com
Twitter: @joegollner
Content Philosopher Blog:
www.gollner.ca