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Web Governance and Ownership

By Rick Allen on October 7, 2011

In a post this week, Jonathan Kahn, a strong advocate of content strategy and web governance, reminds us that the culture shift to a web-centric mindset for publishing and communication is still incomplete.

As I described in my recent post about selling content strategy, we need to help stakeholders make this shift in thinking. Web governance is a responsibility that needs ownership. We still need to make the case for it — and to be prepared to do it more than once.

The question, of course, is how to make the case so decision makers will listen. Kahn offers some good advice and tough love.

The only way out is to stop waiting for permission, and to start leading. This isn’t technically complex, but it takes courage: the willingness to leave our comfort zones, face our own fear of confronting the status quo, and overcome our resistance to shipping. It also takes a lot of messy interpersonal work: advocacy, facilitation, diplomacy, pragmatism, and patience. This is what Godin calls "emotional labour". Like it or not, these are the key skills of the modern web professional.

Source: The web professional’s choice: linchpin or cog by Jonathan Kahn, lucid plot, Oct. 3, 2011.

Filed Under: Archive, On topic Tagged With: roles

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About Rick Allen

Rick Allen has worked on the web in higher ed his entire career helping shape communications and content strategy. As principal of ePublish Media, Inc., a content strategy consultancy in Boston, Mass., Rick partners with organizations big and small to drive and sustain bold goals.

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Rick Allen

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