Wrestling with web governance and the seven-legged octopus
I stumbled into Percussion’s Recharge Lounge walking the vendor gauntlet at eduWeb in Boston last week.
In a refreshing twist, the CMS vendor ditched the traditional trade show get-up and invited attendees to jot down their greatest web challenge on an oversized whiteboard (pictured above: Photo courtesy of Percussion).
The comments ranged from the pedestrian (CSS templates) to the practical (responsive design) to the personal (my web developer).
But the most interesting common thread I saw had to do with another P: People.
There were scribbles about ‘stakeholders not giving me access to their great content,’ ‘nobody listening to the expert web team,’ ‘understaffed teams,’ ‘decentralized authors who don’t write for the web,’ and an ominous ‘the powers that be.’
Sure, technology always gets a bad rap, but some of the most consistent challenges are usually found around the people and processes.
That and the seven-legged octopus of course.
Comments
2 responses… read them below or add one.
I think the magic fairy in the corner should have a flag that says “web governance!” Honestly, I still find it amazing that we’re wrestling with the basics still after 15+ years online for most organizations. Oh well, I guess in the grand scheme of things, 15 years isn’t that long. People are reluctant to change behaviors and that includes web manager “experts” who sometimes have their head in the sand just as much as the “non-expert” managers they report to.
You know I’m an advocate for web governance but, in the last few projects I’ve worked on, the number one big bad evil was a really bad CMS implementation causing a whole lot of trouble. The CMS implementations were so off track, I almost thought they’d be better off with no CMS at all.
It’s definitely an ecosystem. Those in the organization that understand the whole picture need to continue to tell the story and push for the right kind of change. We’re getting there.
Hi Lisa – thanks for the comment. I do think things are getting much better, thanks to the tireless work of folks like yourself. I suppose it will always come down to the basics.