Contentology.com purports to be a site about “content strategy, planning, analysis, development and management.” Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s there, yet. Nice try, though.
Any criticism has to start with the lack of updates. When I visited today, the home page contained two articles, dated 12.17.2002 and 12.01.2002. One of the first things I learned about content on the web is that it needs to be fresh and frequently updated. Sites such as elearningpost (where I found this link) and Steven’s Web manage to find several items worthy of posting and commenting on each day.
Another shortcoming is the list of “Top 40 Contentology Sites” which has a prominent place on the main page. The list is dated Friday, January 10, 2003, but other than that there is no information on the criteria used to rank the sites, nor any indication of who compiled the list. Without this kind of information, we have no way of judging the accuracy or usefulness of a list like this. Without this kind of information, the table is pure filler — as empty of meaning as the term “content” itself.
The site boasts a “Content Toolkit” with “free Contentology templates, forms, presentations, tables and guides to help you build content on the Internet.” The tools consist of two Excel spreadsheets and a Powerpoint presentation. The spreadsheets, particularly, the Benchmarking Report are spectacularly content-free. The Content Requirements Plan (abbreviated CRP and with a very prominent copyright indication attached) contains such helpful instructions as
“State your target audiences in order of priority (can be as many as necessary). Who are you trying to reach with this content? Who are the other people or groups that will use your Web?”
The Powerpoint file, “A primer on creating content for the Web and other media” advises the reader that online content is dynamic and that the “current version is always fluid/up-to-date.” It instructs you to “Create meta-content… to guide users through end content.”
I could go on about the meaningless section titles (“The Contentologist”, “Internet Today”, Education”); the sidebar syndication of something called “Tod Maffin’s FutureFile” without any indication of what it is or why it is included; the prominent messages disclaiming responsibility, maintenance or even knowledge of any of the sites linked to; the lack of internet usability standards such as some form of highlighting on clickable links; the constant repetition of the word “content” until it becomes meaningless…
A site such as Contentology.com, which purports to have some expertise to share, should be an example of that expertise, demonstrating intimate knowledge of all the details it seeks to explain. In my first paragraph, I said, “Nice try.” I take it back.