Hovering Over The Back Button

Next in my occasional series where I refer to a different to letter to the one in a TLA (after discussing the R in ECM) - I wondering if it's time we took the W out of CMS and thought about management and delivery as separate disciplines. I am not the first to think like this, obviously, but it's something I wanted to explore in this blog. [ read more ]

Last week was my first Gilbane conference as a Gilbane analyst, having in previous years only served variously as vendor booth bunny, guest speaker or panellist  and it was great to focus on meeting folks, listening to some great sessions and participating as a moderator and speaker.  Two and a half packed days, that stretched long into the evening  felt like a week and my new resolve to keep my blog posts short, could be tested - but I'm going to stick to a couple of key things... honest. [ read more ]

Jon Marks (@mcboof) has set a challenge to vendors on his blog - to prioritize various elements of what makes a great CMS product, to choose between Editors, Performance, Features, Developers and producing Websites. I know, I'm not a vendor any more - but I started writing a comment and once it got longer than his original post, I thought hang on...

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As you probably know, last week I left Alterian, a marketing platform vendor (who just over 18 months ago acquired my previous WCM vendor employer Mediasurface) for The Gilbane Group. Whilst, I'm accustomed to change, in the last twenty two years (OK, I started young and didn't get an education!) I've only worked for five different employers (and the first eight years was as a public servant) - every year has thrown up new opportunities and change. (I've written a little bit about the start of my career here). But this is different, I am really excited about making a significant, possibly life changing move - having spent the last 15 years representing a vendor - I'm leaving the tribes and just maybe becoming a real boy. [ read more ]

As a fresh new broom sweeps through my professional life as I transition from years of vendor representation to that of an analyst - I've changed the title of my blog  (and the URL). I'll obviously write more on my move - but more importantly - changing the name of my blog? Why 'Hovering Over The Back Button'? [ read more ]

Forgive the cheesy title, but yes I gave a presentation at the Technology for Marketing and Advertising (TfMA) show last week where I talked about the place of content and in web or digital engagement. Or as marketing put it in the show guide synopsis:  "The importance of good content management and governance as a platform for engaging your website visitors" [ read more ]

I'm going to kick off 2010 with a blog post about Web Content Management, enough for now of my wittering on about my place in the social web or even web engagement. Content is still king and as I catch up with three weeks or so of my RSS reader, it seems that at the end of last year - the decade - that there was a new CMS blogging trend and it's for talking about trends, the CMS blogosphere was alive with predictions. All worthy of comment and I thought maybe I can chuck in some thoughts of my own. [ read more ]

Eric T Peterson - a veteran of the web analytics business, Principal Consultant at Web Analytics Demystified and author some of must read books on Web Analytics - has published a report on what he sees as the current revolution in Web Analytics. This report focuses on the needs for businesses to not just create reports but to develop insights and recommendations from the data – something that when I am talking about web engagement I have referred to as ‘actionable insight’ and it’s about more than pretty graphs. [ read more ]

I smiled at this the other day -"Software Developers: The New Rock Stars of Marketing" - it comes from the article  'Out of the Box' published a few weeks ago in the UK Financial Times, that talks about the role of technology in marketing in the new media age. The smile is because this is pinned up on the kitchen noticeboard in our Bristol office and that phrase is highlighted (can someone explain why developers always sit nearest the kitchen?). So has the geek inherited the earth? Well, marketing anyway... [ read more ]

I've written a book - alright quite a small book admittedly and when I say 'I've written' - I do mean with the help of various members of our marketing team - @karengibbons, @bob_barker and @lindajvetter  - but none the less, sitting on my desk, fresh from the printers is The Little Book of Web Engagement. It's  88 pages of tips, ideas, quotes and anecdotes on the what, how, why and who of putting your website into the front line of customer engagement. [ read more ]