{"id":7826,"date":"2018-10-22T09:27:50","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T13:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/?p=7826"},"modified":"2023-01-10T11:53:27","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T16:53:27","slug":"cleaning-up-content-cobwebs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/cleaning-up-content-cobwebs\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleaning Up Content Cobwebs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every Knowledge Management (KM) effort should include cleaning up existing content, whether the goal is migrating to a new system, implementing a taxonomy or search tool, or just clearing the clutter of old, irrelevant content cobwebs. Regardless of your KM drivers, the following content analysis strategy and checklist can help you take the first steps toward curated, user-friendly content that is both findable and discoverable. <\/span><\/p>\n

As with any initiative regarding business content, we first need to understand the depth, breadth, and amount of content that exists, as well as some key information about the content itself. Starting with a high-level inventory, identify the content repositories (Document Management systems, file shares, Google Drive, SharePoint document libraries, CMS systems, etc.) and capture information about each piece of content using the key fields in the table below. If the content in scope for your current effort is somewhere in the range less than 1000 items, you can do so manually, using a spreadsheet with columns for each of these fields:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Content<\/a>
\n<\/a> However, if you are faced with the haunting task of inventorying millions of content items, consider using tools to automate your process. Helpful tools would include a duplicate finder, disk space software, or content analysis tools (such as Duplicate File Detective, FolderSizes, TreeSizes, etc.). <\/span><\/p>\n

If your content is complex or scattered across multiple libraries, sites, and systems, the concept of inventorying content items individually is enough to make anyone give up or lose momentum. Check to see if your CMS can generate a list of all items (documents, pages, etc.). Certain CMS solutions can also provide the majority of the information gathered in a typical content inventory.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of whether you will make a manual action or create rules to remove content that matches the characteristics from scope for migration or retainment, here is where the ROT analysis can help you shine. <\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the acronym coined by Zach Wahl, <\/span>NERDy,<\/span><\/a> the knowledge and information management community has oft spoken about content \u201cROT\u201d and the importance of cleaning content. So what is ROT and how can we use yet another acronym to facilitate the clean-up and overall improvement of our business content? <\/span><\/p>\n

ROT stands for:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To assess for content ROT, we can ask the following questions:<\/span><\/p>\n