Team Content Gardener

I had someone suggest the other day that our team should have a content gardner - someone to organize team content, develop play books, educate on the use of blogs, setup standards, etc. Here's why I don't think this is a good idea:

This is counter web 2.0. One of the driving forces behind web 2.0 is user initiated content organization and sharing. Tagging, blogging and wikipedia applications are a perfect example of this. Tagging came about because we all got sick of that other guy who thought he knew how to organize everyone else's taxonomies.

If there are issues concerning how the team is using it's social networking tools, it's up to the team to communicate and this needs to start with the leadership of the team, but also needs a team that initiates dialog.

The team needs to know that reminders are okay. We're all super busy and can drift into old patterns of doing things. Reminders given in the right spirit build trust and help the performance of the team.

Consultants are good. If the team can bring in someone with an outside perspective on how to leverage social networking tools, that's a huge plus. It's up to the team to internalize these suggestions and practices. The consultant needs to realize this and go away when the consulting is over.

Those doing the work will have greater insight into how content should be organized.

There are exceptions to this rule. For very large programs, a content gardner may be just the thing. Pick you gardner carefully. Some people get hooked on the power they get by taking control over other people's content - you don't want that person. Also, mistakes are okay. There are not a lot of people that really know how to do content gardening - give them a chance to try new ideas out.



The bottom line is that teams need to internalize best practices. The team that realizes that it needs to take time to dialog about how their using the tools, will be the more productive team. Team leads need to make time to talk about how to organize content and make sure that their folks will be assessed on how proactive they are in this area.