Category archive
Technical and strategic perspectives on content management systems, taxonomy, and author experience — including what a CMS actually does, separating content from presentation, and the principles of Author Experience (AX).
A response to an article by Sorin Pintilie published on 25 August 2014 on The Pastry Box Project, which discussed a mechanism allowing content to be transcluded into a web page by applying an href attribute to a paragraph tag. Transclusion is the inclusion of a small element of content from one source into other material, by reference.
A recap of a second attendance at Noz Urbina’s adaptive content modelling workshop — a subject the author knows well, yet the session still brought new thoughts, concepts, and background research information of real value.
Notes and impressions from the closing panel of the Content Strategy Forum 2013, part of the ongoing discussion of how content strategy and the CMS shape the way organisations publish.
Across these entries, the same questions keep returning: what a content management system is actually for, how much of the presentation layer belongs in the tool, and how taxonomy shapes what authors can do.
| Thread | Question it raises |
|---|---|
| What does your CMS actually do? | Separating content from presentation, so that publishing and presentation are distinct concerns. |
| Taxonomy | How classification and metadata describe content for reuse and discovery. |
| Author Experience (AX) | The experience of the people creating and maintaining content inside the system. |
For the rulesets, WYSIWYG alternatives and end-of-paradigm argument that sit alongside this material, see Functionality. For the strategy side of the same conversation, see Strategy.
Think Info explores the information space, examining how content is created, structured, published, and read across digital channels. The archive gathers writing on content strategy, information architecture, and the practical mechanics of managing information systems. Rather than treating content as finished marketing material, the perspective treats it as a designed experience that must adapt to the people consuming it and the contexts they bring along.
A significant strand of the work concerns content management systems and what a CMS actually does beneath the interface. The argument is that a CMS should separate content from presentation, allowing structured material to be published once and rendered in many places — websites, mobile applications, email campaigns, and other touchpoints. This separation supports omnichannel delivery and makes updates to source material propagate naturally rather than requiring duplicated effort.
Related pieces examine transclusion, the inclusion of small excerpts from an external source into a page, and what this mechanism means for authoring. Discussion moves through ideas such as congility — a system that can flex to new demands — and adaptive models for organizing material. These themes connect to broader questions about how readers experience content and how much control an author should retain over final output.
Another area of interest is the author experience, often abbreviated AX, described as the set of principles that makes writing and publishing feel coherent and humane. A well-designed environment reduces friction for people who create content, so that structured thinking survives the path from draft to published page. Good tooling, clear models, and sensible defaults support both professional authors and occasional contributors working within the same system.
The overall mission reflects a belief that understanding context and human behaviour is essential to effective digital work. Content systems, models, and mechanisms matter because they shape how ideas are communicated and how services are delivered to real people. Conference talks, workshops, and published articles extend this thinking into events, keynotes, and collaborative projects with others exploring the same information space.