The demands of digital publishing scale exponentially, but individual humans beings don't scale. We will never have less data, less to publish, less to keep updated, or less new technologcal devices to publish to, than we do today. Every day there is more to do. This is a big challenge, but its also a fantastic opportunity.
For some time, our online publishing demands have exceed our capacity. The requests upon us for publishing attention are more than we can handle, both in volume and technical complexity. We do not have the time or resources to respond thoughtfully to all the material we are asked to publish. As a result, the material we do publish is limited, inadequate, and frequently out of date or wrong.
We built the Content Construction Kit to address this. Its not a solution, but it is a start. Our hope is that by normalizing and streamlining the publishing process we can make things easier. We want all of our material to get the attention it deserves.
In the short run, we can't add more publishing resources. The only way for us to increase our efficiency is to share the work load. The Content Construction Kit moves limited publishing responsibilities out of the hands of a few and onto us all. This isn't a new idea - as you know, building a movement takes many hands.
The Content Construction Kit is also a change in mentality. Today, "we do 21st-century research, write it up using 20th century tools, and then package it into 17th century formats.”. This is not a sustainable approach to online publishing.
We have been opperating under the paper-paradigm for far too long. It is just not appropriate for publishing to the internet, for a variety of reasons. We desperately need a 21st-century approach to publishing; for effeciency, for relevance, authority, and growth. The CCK is this shift, toward more open, collaborative, and accountable ways of working.
We do not choose the devices people use to access our content. If we do not change to meet the demands of new technology (mobile devices, for example) we risk alientating the very people we seek to serve. The CCK is a move towards publishing content that can be distributed anywhere, from text messages to TV screens.
For content creators, the Content Construction Kit establishes a clear and open path to participating in publishing online: well documented requirements, specificly stated strategic goals, helpful tutorials, process, accountability, and transparency. It provides resources, standards, training, and access. It is the foundation of an open system of digital production.
We speak for a movement. This is a responsibilty and a privilege that we take seriously. We want to speak well.
The Content Construction Kit is the starting point for evaluating the effectiveness of our work online. How well do we communicate? Are our messages clear? Is our story being heard? How well are we educating, agitating, and facilitating change? To answer these questions, we need a clear reference point. The CCK is more than a manual, it is a forum for discussion, debate, growth, and change. Its the yardstick to measure our work against.
Ultimately, the goal of the CCK is to support Amnesty International Canada's work. It is a methodology for promotion, extension, and preservation of human rights through effective digital discourse.
Finally, the CCK is built with the aim of progressive automation and enhancement of Amnesty International Canada's publishing workflow. It is a collaborative open source project, meant to grow with contributions from its users. Please, add your voice. This tool is built for you.
The Content Contruction Kit is organized into sections:
- Documentation The how and why of this system
- Business Rules
The backbone of our publishing workflow
- Authors
- Digital asset management
- The Catalogue - the content classification system (a controlled-vocabulary database)
- File System Infobase - the file organization system (a schema for document naming)
- File specifications
- Story categories
- News Pegs and current events
- Submission process
- Templates
The starting point for writing new content
- Post
- Biography
- Event
- Job
- Message
- Tools
For creating good content
- Digital style guide
- Best practices
- Common settings
- Tutorials A guide to the CCK publishing workflow
- Join Github
- Get social on Github - make friends, follow a project (like this one!), create issues, join our organization page.
- Introduction to the CCK workflow
- Intro to digital: content strategy in the digital publishing environment and a human rights framework
- Intro to metadata: using structured text to talk with robots
- Intro to Markdown: a familiar way to write structured text
- Intro to Digital Workflow: how to submit content for digital publication
- Introduction to Blogging
- Microblogging and "Social Media"
- Writing and sending messages by mass e-mail broadcast
- News writing
- References, resources, and reports
- Projects
- Biographies
- Publicizing events
- Job and volunteer opportunities
- Who can submit content
- How to submit content
- Becoming a trusted content creator
- Introduction to Github issues
- Create an Issue
- to modify or correct existing content
- to propose new content
- to propose a new feature
The Content Contruction Kit open-source collaborative document under active development. Your contributions are welcome, and there are a few ways to get involved:
- Submit an issue for correcions, suggestions, and ideas
- Join the CCK team on Github and make your contributions to the project directly
- Fork this repository and add your own code and text - if its good, we'll pull it to the master copy!
The CCK is maintained by @jacksoncouse. Please get in touch with Jackson if you have any questions or want to get involved.
This repository is a user manual. However, the CCK Wiki does provide step-by-step user tutorials. Github Help is also a handy place.
The contents of this repository are released under a GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, Version 3.
Content Contruction Kit; digital publishing workflow, Copyright (C) 2013 Amnesty International Canada
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.