PixelMEDIA Inc.

A few weeks ago, I posted a question on the whiteboard outside of the Experience Design Cubes:

What’s the difference between ‘information” and “content?”

I wasn’t looking for answers, just ideas and maybe a spirited discussion. Heck, the best I could do was. “I know it when I see it.” Check out some of the responses from the whiteboard.

• You can have “too much information” but you can never have too much content.
• To be information, you add value. To be content, you are happy.
• Good content is information:
  Data = 48°, 52°, 67°, 55°, 58°
  Information = 67°F
  Knowledge = “67°F is warm. I’ll wear shorts.”
  Wisdom = “However, I’m going to work, and shorts aren’t allowed there.”
• Content is information that is contained.
• Information = “short-twitch muscles” = power
  Content = “long-twitch muscles” = endurance
• Content is contextually appropriate information.

I posed the question when I heard the two terms used in close proximity and sometimes interchangeably. More questions followed. How does my role as Content Strategist intersect with that of the Information Architect? Does the IA turn content into information? Do I turn information into content? Why should a client pay for a Content Strategist and an Information Architect?

Is the distinction important? If not, why make the distinction?

Maybe I’m veering into Zen koan territory here, but I’d love to get perspectives from everyone who handles content—and that’s a lot of people. While there are several disciplines associated with Information (e.g., Information Architect, Information Designer, Information Analyst), there are few identified with Content. Is Content Strategy an emerging field, a clever re-naming of another discipline, or a made-up term?

Put another way: Everyone agrees that content is king. The Big Kahuna. The Holy Grail. But there seems to be some uncertainty as to what it is, where it comes from, and who is responsible for it.

And there has to be a better answer than, “I know it when I see it.”

Tags: Content, Content strategy, Experience Design, Information Architecture