Software products have found ways to share content and reuse content to deliver more value with limited resources. For example, fantasy football web sites share player news, injury reports, and game statistics. Security products often reuse security announcements and warnings from trusted sources, and present them as rebranded content. We are also seeing software vendors using Twitter and RSS feeds to distribute information and announcements. The next step is when these information feeds are integrated into the product user interface itself, making it the one stop resource for all the information needs of its users. No more need to use google when your product itself delivers the answers to all your questions from the sources you trust.

We need to adopt this same approach with user assistance deliverables so we can build on existing knowledge instead of duplicating efforts and writing similar content. For example, we could identify trusted source partners and share content with those partners. We could also provide icons that identify each category of content, such as internally tested and certified content, standards from an external expert, community developed content (wikis and forums), and editorial or opinion-based content. With these categories clearly identified, we could merge the content into one searchable content pool, much like the internet does today, but users would know how to treat the information they find.

To truly integrate content, we need consistent methods for identifying, labeling, categorizing, and coding the content. As we look to integrate content from many different sources, global standards, such as DITA, become even more valuable and important. By sharing content with others, we can also create additional revenue streams for our companies. We could create content for specific areas and resell that content to many other partners.

As the design approaches for content delivery shift, many new jobs and careers are taking shape. For consolidated content to become a widespread reality, we need to share similar documentation models and base technologies that shape content in similar ways. Adapters and transformations allow each of us to apply our brand to the content and present it as we need to, but the core of the content itself must be available in a consistent manner. Our roles continue to change and we need to be much more than writers. What are you doing today, and what will you do in the future?