Gerry McGovern

02 Nov Gerry McGovern

Gerry McGovern runs a web content management consultancy that is focused on helping clients maximize the value from their content assets.

He has already published three books on web content management, and will be publishing a fourth (Killer Web Content) in 2006.

I?ve always wanted to make a difference.- I grew up on a small farm in Ireland. I loved to watch the Westerns. As I watched those wagons go out West, I made myself a promise that if I ever saw a bunch of wagons heading West I?d jump on. The first time I saw the Web, I saw those wagons.

I was there before the Bubble.- I was in the Bubble, and I was around for the Dot Com Bust. I made an awful lot of mistakes, though I hope that I have learned a lot too. I learned to be resilient, to not let any one thing get you down to much.

You must think long term. Any success I?ve had has been down to long term thinking. Ten years ago I believed that content would ultimately be recognized as an important asset within most organizations. Back then, the view was that content was a commodity and that all you needed was good software in order to manage it. That?s not the way the best organizations think today.

I?ve been in 35 countries in the last five years.- There?s never been a country I didn?t like and there?s never been a people I didn?t like. We live in an amazing world and by and large we?ve done extraordinarily well in learning to get along with each other.

One of the key trends I see the Internet driving is networking and collaboration.- The Internet is a network and in a network you maximize your chances of being successful by being well connected. I think in the future we will work less in formal organizations and more in informal networks and groups.

The Internet gives us the tools of organization that once was the domain of large organizations.- Email and the Web are powerful tools of communication and organization. The future is about increasing collaboration between increasingly independent knowledge workers.

Over the last twenty years, we?ve had email, the Web, instant messaging, texting, and blogs.- These have all had major impacts on society and business, and they?re all to do with writing. Today, if you?re not a good writer and reader, you?re not going to be a very effective knowledge worker. It?s ironic in a way that such old skills as reading and writing should have such importance in the knowledge economy.

However,  I think we are only beginning to see the emergence of a true content management discipline.- Up until now, many organizations have felt that all they need to do is buy technology and that that will deal with their content management challenges.

However, the world is flooded with content, and getting your message through will be an increasingly difficult task.- We need to focus on content as an asset. Content management should be about maximizing the value we derive from our content.

It?s very hard to be closed today and succeed.- Ireland has found that the more it has opened up its economy, the more successful it has become. Globalization is here to stay and we need to embrace it rather than run away from it. The key is to keep getting smarter.

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http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/