Coordinating Digital Publication

This section describes how we create and organize content. Coordination is mainly about communicating and enforcing business practices, and is the responsibility of the Coordinator.

Roles

Different people have different responsibilities and levels of direct access to publishing. We have a simple set of roles to define these relationships:

  • Unsolicited
  • Casual
  • Semi-casual
  • Authenticated
  • Trusted
  • Editor

The Coordinator mediates access to the means of publishing (e-newsletters, website, social media, etc.) depending on levels of trust a person has, the amount of content a person produces, and technical skill.

The Coordinator is the managing-editor of publications. This work might be shared with other managers, or sub-editors, but ultimately the Coordinator is responsible for overseeing the publications work-flow and whether an item is published or not. The Coordinator also makes sure overall tone, message, and material reflects the branch goals and standards. When new material is created, it is submitted to the Coordinator, who reviews and assigns the material for correction or publication.

The Coordinator oversees the Editorial Worker(s), collaborates with the Strategist, and is responsible to the Director of Communications and Marketing.

Story-based communications practice

The story is the basic unit - the “atom” - and organizing principle of our content system. A story can be told in many different ways, but the story is always the genesis of the need to publish. Like an atom, a story is a complete unit made up of a few simple parts that combine and relate to one another:

  • Ideas - what we want to communicate in our story
  • Context - where we want to communicate the story
  • Assets - the things we have to help us communicate the story

Working with content producers (such as members of Campaigns, Activism, and Marketing) the Coordinator discerns the ideas and context in a proposed story, assigns resources for the creation of assets, and sets a time-line for publication.

F.R.A.M.E.S.

FRAMES is a checklist of qualities that make a message effective:

F = Frame the issue: set the terms and define the stakes

R = Re-frame opponent’s story and reinforce our frame: change the terms of the debate

A = Accessible to the audience: be specific when you craft your language, context, and values so that people will understand

M = Meme: memorable, easy to spread, resonant

S = Simple and short: get to the core of the issue

Catalogues and archives

A catalogue is a collection of stories. We use catalogues to communicate our stories in an organized manner. The website is one, public, example of a catalogue. Shared drives and asset banks are two of the private catalogues we use, among several. Healthy catalogues are essential to effective communications.

Think in terms of catalogues helps us sort our stories as independent units and as parts of collections. This means we can keep our content organized even when our priorities and our work changes. Healthy catalogues are an essential part of making our content searchable and dynamic.

An archive is a catalogue of “retired” material. Retired material still needs to be accessible for reference purposes but is no longer current. The website also has an archive function. In the case of online catalogues, archiving and retiring projects has important security implications. Archiving planning should be part of all content planning.

The Coordinator sets priorities for which parts of a catalogue take precedent and how content should be archived. Maintenance of the catalogue and archives is the shared responsibility of everyone in DigitalComs.

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