Books on the Shelf
Issue #44 - January 16, 2025
I like books. In fact I spend a lot of my time surrounded by them. There is something about the printed page. I just can’t get enough of them. I like to read widely on a number of subjects, as well as across different fiction genres and it can be tricky to keep track.
I also like to know what books I have, and what books I’ve read. As a result I have an almost compulsive need to catalog what is on my shelves.
The book cataloging app I’ve been using for years had 4,617 titles in it, most of which we no longer own. Trying to tidy it up without it having any bulk edit capabilities was proving to be a headache.
So I decided the best thing would be to start over when it came to cataloging what we now have in the condo we moved into in the latter part of last year. I was also looking to get off Goodreads and after some searching I found a replacement that I felt I could use for cataloging our library and tracking what I’ve read.
During hotel time on a business trip last week I loaded up around 40 books of different types.
Waiting for my delayed flight home at the end of the trip I spent a few hours in the Admirals Club playing around with tagging taxonomy, categorization schemas, and naming conventions to get the results I wanted.
Because I am that much of a geek.
Now sitting in my office I am looking at the shelves of Content Strategy and Storytelling related titles in front of me. Which got me thinking that it might be fun to share some notes on selections from those titles over the coming weeks as I get around to cataloging them.
Hopefully I can recommend some works that will help others as they make their way across the content pool.
Alan
A Note of Appreciation
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Talking About Storytelling
Recent Events
Just a reminder you can find my recent conversation with Larry Swanson on the Content Strategy Insights podcast about the power of storytelling at https://ellessmedia.com/csi/alan-porter/
Or you can catch the video version below.
If you missed it you can still access my webinar on Customer Focused Storytelling - https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/9273/613816 - that was hosted by The Content Wrangler / Heretto -
https://www.heretto.com/
Upcoming Events
On March 15th I’m scheduled to speak at the Boston DITA User Group meeting.
I’m looking forward to presenting “Is DITA Just a Story” at the ConVex conference in San Jose in April, 2025.
And in June I’ll be making a return to the CX Behind The Scenes podcast to discuss the AI Hype Cycle.
Weekly Thought
Most people come to websites or interact with apps for one of two reasons: to get answers to questions or to complete a transaction. So maybe we should be measuring how well we achieve those two things. Instead of having page-based analytics, shouldn’t we be focused on content and transaction-based analytics.
Customer Focused Storytelling Workshops
We are now taking bookings for our popular Customer Focused Storytelling Workshops for Q1/2025, and we wanted to make sure that as a newsletter reader you got an early opportunity to lock-in a date.
“Weaving storytelling into the mix makes the content more compelling, accessible, and effective!”
Learn how to deliver content-driven experiences that your customers relate to on our two-day Customer Outcome Focused Storytelling workshop.
In this workshop, we will:
Examine content from the customer’s perspective.
Plan how to adapt content delivery to meet the needs of a rapidly changing marketplace
Examine why every business transaction is a story
Outline the 10 Rules of Storytelling as applied to Customer Experience
Apply proven storytelling techniques to your content.
Identify potential opportunities for incorporating storytelling techniques
into the production of your customer-facing content assets.Facilitate an interactive feedback session on your existing customer-facing content.
If you would like more details, or you like to discuss reserving a date for yourself and your team to benefit from a Customer Focused Storytelling Workshop, just email us at ajp@4jsgroup.com to reserve your date.
In The Bookstore
If you enjoy the contents of this newsletter and would like more, we have three books always available from XML Press.
You can also check out The Content Pool website or follow us on FaceBook. - you can also find Alan on most of the social media platforms @alanjporter.
Please feel free to share the newsletter and pass it around to any friends or colleagues you think might find it of value.
Till next time - have fun paddling in The Content Pool.
Alan J. Porter
The Content Pool™ is a division of the 4Js Group LLC