I have just added a whole new part to my course Content Writing in the Semantic Web where I talk about the importance and, as a Semantic Web lover, the beauty, of Linked Data and its relation to web writing and content creation and ideation.
From my perspective, as a text weaver on the Web, Linked Data is all about connected data that enables new writing environments. And the reason I added this update is one: search is changing and so is web writing.
In relation to Web copy, Linked Data principles mean two things:
- On one hand we need to be thinking and writing content well aware of how connected data forges new environments and media for texts, together with fresh perspectives and newly pushed limits of texts and their reception.
- On the other hand, it is about connecting to a poetic way of seeing content on the web, that is to seeing its creation as building beautiful interconnected structures, one word at a time.
The Update in Detail: Linked Data, Knowledge Graphs, Connected Content
In this updated part of the course me and my students will be looking to gain more ways of knowing (and doing) related to Web content by exploring how connected content is to be created within an increasingly machine-readable environment.
We will do this by looking at web copy from the perspectives of structured data, knowledge representation, personal assistants and most importantly hypertext and the concept of Intertwingularity.
I have divided the UPDATE in three main, sections:
- Data, Linked Data and the Metamorphoses of Search and Web Writing
- Content Writing From the Perspective of Knowledge Representation and Personal Assistants
- What Does Connected Content Mean and How to Start Crafting One?
Here are the links to the preview of two of the lectures throughout the sections:
How To Write for Voice-Enabled Search?
Data, Linked Data and the Metamorphoses of Search and Web Writing
Throughout the first section in this update, called Data, linked Data and the Metamorphosis of Search and Web Writing, you will lean more about the web as data repository, the transformation of search and its connection to the semantic web, and the Linked Data principles behind it.
With machines helping us access and manage our textual content, Linked data is so important for web writers to grasp. And this is valid not only for the technical part of the Linked Data Principles, but also in regards with the socio-cultural impact such interconnecting has on the way we communicate online. Even if one does not write code, they can do the most important thing: imagine the growingly interconnected environment their texts will travel across. And that’s a stellar start for a good text.
And Interlude: Why Being Semantic Webby Is Important?
In this video you will find Tim Berners-Lee talking about the importance of the Web and the semantics in it.
Content Writing From the Perspective of Knowledge Representation and Personal Assistants
In the section Content Writing From the Perspective of Knowledge Representation and Personal Assistants I will present you with a couple of perspectives to enrich your web writing activities and understanding and these will be the perspectives of personal assistants and knowledge representation. You will learn more about Knowledge Representation, Knowledge graphs and how they relate to the Web and to the way we create content, also about how To Write for Voice-enabled Search and more.
Understood in the light of knowledge representation, any text on the web – be that the digitized version of Homer’s Iliad on the amazing Perseus Digital Library Project, or the newly written web copy with a pizza description – will help our web writing efforts and add another level of breadth to what we publish on the web and how we interact with our audiences.
What Does Connected Content Mean and How to Start Crafting One?
Further we will be exploring the world of Connected content. In this lecture you will be going back to early 60s and the birth of the word interwingularity. how this concept and it’s understanding can help us improve our web writing processes and practices. We will also learn a bit more about hypertext from the perspective of it’s potential to create interconnected environments.
Understanding the concept of intertwingularity and applying it in our digital activities, and specifically when it comes to web writing, means:
– you will be creating rich texts with plenty of references to serve the reader
– you will write your way towards the interconnected content search engines love.
You will learn what the movie Hyperland can teach you about content writing. The lecture contains three framings I want to share wit you so that you create connected content that converts and delights the reader. You will see exactly how you can conceive of our texts through their internal and external links and how this “framework” of connected content enriches the communication with our audiences while at the same time helps us build robust structures and systems with content.
Remember, when created as a meaningful network of linked resources, the digital text is an amazing way to present the reader information and insights woven in all kinds of environments and media: personal assistants, networked things (thin IoT), cognitive systems, and other smart technologies.
Apart from these three lectures, in this Update you will also find an assignment to make you think about what you have learnt and act upon what you have understood. Also, I have created a tiny checklist for you. You will find it as a supplemental material in this section under the name: 8 Questions to Ask Yourself before starting to write anything for the Web.
I hope you can join me!
Here are the two links to the preview of two of the lectures throughout the sections again:
How To Write for Voice-Enabled Search?
And again my link to the course: Content Writing in the Semantic Web.
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