I’m only a disciple myself, consuming everything CS for about a year to this month now. But I’m also an evangelist too. Coming from UX and web design, CS makes perfect sense to me, and I’m thrilled to be one of the orchestrators of the Forum in Paris.

(We’re looking forward to seeing you there, by the way, and in case readers need the program and registration link: https://www.regonline.co.uk/csforum10.)

What I’m witnessing, at least her in Europe, is that even within web professional circles, the idea of CS is mostly foreign, or that things like copy writing and editorial strategy are synonymous. Thus the importance of CS is not being communicated on a significant enough scale to customers who could benefit from it…who need it!

On the other hand, the hardship of breaking ice on anything new–or introducing it in a new place–can have its rewards, so maybe 2010 is the year I should get back into consulting.

It will take a fairly dramatic shift in perspective to get my clients to understand the importance of content. I’m usually brought in long after the design and architecture are complete, at the moment when they realize that the existing content doesn’t fit and no amount of beautiful design or cool features can seem to make it “suck” less. That’s the moment when they finally resign themselves to the fact that maybe, just maybe, there’s something wrong with the content. Inevitably, it leads to a new wave of design and structure changes. Think of what they could save if they just understood the value of content strategy in the first place!