The Content Design Manifesto is a durable resource
Tl;dr: Sign the Manifesto (if you haven’t already) before May 14, 2024.
(Update: Signing is now closed. Thank you to all who have signed, translated, volunteered, created, and supported!)
It has been just over a year since the Content Design Manifesto was created, published, and launched into the world.
In that time, it has been signed by more than 1180 people around the world and translated into 28 languages. All of this has been made possible by amazing volunteers.
Among those volunteers, there has been a small group of people who wanted to be involved in the Manifesto’s next chapter, whatever that was. This has been a 💖wonderful💖 group. Their contributions–which include adding signatures and translations to the website, and envisioning possible futures for it–have been so very valuable.
This group has faced three big challenges over this past year:
First, the problems that the current Manifesto has (how signatures are manually maintained, the website architecture, and a few people unhappy with how AI and sustainability are included in the Manifesto) haven’t been big or urgent enough problems to drive action. That’s both comforting and frustrating; it’s good the problems are small, but not good that we weren’t able to get the required traction such changes would require.
Second, meaningful activity on this kind of community statement can’t be carried forward authentically by just one or few people. Any one of us could rewrite sections of the manifesto, but it would be inauthentic without representing the wide range of perspectives of people who have co-signed the work.
Third, while we could collect the wide range of perspectives mentioned above, we don’t have the person-power or hours to enact the feedback we could collect from the world-wide audience of signers.
So, here’s what the future looks like for the Manifesto:
- A durable, static document. Going forward, the manifesto will be kept on http://thisiscontent.design just as it has been, representative of its moment in time.
- Signing will be closed. If you kept meaning to sign (or you’re just finding out about it today!) now is the time. The signing form is open until May 14, 2024.
- Translations? If you feel strongly that the manifesto should be available in its 29th language or more, reach out to Torrey directly to discuss what you have in mind.
The Content Design Manifesto has many truths that will continue to resonate far into the future, and some that will fade with the passage of time. That’s OK! Those of us who got to be part of it will hopefully treasure this experience, learn from it, and even brag about it appropriately.
If there’s some idea you wish it included, please consider it a launchpad! 🚀 Be the future manifesto-writer and changemaker you want to see in the world, and reference the Content Design Manifesto however you want. 💪
