The LavaCon Content Strategy Conference | 5–8 October 2025 | Atlanta, GA
Carlos Evia

Carlos Evia is a professor of Communication at Virginia Tech, where he is also associate dean for transdisciplinary initiatives, and chief technology officer in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. A mediocre studio session DJ turned decent entertainment journalist, Carlos moved to the intersection of information technology and the humanities with early jobs as database designer and technical writer. In his academic career, he has been a professor of English (Professional and Technical Writing) and Communication (Digital Publishing and Content Strategy), and award-winning researcher of transdisciplinary technical communication and content operations. He is the author of Creating Intelligent Content with Lightweight DITA, and worked on the development of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and Lightweight DITA (LwDITA) standards for digital content.

Writing a Book on ContentOps: It Takes a Village of Experts

Fellow Panelists: Rahel Anne Bailie, Sarah O’Keefe & Patrick Bosek

Moderator: Scott Abel

This panel session tells the sometimes scary, frequently challenging, but always exciting process of writing a book on the topic of Content Operations (ContentOps). The characters in this book, titled “Content Operations from Start to Scale: Perspectives from Industry Experts,” include superheroes from the content industry: some of them with powers in technical communication, others with accomplishments in user and customer experience, a few with marketing communication battle stories, champions of diversity and inclusion in content profession, and even some nerdy college professors who truly care about the world of Content Operations. In this panel session, contributors to this open access book will guide the audience through many aspects and concepts related to ContentOps, including its definition(s), the business case for it, the technologies that support it, its integration with user experience, its importance for content governance, localization, and personalization, and practical hands-on approaches for adopting ContentOps in enterprise workflows.

In this panel discussion attendees will learn:

  • The experience of putting together an international team of content experts to write an open access book on Content Operations
  • Tips and recommendations for collaborative writing across time zones
  • Fundamental concepts of Content Operations, with emphasis on the business, technology, and practical approaches to adopting this content methodology
  • The large-scale coverage of ContentOps as a framework for technical communication, user experience, marketing communication, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.