SomeCo wants to track the client name and, optionally, the project name for pieces of client-related content. But any piece of content in the repository might be client-related. Proposals and Status Reports are both project-related, but the two will be in different parts of the model (one is a type of legal document while the other is a type of operations document). Whether a piece of content is client-related or not, it transcends department—almost anything can be client-related. The grouping of properties that need to be tracked for content that is client-related is called an aspect.

Here's another example. SomeCo would like to selectively pull content from the repository to show on its web site. Again, any piece of content could be published on the site. So an indication of whether or not a piece of content is "webable" should be captured in an aspect. Specifically, content that needs to be shown on the web site needs to have a flag that...