A workshop for the Metropolitan New York Library Council

Presented by Chad Beer

Introduction to Digital Asset Management!

Digital

Asset

Management

…..of signals or data, expressed as series of the digits 1 and 1.

…..a useful or valuable thing. Images, documents, videos, music, layouts, etc, etc.

…..work involved at any stage of life-cycle: commissioning, creation, naming, acquisition, delivery, receipt, categorization, tagging, distribution, disposition.

What is…!

Ethan Allen http://www.ethanallen.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-ethanallen-us-Site/en_US/Home-Show

Bluefly http://www.bluefly.com/

Swatch http://www.swatch.com/

Online retail illustrations of DAM!

The discipline as we know it is barely 20 years old.

DAM evolved with the popularization of digital media and management tools.

!  New opportunities Easier reuse, asset transfer, and distribution !  New risks Easier reuse, asset transfer, and distribution !  New demands Faster audience expectations and speedy competition

Beginnings of DAM!

Make a large collection of assets penetrable, searchable, and easy to access...

…but…!Ensure that the assets are not used inappropriately.

DAM’ers are often asked to solve a common puzzle:!

!  Creative teams !  Curatorial teams !  IT !  Legal !  Compliance !  Archives !  Finance !  Executive sponsors

Digital Asset Managers are “connective tissue”!

DAM’s evolution as a discipline is mirrored by the evolution of DAM tools and systems:

1990: First commercially available digital camera 1993: Excel replaces Lotus as spreadsheet standard 1995: First relational features in FileMaker Pro Dublin Core metadata schema Xinet releases FullPress MediaBeacon first released 2000: Digital photography replaces film at Met Museum 2001: XMP, extensible Metadata Platform 2005: IPTC core schema for XMP 2009: FCC defines Broadband internet access

(Some) historical milestones for DAM!

1998: AGT pre-press agency uses a rudimentary DAM to manage print media assets.

2000: Metropolitan Museum’s Photo Studio replaces film with digital photography.

2003: GAP Inc. installs first DAM to integrate rights management with digital asset distribution.

2006: CDM ad agency rolls out XMP metadata requirements to commissioned photographers; adds rights management metadata into DAM strategy.

2010: American Express Publishing launches their first rights-focused DAM system to speed asset reuse for various Online teams.

A personal history of DAM!

!  Needs Assessment / Requirements Gathering

!  Consensus Building / Compromise Achieving

!  Workflow Design

!  Asset Classification

!  Metadata/ Taxonomy Design and Development

!  Process Compliance

!  Rights Management

!  Access Administration

!  User-Experience Design

!  Information Architecture

!  ROI Assessment

Facets of DAM Practice!

!  File-naming conventions Very simple. Free. “Smart names” can communicate metadata immediately. Very limited. Easily corrupted.

!  Folder-structure conventions Very simple. Free. Impose detailed structure and order. More detail = hampered navigation. Easily corrupted.

A few DAM tools: Pros & Cons!

!  Sharepoint Very simple. Low cost.

Impose detailed structure and order. Not all users like it. Some control over access/corruptibility/versioning.

Navigation becomes cumbersome with large volumes of files.

A few DAM tools: Pros & Cons!

!  Adobe Bridge Easy access to XMP metadata. User-friendly thumbnail or list views. Flexible workspace. Flexible views allow for viewing into folders with little navigation. Moderate cost. Not much access control. Can become cumbersome with large volumes of files.

A few DAM tools: Pros & Cons!

!  XMP metadata Standardized, but only for Adobe files. User-friendly, intuitive Can be limited No additional costs, after buying Adobe software.

A few DAM tools: Pros & Cons!

!  DAM systems

•  Complex admin interfaces, require IT involvement. •  Tend to be very easy for end-users to understand. •  Expensive. •  Extremely detailed control over metadata, for a wide variety of file types. •  Very detailed control over access, allowing for multi-tiered access levels. •  Scalable, can operate well with collections of thousands of files.

A few DAM tools: Pros & Cons!

!  Open source vs. Commercial

!  Smart views on servers of assets

!  Relate metadata to assets

•  In separate database

•  In embedded xml metadata

!  Support for a wide variety of file types: Text, images, video, audio.

!  Similar interfaces and search functions

!  Varying degrees of workflow components

•  Integration with other tools, Bridge, InDesign.

•  Version control, check in/Check out

•  Notes/Comments

•  Metadata values used as gateways

•  Video transcoding

•  WIP DAM vs Archive DAM

DAM system characteristics!

DAM system interfaces: Commercial!

MediaBeacon Xinet

Adam OpenText

DAM system interfaces: Open Source!

Entermedia

Notre DAM Pimcore

Razuna

!  Formal education about DAM is in it’s infancy, but is beginning to emerge.

!  Many employers look for candidates with an MLS degree, but most DAM professionals entered the field by working in DAM or related disciplines, like archiving, digital libraries, taxonomy, etc

!  The DAM Foundation is in the process of creating a course curriculum specifically designed to prepare students for DAM work. They are hoping to begin launching classes by Fall 2014. !  Pratt Institute’s School of Information and Library Sciences is planning to introduce a DAM course for the Spring 2015 term.

DAM Education!

! AnotherDAMblog.com and anotherdampodcast.com

!  LinkedIn groups: DAM Foundation, DAM Pros, Digital Asset Management, etc.

! DAMguru.com

! Online demo videos of DAM systems on Youtube: Razuna, Xinet, Entermedia, ADAM, Opentext, Pimcore, etc…...

! digitalassetmanagementnews.org

! opensourcedigitalassetmanagement.org

!  NYCDAM meetup

DAM Resources!