ExpertExperience - Digital Asset Management Community

Consolidating Existing Archives into a Unified DAM

Following up on the last post "Introduction to my Blog" that took a high level look at DAM as an archive of reusable assets this post will take a more detailed look of what companies can do to consolidate existing digital content repositories and allow users a single view of all available digital content.

I want to share some technology architecture approaches that have made it easier to achieve such a consolidated view and also point to some process changes that have proven essential to the success of a larger interconnected content management infrastructure.

Meta "Cloudspotting"

I just returned from a trip to London with my 11-year old daughter. Once we got over our “Euro-shock” (the exchange rate is around $2 USD to the GBP right now!) we had a great time. We even managed to work in two business meetings about metadata (but I’ll save that story for another day.) There’s a wonderful new book out by the British author Gavin Pretor-Pinney titled The Cloudspotter’s Guide. I had wanted to buy the book for some time before I saw it at Foyles, London ’s premiere bookstore. So I happily purchased my very own Cloudspotter’s Guide to read on my return flight home to Virginia.

Video On Demand: Distribution is Key

15 years ago I remember taking one small step, though it seemed giant at the time. I downloaded a postage stamp sized black and white clip of the moon landing to my Windows 3.11 desktop which took up a good chunk of the 100 meg harddisk. 12 seconds of Neil's crackling transmission barely decipherable through the 2" PC speaker.  Today's G-search resulted in over 1m hits for NASA moon landing, whose video results whisked me off to a 2 minute full screen clip with crystal clear audio of the historic moment. (BTW, today NASA broadcasts 15 live feeds in 4 formats  here)

What is a taxonomy?

The first point in my list of taxonomy issues relates to the definition of taxonomy. Many people have a limited understanding of what a taxonomy is.  The following will illustrate the many ways a taxonomy can be represented and applied. 

We just ran one of our Taxonomy and Metadata Jumpstart calls - (a free four part series on taxonomy issues - you can write Patrick@earley.com for access to the archive of the call).  The first topic was "What is a taxonomy and why do you need one?".  Here is a summary of the "what is it" section:

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Remember the advice that the Munchkins gave Dorothy about the best way to get to OZ? It was simple, right? “You just follow the Yellow Brick road.”

Firms and organizations often ask “What are the essential considerations associated with purchasing a digital asset management system?” (Translation: How do I keep from getting lost once I set out for the land of Digital Asset Management?)  That’s easy too; the Yellow Brick road to DAM is “return on investment”.   This post explores the implications of metadata and taxonomy on ROI.

Can you define Metadata?

Throughout my experiences with building enterprise class DAM systems it never fails that I run into a person or group that doesn't understand metadata. In some cases I run into project teams that don't even know the definition of metadata.

 

Got Questions?

Do you have a burning question about DAM that you would like addressed by our illustrious panel? Please email your question to us, then come back to the ExpertExperience to see their answers.

We don' need no stinkin' taxonomy

I come to the ExpertExperience community as a taxonomy guru.  Why are taxonomies important to DAM projects?  A taxonomy is the core organizing principle that allows the DAM to present content to users in the context of their task and particular requirements.  We'll get into the details of how this happens in future posts.  In this first post, I'll review some of the common questions I'm asked.

Magan Arthur: Intro to My Blog

What readers can expect from my blog is unbiased evaluation of trends and technology with real life stories of large scale DAM projects. I work with various vendors in the area of digital media creation, manipulation, management and distribution. While I have personal opinions about the technologies, architectures, and even people behind the products, I follow a simple principle: Every project is unique and the right application or technology is determined only through unbiased analysis and “down-to-earth” approach.

What makes working with digital media different?

It's clear that digital media-centric business processes are proliferating. But compared to traditional data and other types of content workflows, digital media typically requires special handling and processing, and has more complex and resource-intensive workflows and team collaboration. This post explores some of these unique requirements.