Over the course of over 80 podcasts, I was fortunate enough to interview several authors including Daniel Sieberg, the author of “The Digital Diet: The 4-step plan to break your tech addiction and regain balance in your life”.
Daniel Sieberg is donating a copy of his book to one lucky listener of our book drawing. To enter this book drawing, send an email to AnotherDAMblog@gmail.com telling me why you like Another DAM podcast and/or Another DAM blogbefore March 1, 2012. The winner (1) will have the book mailed to them.
Feel free to rate any of the podcasts and blog posts.
When we drive most vehicles, these have a dashboard with gauges telling us the important things we need to know about what is happening with the vehicle and how it is going. The dashboard may indicate speed, how much fuel is left plus warnings like temperature in case things are not going as well as they should be.
When executives want to know the status of what they are in charge of to help them make informed decisions based on the data, they could have a online dashboard with that information. This dashboard may tell them what they need to know about sales figures, units produced, project milestones reached, global growth by region or whatever information is relevant to them as it changes daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and/or annually.
Some DAM systems have dashboards too. Sometimes these dashboards are part of the DAM system and sometimes they are extra add-ons which may measure data from other related ECM systems as well.
Why have a dashboard? Would you rather be uninformed? Do like shuffling reports or spreadsheets instead? Would you rather script your way through this data because there is some illusion that this is easier to do on a daily or weekly basis, then filter to the information needed each and every time?
Does a frequently updated (or live) presentation of the information you need to make informed decisions (based on the actual data, not gut feelings) sound more useful? Why would you not want this? Are you afraid of progress or the lack of it? Do you fear having this measured for you in useable numbers and digital charts so you can find out what is not working as well?
To paraphrase Peter Drucker, we can not manage what we do not measure and we can not measure what we do not define. If we do define what we need to measure, we can add this to dashboard, analyze the data in a clear, manageable way and make informed decisions as we watch the changes over time.
In May 2011, I gave a presentation about DAM Reporting, Measuring and Auditing at the Henry Stewart DAM Conference in New York City. I spoke about how to measure what is happening within the DAM and the power of DAM reporting. Some might think it is a really boring topic. So did I, but it was worth talking about since no one else was. It was so boring that the room for this presentation was standing room only. Not so boring I guess.
How to measure what is happening within the DAM comes down to filtering and using a dashboard. You could do that with reports with more processing and analysis. It is just more work.
Everyday, we are have more data, information and knowledge rain down on us. Managing this mountain of data is a matter of filtering to what is needed. If we are drowning in it, Clay Shirky put it best by explaining this is simply filter failure.
Being uninformed and ignorant of what is going on with your technology as well as your business is so 20th century. Filter. Analyze. Prioritize. Get a dashboard and use it to look at what the data and information says about what you define, measure and manage.
After three years of writing this blog post, I am still contributing a few times a month to one of the only blogs about Digital Asset Management (DAM) in the user and administrator perspective.
I am still invited to conferences, but whether I decide to go is another matter. I do not come to help sell tickets. I do not present to help fill rooms beyond capacity.
I share information about Digital Asset Management. That is why I began with Another DAM blog.
The following were predictions about Digital Asset Management for 2011. Let us see how I well I predicted what occurred in 2011.
Significant increase in the use of DAM on mobile devices (tablets/smart phones). A handful of vendors released mobile apps as a mobile client this year. Ok, that may not be represent a significant increase, but it is an increase and a step in the right direction since mobile everything is increasing globally.
More DAM education will be offered across North America and elsewhere. More DAM conferences are available throughout the world and they offer tutorials. More universities are either expanding their offerings of education in DAM or looking to offer more in relation to DAM.
More DAM professionals will become available to fill the growing need across industries. Professionals with experience will dominate the job market while others will still bevolunteered from within. Yes, the job market for DAM position has grown since my blog posts about where to find some DAM jobs and what we DAM professionals do for a living. And the economy is not likely going stop this growth. If there is any doubt, are you creating less digital assets? If your organization is creating less digital assets, the organization is probably becoming obsolete and on its way out of the market.
Most information about DAM will be available online. More ebooks and podcasts will be available as well. Use of blogs will increase, especially in DAM education. Yes, even this blog. Ok, shameless plug…at the time of the release of this blog post, I have released 78 DAM podcasts (all still available to listen to) and they are still coming every Thursday. There have been a few more eBooks about DAM in 2011, but there are actually fewer active DAM blogs available now. I do not write this blog as often anymore. There is also new journal, but it is not available as a online version only for some odd reason.
Beginning of a standards body for DAM via the DAM Foundation. This group meets for the first time in March 2011. The DAM Foundation has met publicly a few of times, started their website and put out a survey.
The DAM community will continue to grow by leaving old guard model of exclusivity behind to become more open and sharing of information about DAM to those who are interested. The community is more open and is still growing. Having the available time to share not as much. Social media is playing a very big role in the ability to share openly, quickly and widely.
Open Source will continue to slowly grow in popularity among the technically savvy users who clarify its documentation as well as its place in the market. Open Source communities and groups continue to grow in popularity.
Usability will remain a need for every DAM user and DAM vendors who fulfill this need will continue to grow. DAM vendors will still need to prove functionality during thorough customer demos using the customer’s own test assets in real-time. Usability is key for users and some even won prizes for simplifying it.
DAM which works seamlessly with other customer tool sets via API will continue to gain popularity. Some of the software giants have updated their tools to work with a DAM through the use of their own suite of applications. Why would users not want to interface with the software tools they normally work with if it can work seemlessly with a DAM?
Organizations will need to change (evolve and scale) in order to manage and deliver increasing more data and digital assets than ever before. Some such as book stores, internet companies and mobile phone companies will likely merge with others. Which ones do not exist anymore or are slated to merge with others? More organizations will collapse or be forced to merge in 2012. A properly implemented DAM can help with that transition as well.
Clarification and knowledge about metadata (what it is and how to use it) will continue to spread as people and organization realize they need it more than ever (even though they have been using it for years elsewhere). Still, few will want to create it themselves. More organizations are realizing the need for tagging if they want to find something again. A few vendors offer to tag for the client. Metadata is still an over-used word and few know how to use it correctly with set purposes for the long term beyond one project.
I wrote these as a DAM user and admin who is active in the DAM Community. A fair amount of these predictions became reality.
As far as 2012 is concerned, here is what I predict:
More organizations will get involved in using Digital Asset Management.
More people will focus on the organization’s management of their assets and content if they do not want to drown in it.
More consolidation will occur across most markets and industries.
As knowledge, information and data becomes cheaper and more available, our attention will be become more expensive and more burdened.
Filtering and searching will be key to finding what we need or want.
Filter failure will be more obvious when it occurs.
Good metadata will play a role and the value will be continue to grow.
More decisions will be based on data (just as the more successful organizations do already). It will be a matter of collecting, filtering and deciphering the data available.
Captain Obvious will also tell you cloud computing will continue grow…as the flaws of latency and security get diminished by the overall value.
Patience will continue to decline as expectations will continue to rise.
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