Another DAM Blog

Blog about Digital Asset Management

Tag Archives: 2010


by Leave a comment

Why should I care about the DAM Community?

In the past few years, I have been asked a lot of questions by people…

  • “Who are you doing this for?”
  • “Who really reads this stuff?”
  • “What is in it for you?”
  • “Why do you do all this for free?”
  • “Why do you care so much?”

I wanted to take the opportunity to explore these questions and explain…

A few years ago, when I started working with Digital Asset Management (DAM), there were a few conferences, a few books, an expensive journal and experts who knew what they were talking about. All those still exist, but now DAM is growing.

Who are you doing this for?

It all started when I was frustrated and had very few people to discuss DAM with (how many of you can relate to this?). I learned about DAM myself, I volunteered to work on DAM, but in the past, found it difficult to communicate with people who knew little or nothing about DAM. I learned how to explain why DAM is important. I also wondered why  I could not find much on the first-hand experience with DAM explained, specifically in the user and administrator perspective of Digital Asset Management. I knew I was not the only person with this question. So, out of frustration, I started blogging about DAM.

After my second blog post, I was contacted by people who could relate to what I wrote about and they love/hate my blog to this day. I was even offered to be paid to blog for them. The day I drafted my first blog post, I decided early on that my blog was for everyone to share openly and learn about DAM in the user and administrator perspective. I do not talk about using DAM product X or DAM vendor Y, but rather I stay vendor agnostic. In order to stay vendor agnostic, I would not take money from DAM vendors (and I still don’t). If you have read my blog posts before, you will note I hold very little back and I am very open about what I talk about.

Who really reads this stuff?

Literally, thousands of people all over the world read my blog posts every month. My blog is aggregated on other sites which also get a lot of traffic. Some of my posts are more popular than others. Content is king. I deliver a fair amount of content in many of my blog posts. There are other DAM bloggers as well. I happily list them on blog roll when I find out about them. Sharing the experience is good. DAM is all about sharing. I know most people read about DAM during weekdays (I don’t blame them), so that is when I normally schedule new posts to appear. DAM users, potential DAM users, DAM vendors and even DAM analysts tell me they read my blog regularly.

What is in it for you?

When I have the energy, time and a DAM related idea to write about, I blog about it. I do this on my spare time. Blogging is a hobby. DAM is my career. Due to the popularity of my blog posts, I am invited to speak and moderate at conferences around the United States. When I go to events, I get to meet like-minded people…eager to share experiences and best practices about DAM. If I have a DAM idea to blog about, but don’t have the time to blog about it, I make a quick audio recording with a speech-to-text app which sends me an email with what I said, so I can revisit it later when I do have the time.

Why do you do all this for free?

To this day, I am not paid to present at conferences nor to blog.  Yes, that is correct. I did not charge the people I mentored on a monthly basis either. I get motivated by helping others understand the subject. If someone really wanted me to consult for their organization, they could ask me directly. For the most part, I write in general terms about DAM. My generosity of information pays a multitude of dividends. People have told me and written that I happen to be one of the top bloggers in the field of Digital Asset Management. I do not believe this is by accident. How do you communicate you are experienced and knowledgeable about a subject such as DAM? hint: you genuinely share that knowledge by blogging about it. People read and hear about it. People recognize what you write makes sense. People learn and benefit from what is shared. And you repeat this often.)

My goal was write and share 52 blog posts per year. Done.

Why do you care so much?

Yes, someone actually asked me all these questions. I love this question so much, it inspired me to write this specific blog post. Why should I care so much? Why should anyone care about the DAM community? Not only will you learn first hand you are not alone in thinking about and using DAM, you will become part of a group of people who want to learn, get/give feedback and share experiences. It can be a career. It is for me and many others. You will soon find out I am not the only one. These days, it does not matter where you are geographically located because you can be a member of the DAM Community in person and/or online. What matters is whether you are willing to learn and share your interest in Digital Asset Management to not only survive, but thrive with DAM.

Let us know when you are ready for consulting on Digital Asset Management for your business.


by 1 Comment

Who owns the DAM in your organization?


Everyone who uses the DAM should take pride in sharing their work in their DAM with other users. The organization owns the DAM and they are responsible for it. When it comes to having a go-to person, it comes down to the:

  • Stakeholder (or sponsor)
  • Lead who runs the system based on the needs of organization

Of course, there is a stakeholder in your organization who:

  • Champions the idea and clear vision of having a DAM in use
  • Funds the project of acquiring and implementing a DAM within the organization
  • Requests the DAM to meet specific high level business needs and use cases for at least one group/department in the beginning
  • Approves the scaling and fosters sharing the DAM and its assets across departments in the organization
  • Instruments the change management needed from the top down
  • Requisites a small team to be assembled and work on DAM
  • Stops the bickering between groups. Everyone works within the same organization with similar goals set by stakeholders when it comes to digital assets and can share what they have
  • Receives high level, weekly reports on the progress of the DAM, relative to the organization.
  • Budgets for the DAM continually to meet the business needs of each fiscal period
  • Owns the DAM as an ongoing business solution

It is up to your organization to decide who that person happens to be and where the accountability lies. It could be a C-level executive, a Vice President, a Managing Director or whomever has the authority/approval to do this for the benefit of the organization and its clients. They should understand the value of a DAM and, in turn, be shown this value (in a report or dashboard) as the DAM is used within the organization.

At least one person manages the DAM and often reports directly to the stakeholder. They would oversee the daily operations, train and support users. They are not simply a database administrator, but someone who understands the use cases for the DAM solution, how users should use the DAM and help meet the organization’s business needs involving digital assets.

Who owns the DAM in your organization?


by 4 Comments

Is Digital Asset Management a temporary task?

Some people believe Digital Asset Management (DAM) is a temporary task. However, I would caution them with the following questions to truly answer this for themselves.

  • Are you only accumulating digital assets on a temporary basis? (did you stop accumulating, creating, using, reusing and/or re-purposing digital assets?)
  • Are you seeing any less digital assets over the past few years? (regardless of whether you outsource some of these tasks or not)
  • Are you finding it easier to locate all the digital assets created or acquired by your organization over the past few years? (Research shows that is not the case)
  • Have you seen a complete stop in the production or acquisition of digital assets for any purpose?  (while you still have a job and your organization is not bankrupt yet)
  • Is the rest of the work on your organization’s Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solution a temporary task as well?

The answers to these questions are likely the same. What is the word I am looking for? No.

There are exceptions, of course:

  1. You could live in cave with no internet connectivity (and happen to read this blog on printed paper)
  2. More likely, you really did not stop to think about it that way.(And that’s okay because this blog was written to help inform you.)

Read on and I will explain further.

One of my poll questions asks, “How do you use a DAM?”

The results are quite clear. DAM is mostly used for both archive and production purposes.

Another of my poll questions asks, How often do you add assets to the DAM?

Those results are quite clear as well. Since most people answered daily or weekly, it seems DAM is an ongoing task. Sometimes, it is even a constant business need.

If we have multiple projects with several production cycles creating or acquiring more digital assets and this is ongoing on fairly regular basis, where does the temporary task of digital asset management fall in the equation?

If you answered ‘at the end,’ please explain:

  • The end of what?
  • End of production?
  • End of a whole project?
  • And this was budgeted (with time and money) as a temporary task, right?
  • Oh, forgot to do that again so the next project will pick up the slack?
  • Wait, we need some of those assets NOW (in the middle of this project or another project), but they are nowhere to be found because we have not uploaded/ingested them to the DAM yet. That’s okay, we’ll get to it as soon as we get through the other temporary tasks. Meanwhile we’ll burn more time and money recreating/reacquiring the same assets repeatedly.
  • We have over-inflated budgets for a reason. We will always have over-inflated budgets for every projects, but we don’t get to those temporary tasks. This is a cyclical pattern, even for temporary tasks. And that is why we have temporary positions for temporary tasks because we don’t want consistency or accountability (these are very long words rarely followed).
  • Wait a second, how would other project teams know these digital assets already exist?
  • How would project teams search and find what digital assets were created or completed or cleared for use if that temporary task is not accomplished.
  • How will we volunteer someone to do this temporary task. Repeatedly. And they will know what to do based on all that documentation available, right?

If you answered ‘DAM is not a temporary task,’ you are ahead of the class. Congratulations. You likely understand that DAM involves a regular set of tasks which are part of the production/archival process today. DAM is often an ongoing task.Why would you hire temporary help to do these regular, ongoing tasks?
Is it because you can’t find anyone experienced enough, skilled enough and/or willing enough to do this type work? Where are you looking?

Is it budget issue? (Are you really expecting your budgets to get better “soon” and then make it a priority “someday”?)

Is it a time issue? (Keep waiting so it will only get worse and cost more to fix.)

That will change as soon as the mindset and training of your organization does. It should start with the top of the organization mandating this going forward.

Don’t believe me? Want to continue ignoring the issues? Be forewarned. There will have a rude awakening in the coming future if you do. Here is a refresher in case you forgot why you may need a DAM. It helps to use a DAM properly too.

Let us know when you are ready for some vendor neutral consulting on Digital Asset Management.


by 2 Comments

What are some DAM job descriptions?

“Mind readers wanted.”

This is first line from an actual Digital Asset Management (DAM) job description posted this year. More on that later.

Aside from asking where to post and find DAM jobs, several people are asking what are typical DAM job descriptions. After presenting this information during a DAM Conference, here are parts of actual DAM job descriptions and knowledge shared by several DAM professionals on the job market today.

This is part of the equation that involves people along with process and technology for DAM.

While some people may use Digital Asset Management (DAM) sometimes within an organization, there is an increase in the need for people who may work full-time on DAM within an organization. We’ll explore several of these positions so you can have an idea of what some organizations have for talent and resources for those who do this type of work.

Here is a part of a job description for a Digital Asset Manager:

  • Responsible for leading overall strategy, implementation and workflow of the Digital Asset Management system for [organization]
  • Acts as primary liaison between [organization] and various photo studios with regard to image names, new photography and archiving
  • Responsible for assigning appropriate metadata for assets to ensure accurate usage rights
  • Manages the Digital Asset system and facilitate the uploading of assets as well as maintaining and upgrading the system
  • Registers internal and external users to the Digital Asset Management system based on permissions
  • Facilitates retrieval of previously cataloged images/shoots
  • Processes raw images using the appropriate software
  • Archive assets as necessary
  • Generates asset download reports
  • Maintains accurate procedures and records for the system
  • Keeps informed of latest Digital Asset Management technology trends and innovations
  • Other duties as identified and assigned

What are we looking for when filling the human resources gap with people needed to help manage your organization’s digital assets?  There are no hard and fast rules, but rather guidelines. Any of these could be staff or contractual positions:

  • Administrator (DBA)
  • Archivist
    • With Digital, not just analog (print) experience
  • Analyst
  • Consultant
    • Either an internal, permanent staff for ongoing consultation OR an external (temporary), outside perspective looking in with a fresh viewpoint
    • Advisor, coach and/or functional role
  • Digital Asset Manager
    • Support DAM system and users
    • An industry expert in the field
  • DAM Specialist/Coordinator
    • Organize and upload assets
    • Metatag assets
  • Data Entry Specialist* (depending on volume)
  • Engineer/Developer/Programmer/Information Architect
  • Help Desk
  • Intern
    • Temporary position (more on this in a future blog post)
    • Willingness to:
      • Learn about DAM
      • Work on metadata and taxonomy
      • Upload assets
  • Librarian
    • With Digital, not just analog (print/physical cataloging) experience
  • Metatagger (aka Metator, Cyberian)
  • Project Manager
  • Sales
  • Taxonomist

What we call the position (job title) is less important than what they actually do.

DAM professionals who communicate with management need to have an understanding of high level business needs and how DAM can meet those needs. Why? Because it is important to quantify:

  • Cost savings
  • Time savings
  • Reductions in risk (with knowledge of rights)

Yes, Digital Asset Management is a business need, not just a technology or another database.

If you are looking to hire a DAM professional, such as Digital Asset Manager, have potential candidates include their answers to the following questions as part of the job application:

  1. Have you worked with a Digital Asset Management System? Where? How long?
  2. How much experience do you have creating Metadata Schema?
  3. Do you have any training experience? What type?

That should help gauge the level of experience of most candidates.

Now about that “mind reader” job posting. Often, management and human resources do not know what DAM professionals are supposed to do (a bit difficult to write a job description that way), but they are slowly realizing there may be a need for Digital Asset Management and that is followed by realizing the need to fill a position with a DAM professional. That professional may be assigned (or volunteered) within the organization. The professional may be hired from the outside. Beside that, DAM professionals should use best practices and notice common behaviors when these practices are not followed. How?

  • Communicate
  • Evaluate
  • Recommend
  • Reference
  • Document
  • Estimate
  • Train
  • Plan
  • Budget
  • Deliver
  • Report
  • Anticipate
  • Follow up

That does not take any mind reading. I am not a mind reader. I am a Digital Asset Manager.

Besides, I forgot my mind reading hat at home.

What is your DAM job description?

Administrator
Business Analyst
Consultant
DAM Architect
DAM Director/DAM Manager/Digital Asset Manager
DAM Specialist/Coordinator
Digital Archivist/Librarian
Engineer/Developer/Programmer
Intern
Project Manager
Taxonomist/Metatagger (aka Metator)