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Where can I find metadata standards?

As a Digital Asset Management professional, one of the many non-tangible things I deal with on a regular basis is metadata. This is a must. Any standards which already exist can help as a starting point. There is no sense recreating the wheel from stone since someone has done that work for you by putting advanced knowledge and further development behind it.

The issue is there are many, many standards for metadata. Some are based off of each other. Some standards are quite common, while others are designed for a very specific audience. Which metadata standard(s) you end up using should relate back to your:

  • Assets
  • Business needs
  • People
  • Use cases

Something to keep in mind is what information:

  • you already have from the past (is this information accurate and still relevant?)
  • you are collecting/creating now (is this done consistently?)
  • you will need for the future (think beyond the current project and fiscal period)

Will these metadata standards meet all your metadata needs? For the most part, yes. It is worth taking a deep look at these metadata standards.

There are several comprehensive guides to metadata worth sharing since they are freely available:

  1. The first guide is from NISO about Understanding Metadata which contains quite a few references on everything you wanted to know about metadata, but was afraid to ask.
  2. Another set of guides are more recently authored by Jenn Riley, who was funded by the Indiana University Libraries White Professional Development Award where she developed a visual representation of 105 different metadata standards along with Devin Becker. Their site mentions:

“The sheer number of metadata standards in the cultural heritage sector is overwhelming, and their inter-relationships further complicate the situation. This visual map of the metadata landscape is intended to assist planners with the selection and implementation of metadata standards.

Each of the 105 standards listed here is evaluated on its strength of application to defined categories in each of four axes: community, domain, function, and purpose. The strength of a standard in a given category is determined by a mixture of its adoption in that category, its design intent, and its overall appropriateness for use in that category.

The standards represented here are among those most heavily used or publicized in the cultural heritage community, though certainly not all standards that might be relevant are included. A small set of the metadata standards plotted on the main visualization also appear as highlights above the graphic. These represent the most commonly known or discussed standards for cultural heritage metadata.”

This is a Visualization of the Metadata Universe where the content was authored by Jenn Riley and designed by Devin Becker.

Seeing Standards: A Visualization of the Metadata Universe

This is complimented with A Glossary of Metadata Standards in pamphlet form and poster form, also created by Jenn Riley and Devin Becker.

Having this visual mapping helps people like me who deal with information in this manner regularly. I like this so much, I saved these posters and guides (all PDF). I even added the visualization as a screen saver on my work computer.

In the cases when these  metadata standards do not meet your metadata needs and use cases, some people mix several standards together into metadata mashups which may be more successful rather than trying to carve your own standard out of stone.

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

Where do you find metadata standards?


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Createasphere Digital Asset Management Conference in New York 2010

On September 23 and 24, 2010, Createasphere will hold a Digital Asset Management Conference and Exposition at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City.

I will be moderating a panel discussion with Dan McGraw on:

What Are The Phases Of DAM? From Implementation Of A DAM To The Evolution Of Your DAM – How Do You Plan?

  • How does an organization implement a DAM?
  • How do you begin to understand what those phases are, and then implement them?
  • What is often missed or forgotten?
  • Is the phased approach appropriate for your organization?

There are plenty of sessions among three tracks:

  • Track One for the Newcomer
  • Track Two for the Specialist
  • Track Three for Leadership and Management

You can register for the conference here

There are several discounts available for:

  • Early Bird Registration (before August 7, 2010)
  • Group Registration (of 4 or more people registering from the same company)
  • Guest Ticket (admission for guest/spouse/partner to the cocktail reception and lunch both days)
  • Student Registration (with current student ID card)

As a reader of this blog, you may also use one of these additional discounts for the conference:

  • DEDUC (for an extra 20% off registration)
  • DSTUDENT (for an extra 10% off the student rate)

Either of these codes can be used with the respective early bird specials.

If you want to book a room at the New Yorker Hotel with a special discounted rate during this conference, you can use “Createasphere room block”.

There will be more information coming soon as well as a DAM Tweetup in New York City.

I look forward to meeting you in New York City in September 2010.


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Where can I find a DAM internship?


I just returned from a DAM Conference and DAM Tweetup where I was able to meet with many more like-minded people in the field of Digital Asset Management (DAM).

More and more people are aspiring to get into the field of Digital Asset Management, like any other domain, but the issue is how:

  • To get a foot in the door
  • To get their feet wet
  • To gain quantifiable, hands-on work experience

I heard this need many times over the past years, so I did something about it. During the DAM Conference, I announced…

DAMinternships.com

If you are looking to:

  • Find internships involving Digital Asset Management (DAM), you come to the right place as a potential intern.
  • Post an internship position involving Digital Asset Management (DAM), you have also come to the right place.

And yes, best of all, it is free. Look for regular updates on this new site.


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Can I manage a DAM on a mobile device?


As a Digital Asset Manager, one of the things to keep in mind is that a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system can be used 24 hours a day,  seven days a week and almost every day of every year. But these are not my regular business hours. With that level of demand, I don’t live at the office nor would my employer want me to. Nor would my family.

As much as my laptop looks like an extra limb, I do put it down (sometimes). Of course, when you most need it, you don’t have it available or you can not get a connection.

What to do when you are away from the computer and the office, but you get a critical email/phone call? Waiting until you return is not an option. You can assess how critical the need is by talking the person or emailing them, but sometimes the solution may involve using the DAM remotely. Ignoring users or having them ‘wait until I am available ‘ in front of a computer again is not realistic today, particularly in a high production environment. Ignoring users or delaying assistance does not help user adoption.

If you can not access the DAM on the web, this limits the abilities of mobile users and admins alike. If that is the case, you should have trained people (as your backup) to cover the DAM duties if you leave (vacation, sick leave or otherwise) for the purpose of continuity as well as limiting delays in production. If you work in an environment with shifts covering the work 24 hours a day on a regular basis, you may need people on each shift who are knowledgeable in DAM to support the business needs and have them sync online by documenting the work done. Otherwise, your Digital Asset Manager or DAM admin is stuck working during alleged vacation time and sick leave. This should simply be a matter of unplugging because you can, need to and want to.

Now returning to the computer unavailable with critical issue pending assistance. I have a popular smart phone which actually displays the web properly (yes, I tested several smart phones before acquiring one), but almost every phone does not display Adobe Flash NOR Flex (yet). Luckily, the DAM I use does not currently use Flex. Flex has gained popularity in DAM space because it provides a flexible GUI display. And Flex looks cool…or at least gray. Flex is Flash-based and that remains troublesome for almost every mobile user…among others…since Flash requires special players and/or plugins to display properly.

It is possible to have a mobile version of a DAM User Interface (UI) as well, which is different from the regular DAM UI, but I have not seen many yet. So yes, admins as well as all registered DAM users should be able to access and use the DAM via mobile device.

Whether we like it or not, it is not a secret that mobile access has been and continues to be a growing need for mobile workers, but how many are ready to do this now?

Can you manage your DAM on a mobile device?