Since my last post about DAM career planning, a whole host of higher education courses popped up on my radar. The courses found, researched and listed are located in the US, UK and even China. There were plenty of higher education courses offered which mention DAM within their syllabus, but these courses listed below are focused on DAM.
Since 2007, Simmons College (Massachusetts, USA) offers a DAM course as an elective to a graduate program.
Since 2008, Zhejiang University (Zhejiang, China) offers an undergraduate course on DAM.
As of January 2010, Columbia University (New York, USA) offers a continuing education course all about DAM.
As of March 2010, Birmingham City University (Birmingham, UK) offers a module in Media Asset Management (MAM) as part of a certificate program.
As of September 2010, King’s College London (London, UK) offers the first Master’s degree program about DAM (MADAM).
There may be other higher education courses specifically about DAM offered elsewhere which I would love to hear about and I am sure the readers would too.
Special thanks to all the DAM professionals, professors and administrators who helped me compile this list.
Webinars are a form of web conferencing used to conduct live meetings, training, or presentations via the Internet. Every month, there are plenty of webinars offered in a variety of topics including Digital Asset Management (DAM).
Often, webinars are offered free of charge in order to inform people who join to watch. Typically, the webinars are open to questions via built-in text messaging during the session and the questions are addressed verbally at the end.
A free 4-part webinar series dedicated to optimizing Digital Asset Management processes and technologies is being offered. It is called Digital Asset Management Jumpstart (2010).
In the interest of full disclosure, webinars are often sponsored, but I volunteer my time as a speaker. I do not get paid to speak/present and I do not accept money from any vendors since I remain vendor agnostic, so I do not endorse any specific DAM vendor. I do list events I attend/present under my events tab on the right side of my blog.
Registering for webinars is quite common and the organizers often send you an online calendar invite to remind you of the webinar after your registration is complete. I listen, watch and/or present webinars weekly.
On the day of the webinar, you should:
Login a few minutes before the start time (check for your local start time based on your time zone)
Listen to speakers
Watch a series of slides to illustrate the speakers’ points
Ask questions during the session via built-in text messaging window provided. Questions are often addressed verbally at the end of the webinar.
To listen and watch a webinar, all you usually need is
Time (often 1 to 2 hours)
A fast, reliable internet connection
A computer with audio output (headphones or load speaker).
No travel required to attend any webinar regardless of your location nor the presenters’ location. Some webinars are recorded for future viewing in case you miss them or find them later on. Some DAM vendors as well as third party vendors offer webinars on a regular basis.
Yes, it is true. Another DAM blog is officially one year old with posts year round (just look at the archive). It all started with an idea about sharing experiences and knowledge about DAM. And DAM is all about sharing…assets.
I knew I was doing something right when after my second blog post I was asked to guest blog about DAM. I am very happy to report that the interest in my blog is still growing strong. I want to thank all the readers for your continued support. Please keep your comments and questions coming. And I will:
remain vendor agnostic
keep writing posts (yes, I write these all myself)
continue to blog about DAM in the user and administrator perspective
If you are awaiting the internship program, there are several major universities in the US who have contacted me since my post about career planning and mentioned they are already (or are about to start) offering DAM courses and interested in an internship program for their students. There is work being done toward spreading the word online as well as at several DAM conferences about these educational programs. Details coming soon.
There are not enough mentors today (in most fields for that matter), so I have made it one of my goals to start this DAM mentor program and remain vendor agnostic.
When will this start? Beginning in January 2010, I will begin offering a DAM mentoring program online on periodic basis (probably twice per month). There is no obligation to meet twice a month. You may choose to participate as often as the conversations are scheduled.
How and where will this mentor program start? Since geography and time zones are what really separates us today, this program will begin as a live voice conversation online (via VOIP) and any visuals can be shared (via screen sharing software). Mentoring can be done as a group or individually. In the future, we will explore in-person conversations, but those are likely to be even more limited in time and location.
What time and day would these online conversations happen? It all depends on your time zone and schedule. We are not bound by any geographic limitations nor travel necessary.
In what language? Individuals in the US and Europe have already contacted me about this and I welcome others globally as long as they speak fluent English.
Who can be a DAM mentee? Any individual working professionally toward the implementation of a DAM solution within an organization. This can also include individuals who already work with a DAM solution within an organization and who want to have a regular conversation about DAM. This is not about DAM for individual use, but about DAM for use within an organization (or even across an organization).
How much will this cost? Free. It will only cost you time for the conversation. I am donating my time and using free software (legally downloaded) to have these mentor/mentee conversations. Think of it as a DAM professional giving back to the DAM community to enrich the knowledge others. As long as the mentee is willing to learn and ask questions, I am willing to give guidance and/or suggestions. It is your responsibility what you do with the guidance or suggestions given. I assume not responsibility for (a) any hurt feelings (shoulder to cry on not included), (b) any action taken based on my guidance, (c) my suggestions and/or (d) any bruised egos. I will guide you as if I were in your shoes, based on the information you provide.
What about the mentee’s identity and affiliation to an organization? The mentee’s identity and affiliation is kept confidential unless they want to reveal it themselves. I will continue to blog about commonly encountered questions about DAM (which you can read about on this blog) in future posts without any organization(s) names nor the names of any individuals listed. Chances are you are not the first to ask those DAM questions.
Tell me where in the world you are located (in order to find a suitable time within your schedule and my schedule).
Note what topics you would like to discuss so I can possibly sync them with others wanting to discuss the same topic in a group discussion. If you need this to be an individual discussion, please specify.
I will send you details on when we can have a live periodic conversation and some free software tools to do so.
Another DAM Blog 