After many requests from the DAM community and over a year of work, the DAM Foundation has created and launched online courses on Digital Asset Management to meet the increasing demand.
Special thanks to Elizabeth Keathley, Mark Davey, some other DAM Foundation board members and other DAM professionals who helped create these online courses. DAM Foundation has launched the first online course in August 2014.
These courses are self-paced. Each assessment is reviewed by a DAM Professional.
According to the DAM Foundation website…
“The first lesson of the five-part Introduction to Digital Asset Management course is offered for free at damfoundation.org. Should participants complete the first lesson and achieve a passing mark from the education committee member overseeing their work, then the opportunity to sign up for the remaining lessons in the course will be offered. The cost of the entire five part course is $360.00 USD, and upon completion participants will receive a certificate from the DAM Foundation, as well as publicity via the DAM Foundation’s social media channels celebrating their accomplishment. The time frame for completed coursework is extended as it is expected that participants are working professionals themselves. Participants will be given six months from the pass mark of the first lesson to complete the coursework for all five lessons. Details of required coursework can be read on the Introduction to Digital Asset Management main page.”
UPDATE: DAM Foundation is no longer active as of January 5, 2017.
In order to enforce a file naming convention in any organization, just follow these simple steps…
Establish and define a clear file naming convention which can scale up in the long term for many years. (Not just until next week)
Document the file naming convention in writing with guidelines and samples. Make the documentation available to everyone and distribute it to everyone. Have one version of the guidelines available for everyone to follow, even if it is updated for any reason. Share a link to it.
Train people on how to use the file naming convention properly.
Assess the people who were trained (give them a written test) by having them demonstrate they understand and can follow the file naming convention guidelines.
Follow the file naming convention after the training and assessments.
Enforce it. Keep everyone equally accountable.
When someone has violated the file naming convention, let them and their supervisor know by email. Every time. You can only violate the rules so many times. Three strikes and you are out.
The first time the file naming convention is not followed, email the person those guidelines again and have them correct the file name(s) themselves within the same business day. Have them communicate once the file name(s) has been corrected.
The second time the file naming convention is not followed, give them remedial training and the assessment again. Then, have them correct the file name(s) themselves within the same business day. Have them communicate once the file name(s) has been corrected.
The third time the file naming convention is not followed, visit them with the file naming convention bat.
Thank you for using the established file naming convention. Have a nice day.
The file naming convention bat is now available in black and blue, with accents of red. For those who prefer Cricket, we have one of those models available as well. Later, we will be reviewing how to enforce completed metadata fields in a DAM.
Let us know when you are ready for some vendor neutral consulting on Digital Asset Management.
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.
me During late 2009, I started DAM mentoring program. I had a flurry of emails asking about it and joining the free program daily.
After having the first day of mentoring, I wanted to clarify what DAM mentoring is and what DAM mentoring is not.
DAM mentoring is not consulting. Mentoring is mostly on an individual basis. I am not going to mentor a whole organization.
The other difference is the frequency. DAM mentoring is done a couple times a month and an hour at a time (maximum two hours per month) . DAM consulting is available as often as you need their advice and as long as you pay the consultant(s).
If you happen to be a DAM mentee, but need more frequent advice, I would suggest looking for a consultant. If you already have a consultant and also want mentoring, you are more than welcome. Just note the limited availability of the mentor to mentees. Mentoring is not a replacement for consulting and consulting is not a replacement for mentoring. Mentoring is individualized assistance, guidance and suggestions. The only thing major thing that is similar to consulting and mentoring is the fact that it is still up to you to follow the advice given (or not).
For those that contacted me and joined me for the individual hourly mentoring sessions, everyone:
had different questions brought to the table
enjoyed the conversation
gained something from conversation
On a side note, I had some vendors contact me about the mentoring program. Some were interested in mentoring for me. Some were even interested in being mentored. After careful consideration, I had to turn them all down since I remain vendor agnostic and so does this mentoring program. I talk with many various DAM vendors regularly, but it is not realistic to subject mentees to guidance by any specific vendor. It would also not be fair to other DAM vendors either. As for those vendors wanting to be mentored, I suggest they first learning the ins and outs what their own solution does and then take a look at other DAM vendors for comparison.
So, mentoring is free and consulting is not. And in all fairness, it should stay that way. If you are interested being mentored, feel free to contact me and we can schedule something together. If you interested in a DAM consultant, be aware of whether they are partial to particular vendors, especially if you are being consulted in the vendor selection process.
Who do you turn to for DAM advice before, during and well after the DAM implementation?
Another DAM Blog 