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.
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.
Most of us did not go to college nor university knowing we would be working on Digital Asset Management (DAM) today. Many might even say ‘DAM picked me. I did not pick to work on DAM.’ Those of us who are working on DAM come from diverse career backgrounds, which may include:
Archives and records management
Business Management
Design
Education
Engineering
Film
History
Journalism
Library Science
Marketing
Photography
Project Management
Sales
Video
And many other career paths
Is a career in DAM really planned at all? It may be fair to say that at the time of this blog post and according to a recent poll, most people did not plan on a career in DAM, but rather volunteered for it or were volunteered for it. Either way, that is okay. Allow me to explain why…
Growth in DAM means growth in careers which manage information (Has your organization stopped accumulating digital assets? This is not likely to happen anytime soon)
Part of running a DAM can lead to better record keeping and Rights Management which reduces liability within the organization (aka not getting sued for unauthorized use)
There are more and more DAMjobs waiting to be filled
There are not enough DAM professionals available with the needed experience, some even say there is a shortage of qualified individuals
More education about DAM is coming soon to help reduce this shortage and further the knowledge of people who find themselves newly involved in DAM
DAM internships and mentorship programare now available in order to share the knowledge and hands-on experience needed
It takes a certain type of individual to work on DAM and not everyone can do this type of work. You may be that person and not realize it. Do not expect overnight change, but rather baby steps of progress
Some organizations are still scratching their heads wondering why there is a low adoption of their systems, while their own people don’t understand how to use them and there is no one to help them internally. As soon as it dawns on them, they will begin seeing the value of a DAM professional who can assist them within their organization whether it is an internal resource who knows their processes (is that you?) and/or an external resource (such as a consultant) if you are not sure where to start or how to move forward in a phased approach. Yes, I will be blogging about the phases of DAM too.
There are courses available in DAM from:
CMSWatch (also offered by AIIM) offer an online certificate education course on the Fundamentals of Digital Asset Management Technologies
King’s College London to offer a Master of Arts in Digital Asset Management (MADAM) in late 2010. This is being offered not because we needed more acronyms in this field, but because we need more education about DAM.
Of course, DAM vendors offer documentation and support for their specific DAM systems, but it is not enough. Who will drive the adoption, implementation, operations, support and workflow of the DAM within your organization? Enter the DAM Professional.
Anyone can supplement their DAM education and experience with:
Books (take note of their publish dates though because technology changes rapidly)
Another DAM Blog 