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Audio about Digital Asset Management

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Another DAM Podcast interview with Steven J Miller on Digital Asset Management

Steven J. Miller talks about Digital Asset Management

Here are the questions asked:

  • How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
  • You wrote a How to Manual about metadata. Tell us more about this.
  • What are the biggest challenges and successes with Digital Asset Management?
  • What advice would you like to share with DAM Professionals and people aspiring to become DAM professionals?

Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: [0:01] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset Management. I am Henrik de Gyor. Today I am speaking with Steven Miller.
Steven, how are you?
Steven Miller: [0:09] I am fine.
Henrik: [0:10] Steven, how are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
Steven: [0:13] I have worked with digital assets for cultural heritage organizations,
such as libraries, museums, archives and historical societies, that type of
thing. I used to work in a university library, and when I did that, I served as a
metadata consultant for them. [0:28] I assisted with metadata design for digital
collections, mostly digitized items such as images and text from our archival collections.
I also co-chaired a metadata working group for a Wisconsin statewide
cultural heritage digital asset repository.
[0:45] What I do now is, I teach full-time at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee,
School of Information Studies. As part of that, I teach a graduate course on
metadata and also an online continuing education workshop on metadata for
digital collections, for people working in the field.
Henrik: [0:59] You wrote a how-to manual about metadata. Tell us more
about this.
Steven: [1:04] I have been teaching my graduate-level metadata course for
many years at the school, and I really never found an adequate textbook that
really addressed the hands-on how-to-do-it aspects of designing a metadata
scheme and creating metadata for digital assets or objects. [1:22] As I worked
through the course, I ended up creating my own material that was more or less
equivalent to my own textbook, but I had it in various Word documents, examples,
illustrations and exercises. What prompted me to write the book was
that I received a lot of positive feedback from working professionals in the field
who took my online metadata workshop. They said how helpful it was to them
in practice.
[1:49] That led me to approach a publisher about actually publishing my own
book. They liked my proposal and agreed that it would be a good thing.
“Metadata For Digital Collections A How-To-Do-It Manual” fills a gap in addressing
that hands-on how-to-do-it aspect. It includes principles and various
other topics about metadata, but also that hands-on aspect. It is oriented towards
cultural heritage digital assets.
Henrik: [2:18] What are the biggest challenges and successes with Digital Asset
Management?
Steven: [2:22] I think there are a lot of challenges. The ones, of course, I am
most familiar with relate to metadata and control vocabularies. I think that they
are extremely critical to provide intellectual access to any organization’s digital
assets. It is a challenge to design a good metadata scheme from the beginning
that is going to serve their user needs for whatever organization it is. [2:44]
Good metadata is essential to helping people find what they need or what they
want to do their jobs and to discover resources they might not otherwise have
thought about. After designing a good scheme or element set and specifications
for that, the other challenge is to create good quality metadata to produce
that scheme, that Digital Asset Management System.
[3:07] I think it is a challenge for a lot of people who do metadata to really understand
how important it is or how critical it is for findability and usability of
digital assets for an organization. That is a challenge to get people to understand
that. Another challenge is, I think that the design of a metadata scheme,
and when I say a metadata scheme I mean the selection of the elements, the
specifications.
[3:33] Is an element required or optional? Various database specifications, and
so forth. The design of the scheme and the design of the backend database
and the front end user interface should all go hand in hand with each other. I
think they are really all interdependent and the same people should be involved
in doing that.
[3:53] I really think it helps to develop a set of functional requirements from the
beginning and have several key people in the organization involved in that.
People who know what kinds of digital assets the organization has and how they
need to be used.
Henrik: [4:10] What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and
people aspiring to become DAM professionals?
Steven: [4:15] I think it is good to learn what you can about metadata or digital
assets and digital collections, whether through books or articles and so forth. It
is a very helpful thing to understand database design and data modeling, since
a Digital Asset Management System is a database. [4:32] It is good to understand
what metadata is. It is really just another form of data in a database, but it
is about the digital assets. It describes them and provides access points for finding
them. It helps people to gather various assets based on common characteristics.
Metadata can also help manage and preserve digital assets over time.
[4:53] I think it is really important to understand how critical control vocabularies
are for giving people consistent retrieval of digital assets. I think even in creating
a simple database, like Microsoft Access or even a flat spreadsheet in Excel,
using sorting and filtering functions can help illustrate how the values you put
into each cell are going to affect whether people can retrieve data consistently.
Henrik: [5:20] Great. Thanks, Steven.
Steven: [5:22] Sure.
Henrik: [5:23] For more on this and other Digital Asset Management topics, log
on to AnotherDAMblog.com. Another DAM Podcast is available on iTunes and AudioBoom. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to email me
at anotherdamblog@gmail.com. Thanks again.

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Another DAM Podcast interview with Louis King on Digital Asset Management

Here are the questions asked:

  • How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
  • Why does a University use Digital Asset Management?
  • What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM professionals?

Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with Louis King. Louis,
how are you?
Louis King: [0:09] I’m great.
Henrik: [0:10] Louis, how are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
Louis: [0:13] I’m at Yale University. I’m the Digital Information Architect for the
Office of Digital Assets and Infrastructure. [0:21] Our focus is working on Digital
Asset Management at the enterprise level for the institution. This really means
looking across all the disciplines and the activities of the university, how digital
media is being used and how Digital Asset Management could be applied.
[0:39] What we’ve found over the years is that digital media is actually embedded
in every aspect of the institution. This involves our research endeavors in
which we have rich media artifacts coming in from the field. It involves teaching
and learning activities, and our dissemination of knowledge in publication.
[1:01] As we looked across the terrain and saw so many people using digital
media, we also found that there are a lot of silos of digital media and that we
couldn’t fluently move our content from one endeavor into the others.
[1:18] For instance, we might grab field activities some digital recordings of
indigenous languages being spoken from native speakers, and we bring them
into the research environment but we then couldn’t use them immediately in the
classroom environment either.
[1:37] As we looked at those silos, we really came to work on this idea of
being able to have data flow fluidly and in particular, digital media. Digital
Asset Management became an obvious piece of infrastructure to look at. As
we looked at infrastructure, it also became clear that it was not just a technical
solution.
[2:00] One of the things that we have to understand is a construct that we’ve
built around infrastructure and core infrastructure, which is actually it’s intersection
of a particular community of practice that contents that I think work with
policy and shared practices that are required to facilitate at work, then, finally,
the technology.
[2:25] Our work in Digital Asset Management is to work with all members of the
institution to understand where that intersection is for that type of work they’re
doing. When we looked at Digital Asset Management, we looked at people who
had a compelling need, a particular community of practice that was ready to
move into a more managed approached to their media production and dissemination
and stewardship.
[2:54] It turned out that our museums were working on similar solutions independently,
and we started there to bring people together around Digital Asset
Management. Shortly after, we also brought in the Yale University Library.
[3:12] This group of cultural heritage stewards of people who maintain a presence
of our cultural heritage for our use today in advancing our work had a
practical set of purposes that needed to be supported.
[3:28] They had identified content to work with. We were able to identify policies
and refined and shared in common practice. Then, we were able to configure a
technical solution in a Digital Asset Management environment that would meet
those needs.
[3:45] As we moved forward, we begin to look at what are other communities of
practice. We’re beginning to bring in other communities of practice. We have
the communication teams coming on board to start looking at how we advance
communications work. This is digital media production all the way through to
Web communications. Also, since we already have cultural heritage people on
board, it’s when those are valuable communications that we want to maintain
them for a long time. How do they move into the more archival and stewardship
arena of digital media?
[4:21] In the future phase, we’re looking at bringing more of the research community
and the teaching and learning community into the environment.
Henrik: [4:29] Why does the university use Digital Asset Management?
Louis: [4:31] The university is focusing on using Digital Asset Management to
meet its core mission. In the areas that I touched on, the research, teaching,
and learning, dissemination and publication. Those are core to what the institution
does. [4:46] The ability to have a mechanism that makes us more fluid. That
makes us be able to connect pieces of content together in order to enhance
discovery.
[5:01] To enhance dissemination. To enhance the learning experience becomes
fundamental to our work. We look at this technology to facilitate that.
[5:11] In addition, what we’re finding is that it’s a complex production environment
because of our many disciplines. By being able to put a shared and
common approach to media management in place, we’re actually able to develop
some basic efficiencies.
[5:28] We’re able to aggregate our storage positioning. We’re able to aggregate
our content. We’re able to do training that moves from one discipline
to the next.
[5:39] As staff moves, they bring the skills necessary to do the same kind of work
applied to a different discipline. These become fundamental to the everyday
working on the institution.
Henrik: [5:48] What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and
people aspiring to become DAM professionals?
Louis: [5:53] It’s a great field. It’s really exciting to work in media management.
You get to span all kinds of creative works that are going on. You bring value
to the institution or the organization that you’re working for. That’s fascinating.
[6:13] I would suggest that you not expect to live in a comfort zone, at all. These
are very complex issues for complex environments. They have complex legalities
and practice issues to them.
[6:29] They are all at the center of various types of organizational change.
Change in the way that we do things. Where there’s change, there’s a certain
amount of pain.
[6:40] We work with people whose roles are threatened and other people who
we can’t move fast enough for. There’s a bit of volatility in the field. You should
want that kind of excitement in your life.
[6:54] The bottom line on this is that it’s really an area where we’re building,
where we’re constructing and we’re discovering new ways of doing work. A lot
of that work is very compelling and has tremendous opportunities associated
with it. It’s very exciting.
Henrik: [7:15] Thank you, Louis.
Louis: [7:16] You’re welcome. My pleasure.
Henrik: [7:17] For more on Digital Asset Management log on to
AnotherDAMblog.com. Another DAM Podcast is now available on Audioboom,
iTunes and the Tech Podcast Network. Thanks again.

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Another DAM Podcast interview with Romney Whitehead on Digital Asset Management

Here are the questions asked:

  • How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
  • How does a broadcast media organization use Digital Asset Management?
  • You are going to be a graduate of the MADAM program at King’s College of London. Is this Master’s Program preparing you for the working world of Digital Asset Management?
  • What advice would you like to share with DAM Professionals and people aspiring to become DAM Professionals?

Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: [0:01] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with Romney Whitehead.
Romney, how are you?
Romney Whitehead: [0:10] I’m very well, thank you, and thank you for
inviting me.
Henrik: [0:12] No problem. Romney, how are you involved with Digital Asset
Management?
Romney: [0:17] I began in Digital Asset Management about 10 years ago at
BBC Worldwide. Within there, I was working in the magazines division, focused
on brand management and distribution of magazines globally. My team was
involved in uploading of the assets, rights management, metadata management,
and then distribution of the assets within BBC Worldwide itself, and then
globally out to 53 territories to our licensees and syndication partners. [0:48]
Recently, in the last month, in fact, I’ve joined NET-A-PORTER GROUP. That’s
made up of NET-A-PORTER , MR PORTER , and THE OUTNET. They’re an online
luxury fashion retailer. We’re at the stage there where we’re choosing a solution,
at the moment, to manage a very extensive range of assets, from product photography
to video to print and online magazines, and TV outputs as well. Very
interesting times.
Henrik: [1:22] Excellent. How does a broadcast media organization use Digital
Asset Management?
Romney: [1:29] In my experience, probably looking at it in two ways, one from
the comment workflows, and then probably from a preservation point of view.
From the workflow perspective, what a DAM solution offers a media company
is the ability to manage the content from the point that it’s created to the point
where it goes out to the consumer. [1:55] You could have the ingestion of content
immediately into a system. You could have multiple editing suites dealing
with that content. You can then have the input of the photography unit, if they’re
sending out stills or they’re sending out merchandise related to a particular
show or a product. Then moving through the life cycle through to the points
where that content goes out to a third party broadcaster or to a consumer.
[2:23] Then from the preservation point of view, especially from the point of view
of public broadcasting, what DAM offers is the ability to preserve their content
but also go back through their archives, perhaps finding a back catalogue of
content there. Some of it may be in technology which is obsolete if it’s been
produced over a very, very long period of time.
[2:50] If they’ve got a DAM system, then they’ve got the ability to go back and
retrieve that content. Preserve it at the same time, and then offer new outputs
to consumers. And also, historical value, massive historical value, especially for
broadcasters that have been running for 60 or 70 years.
[3:12] I think a DAM solution, in that sense, means that they never need to lose
material ever again. Whereas in the past it’s, obviously, been stored in dusty
cupboards and left to really not be looked after, unfortunately.
Henrik: [3:27] Romney, you were going to be a graduate of the MADAM
Program, if I understand correctly, at King’s College of London. Is this Master’s
program helping you to prepare for the working world of Digital Asset
Management?
Romney: [3:40] I have to say I’m keeping my fingers crossed that everything
goes well for September when I finish my dissertation. Working in the world
of DAM for so many years, you could almost have that thought, “What else is
there to learn?” [3:55] But I’m a great believer in that there’s always something to
learn, especially if you’re approaching a subject from a particular point of view. If
you’re in the commercial world or if you’re in preservation or library or cultural or
heritage, there’s always something to learn from another area.
[4:12] Where this course has been very beneficial, I have to say, is I’ve come
from a commercial background. What I’ve learned from it is the best practices
that certain other areas have, areas like archive or societies, are really very, very
useful for the commercial world.
[4:31] Things like having extremely in-depth metadata, something which isn’t just
focused on your business but is actually focused on a larger scale to allow an
interoperability between what you have and what other libraries have, or what
other institutions have. Things like Linked Data for, first of all, the semantic web,
which has been a long time coming but is really starting to accelerate now.
[4:57] Preservation strategies, which in the commercial world, I feel preservation
is a bit of an afterthought. But actually, it can prove hugely valuable because
you may have content which is sitting in your archives, or sitting in your DAM
system. Nobody knows what somebody is going to want in 20 or 30 years’ time.
Henrik: [5:20] True.
Romney: [5:21] Rather than just ignoring it, as I feel some commercial institutions
may well do, because it’s costly to keep all that data and to manage all
that data, there needs to be some kind of preservation strategy there which will
allow that content to be opened up in the future if it needs to be, if somebody
wants it. [5:42] I think during the degree, I’ve been very reassured that with every
class and module that I’ve taken, there really was a direct link with what I did on
a day-to-day basis, and what I do on a day-to-day basis. It’s certainly refreshed
my view of the DAM world, and it’s given me some good ideas to take forward.
[6:02] It’s very nice also to have a recognized qualification within DAM, because
I’ve not really seen something out there. You can have people who’ve worked in
this field for a long time, and I can say to people what I do when they look at me
as though I have two heads.
Henrik: [chuckles] [6:17]
Romney: [6:19] So, it’s nice to be able to say, “Oh, there is this here.” But the
fact that my mother will tease me for being a MADAM, and perhaps I will be at
the end. And that’s perhaps illegal in some countries.
Henrik: [laughs] [6:30]
Romney: [6:32] But I would most certainly recommend the course, and the
college and the staff have been wonderful. I think it’s really opened my eyes, I’d
have to say. It’s been very, very good.
Henrik: [6:43] Excellent. And, just to clarify, we’re speaking of the MADAM
program, which stands for the Master in the Arts of Digital Asset Management
Program at King’s College of London, correct?
Romney: [6:50] Yes. [laughs] That’s great, please.
Henrik: [6:55] Not any other madams, necessarily.
Romney: [6:56] Yes, it doesn’t lead to anything else.
Henrik: [laughs] [6:58] Best of luck with that.
Romney: [7:01] Thank you.
Henrik: [7:02] Let me ask you the last question, of course. What advice would
you like to give to DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM
professionals?
Romney: [7:10] Well, one would hope that current DAM professionals know
what they’re doing, so I would not profess to be so omnipotent to be able to
give advice to them. But I think people who want to get into the field perhaps
don’t understand what it’s about. It’s a great field to be in, because it involves
a massive range of knowledge and lots of challenges as well. [7:34] As a DAM
manager, I think you need to know what every department in the company
that you’re working in is doing, because DAM will touch every department in
some way. Maybe extensively, it may be very small. Because of that, I think
the key part of DAM is not necessarily the technical solution, but the ability to
communicate.
[7:57] You need to empathize with people. You need to be able to sit down with
an individual and ask them what their pain points are, and understand them. Be
able to reassure them that you know what they’re talking about, and that whatever
solution you’re putting in place is actually going to help them.
[8:15] You have to give people something tangible, because every individual will
use a system differently. So you can’t build a system for one set of users, and
you cannot focus on one set of users, either. You’re not building the system for
just a CEO who wants to save money, or for the clerk who wants to save time in
filing things. You’re building it for everybody in between as well.
[8:38] So, I think the ability to manage people and their expectations, their fear
of change, what their daily stresses are, will make you a good Digital Asset
Manager. The ability to communicate, I think that’s what you need to always
keep in mind, always.
Henrik: [8:53] Excellent. Did you want to share your blog that you have as well?
Romney: [laughs] [8:58] My blog, which I’ve been very remiss at keeping up, but
it’s damitall.WordPress.com
Henrik: [9:08] Excellent. There’s a link to that on my blog at
AnotherDAMblog.com. Thank you so much, Romney.
Romney: [9:15] Thank you very much.
Henrik: [9:16] For more on Digital Asset Management, you can log onto
AnotherDAMblog.com.

Another DAM Podcast is now available on Audioboom,
Blubrry, iTunes, and the Tech Podcast Network. Thanks again.

Related Articles

Listen to Another DAM Podcast on Apple Podcasts, AudioBoom, CastBox, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic, Spotify, TuneIn, and wherever you find podcasts.

Need Digital Asset Management advice and assistance?

Another DAM Consultancy can help. Schedule a call today


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Another DAM Podcast interview with Jill Hurst-Wahl on Digital Asset Management

Here are the questions asked:

  • How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
  • You teach at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies. What is different about what you teach?
  • You have popular blog. Tell us more about this.
  • What advice would you like to share with DAM Professionals and people aspiring to become DAM Professionals?

Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: [0:01] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor.
[0:07] Today we’re speaking with Jill Hurst-Wahl. Jill, how are you?
Jill Hurst-Wahl: [0:10] I’m good.
Henrik: [0:12] Jill, how are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
Jill: [0:16] Well, I don’t actually do Digital Asset Management. But in my workshops
and in my blogging and in my teaching, I try to make people aware of
the need to think long-term. Not to just focus on the short-term health of their
digital assets, but to think about which digital assets they might want to have
access to long-term. Then how they’re going to make those things accessible in
the long-term.
Henrik: [0:52] Makes sense. You teach at Syracuse University’s School of
Information Studies. What is different about what you teach there?
Jill: [1:00] I think many of the library science programs have very similar curriculum
because of the American Library’s Association accreditation. But the
iSchools are all different, and Syracuse University has an iSchool, School for
Information Studies. We have six degree programs. [1:25] I think what makes us
a bit different is our, not only being library science, but also our classes around
information management and telecommunications and network management.
[1:38] We think more, perhaps, about the management of information, which
includes what’s going to happen to it long-term. In library science, or library and
information science, that thinking comes in the digital libraries area.
[2:08] But you would get, perhaps, similar and different thinking about the topic
from students and their information management program who are future information
managers, not necessarily working in the library archive or museum, but
working in businesses throughout the world.
Henrik: [2:27] Makes sense. You have a popular blog. Tell us more about this.
Jill: [2:32] I have a blog called “Digitization 101,” started in 2004, and started
as a way to make people aware of what I do and my thinking around digitization.
[2:48] I do consulting, helping people get their digitization programs off the
ground. Often times, just helping them with their planning process, but helping
them sometimes acquire equipment, think about actual process, implement,
find vendors, find whatever they need to get their projects up and going, their
programs up and going. Because these are not short-term events.
[3:18] The blog was started as a way of letting more people know about what
I do and what I think. Over the years, it’s become something I’m really known
for, having this blog that talks about digitization. I talk about all aspects of
digitization.
[3:38] The name “Digitization 101,” if you’re in college, a 101 class is really basic.
But the blog has gone beyond being just talking about basic digitization and
talking about the things that we’re all focused on in digitizing and making sure
that our digital assets are available long-term.
[4:04] I’ve got, I don’t remember how many blog posts. I think over 2,000
blog posts at this point. I used to blog once a day. Because I now teach full-
time, I don’t blog as frequently. But a new series that I’ve started is Way Back
Wednesdays. A way of kind of resurfacing things that are in the archives of
“Digitization 101” that are still relevant and making people aware of those older
blog posts. Trying to keep those older blog posts alive just the way we try to
keep our other digital assets alive.
Henrik: [4:48] Smart. What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals
and people aspiring to become DAM professionals?
Jill: [4:56] Well, I think for the people that aspiring to be DAM professionals, and
by the way, I love the acronym DAM.
Henrik: [5:04] Me too.
Jill: [laughter] [5:05] For people aspiring to be a DAM professional is to think
about how to talk about it in ways that don’t necessarily use the words Digital
Asset Management. I think that’s true about digitization, too. In our field, we
tend to rely on jargon. Words are very meaningful to us, not so meaningful to
other people. [5:38] I think, especially if you’re trying to get organizations to
understand how to keep their information alive for the long term, we need to
talk about it in ways that make sense to them. Talk about the value of their information
over the long term. Why they would want, in five, ten years, have access
to information that they’re creating today and then how they would insure that
their information or the data is available for five, 10 years.
[6:17] Using stories to get our points across, but doing it in a way that doesn’t
rely on our terminology as DAM professionals. But the terminology of our organizations,
our users, our colleagues, now whoever it is that we’re trying to persuade
that they need to do something now to insure the life of their information
in the future.
Henrik: [6:45] Well, thank you, Jill. [6:46] For more about Digital Asset
Management, log onto AnotherDAMblog.com. Thanks again.

Related Articles

Listen to Another DAM Podcast on Apple Podcasts, AudioBoom, CastBox, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic, Spotify, TuneIn, and wherever you find podcasts.

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