How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
Where did all this whole DAM thing come from and what makes it so new and magical?
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 Jess Hartmann.
Jess, how are you? Jess Hartmann: [0:10] I’m doing great. How are you, Henrik? Henrik: [0:12] Good. Jess, how are you involved with Digital Asset
Management? Jess: [0:16] I think you know that ProMAX Systems has been in the field of video
editing and film production and assistance in that area since 1994. Clearly in
that time, we’ve seen a lot of changes to the industry. [0:33] I think that Digital
Asset Management is really one of those that have been coming for a long time,
but we have been implementing media technology solutions from capture all
the way through finishing for some time, and Digital Asset Management is a
natural extension of the typical workflows that we find in the media industry. Henrik: [1:01] Let me ask you this. Where did this whole DAM thing come from?
Why is it so new and magical? Jess: [1:11] Interesting question. The first reaction to that question is that, as
many things in life, it only seems new and magical because it’s starting to get
a preponderance of attention from media companies and the media industry.
And so, now, it’s starting to look new and magical. The reality is that it’s been
around in one form or another since we started to put video in the digital world.
[1:44] There has always been a need and the problem of organizing clips and
assets, metadata, since we’ve started to put things on disk. I think that now
we’ve finally got to a place where we’ve got so much that we really need a more
formal organizational system. The ability to find things in a more optimized
workflow so we’ve started to create the media asset management or Digital
Asset Management software and solutions around it. Henrik: [2:22] That’s fair. What advice would you have for DAM professionals or
people aspiring to become DAM professionals? Jess: [2:30] It’s a good question. I think that what we find in the industry is that
this new magical term of DAM and DAM systems…Once we start looking at the
need to create those, we start seeing companies hire someone to run it. [2:52]
In a lot of ways, that is because companies, number one, need somebody to
organize it and make it happen. It’s also because they don’t understand it. “We
better hire somebody to run it.” The advice that I would give somebody that
has been chosen or has been given that position is that your primary role and
responsibility really turns into more of a facilitator, and a conductor of insuring
that the workflow of the organization is efficient and is effective at utilizing the
tools that you have in place, whether that’s DAM software or other things.
[3:45] I mentioned that you need to be more of a facilitator because if you get
caught in the world of just being the doer, you will get pulled in so many directions
from so many different departments and so many decision makers, that
your professional life will not be that much fun.
[4:06] If at all you have the opportunity to gather a group of professionals very
much like what a CIO does in a CIO committee of decision makers in an organization
to bring together the priorities, the needs and the wants from various
departments within the organization, and get that team, if you will, to facilitate
that team to set priorities and work together to make the DAM system successful,
your life and your job will be much better. Henrik: [laughs] [4:48] I would agree. Jess: [4:50] It might be a joy instead of a difficulty. Henrik: [4:53] Yeah, that’s right. To empower rather than enable, is that
fair to say? Jess: [5:01] I think it’s fair to say to empower instead of being the slave to the
DAM system, is to conduct it, and conduct participation from all of the stakeholders
in your organization. Henrik: [5:15] Fair. Thank you so much, Jess. Jess: [5:17] You’re welcome and good luck. Henrik: [5:19] Thank you. For more on this and other Digital Asset Management
topics, log on to AnotherDAMblog.com. Thanks again.
Michael Hollitscher discusses Digital Asset Management
Here are the questions asked:
How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
Do you find yourself often closely linked with both the creative and technical side of your business?
You recently started a meetup group called NYC Digital Asset Managers. This has been quite successful in its first year. When did you first start this group?
What advice would you like to share with DAM Professionals and even 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 talking with Mike Hollitscher. Mike, how are you? Michael Hollitscher: [0:08] Good. How’s it going? Henrik: [0:11] Good. How are you involved with Digital Asset Management? Michael: [0:16] I am the manager of Digital Asset Management for a digital marketing agency called Digitas. When I first started here, we were an independent company, national in scope. In the past two or three years, we were purchased by Publicis Groupe. We’ve become part of the global digital arm of, I think, the third largest media and advertising company in the world now. [0:58] My job basically revolves around trying to ingest and organize all of the digital assets that we are creating and receiving from our clients. [1:09] In addition to that, I’m also involved in a bunch of other technology issues, just trying to see where we’re going for the future. Henrik: [1:20] Do you find yourself often closely linked with both the creative and the technical side of your business? Michael: [1:25] Oh, absolutely. In the end, I end up being the liaison between those two. Not only just creative, also our marketing people, our delivery people, our creative…Really, when you get right down to it, DAM is much more of a marketing tool than, I think, a creative tool. [1:48] I end up having to speak both languages, the core group’s language and also, to a certain degree, IT. I’m not an IT person. I’m still confused as an IT person all the time, but, basically, I interface between those two groups quite a bit. [2:08] That’s kind of where it comes in that I’m trying more to see where we’re going and where the pain points are in our Digital Asset Management strategy and just our content strategies at this point. Henrik: [2:26] You recently started a meetup group called NYC Digital Asset Managers. This has been quite successful in its first year. When did you first start this group? Michael: [2:35] I can’t really claim ownership of, say, starting the group. That was really on Chad. Chad and I actually met at a Henry Stewart conference at Davis. I believe it was two years ago now, and it’s interesting how it springs out of, I think, a lot of people’s experiences going to Henry Stewart and various DAM conferences over the last six or seven years. [3:03] I was actually presenting on some of the strategies we’ve used to tag photo libraries, or other sort of assets, with XMP metadata, and how we were looking to…Basically, our nuts and bolts process, and then pushing it out, and where we’re going for the future. Afterwards, Chad came up to me, and he was really excited because he was basically doing the exact same stuff that I was. [3:32] It just so turned out that we share a Digital Asset Management platform. We use the same vendor. We also share an integrator. We had a great conversation, and one of the things that’s always been interesting about going to DAM conferences since…The first one I went to was probably in 2003 or 2004. [3:54] It was just that back then, you were always working in this sort of vacuum, and you’re flying blind a lot of times. Maybe you had an integrator, maybe you didn’t. You talked to your vendor, but there wasn’t a good amount of standards, and there weren’t really a lot of people to talk to. At that point, Henry Stewart was the one time a year you could actually go somewhere and talk to people, and not feel like you were absolutely, totally alone. [4:31] We had shot emails back and forth, and Chad was interested in setting up a meetup group, he mentioned. He said he started one, and he asked if I would help out, and I was able to provide a few different ideas, and a few different resources to really start it to get it going. After a while, I was basically billed as a co-organizer. [4:49] We’ve basically just been bouncing ideas back and forth to each other, and coming up with good people to bring in, to present. [4:59] I think it goes back to what I was saying about how it was six or seven years ago, that it’s like…I think what we’re really providing is an opportunity for people to come in and just actually have a chance to talk to other people in their realm, in their field, because, in general, when you’re doing Digital Asset Management, you’re the only guy there. [5:24] Maybe you have some contacts with other people in your office, but there really aren’t any other people who are sharing your experience. [5:34] There’s just so much to pull in and there are so many different directions you can go with it. It’s a very holistic career where you are looking at the entire process of how your company is doing their work. Most people don’t. Your average worker at a job is just like…They’re focused on their small part of the puzzle. [6:02] I would say, without sounding maudlin, it can get a little lonely at certain points where it’s like, “Who can I call upon? Where can I learn how to deal with video assets better? How to set up a taxonomy? Who’s doing stuff that’s really exciting and cool?” [6:22] That’s really what we’re trying to provide, sort of a knowledge base. But also because I’m finishing up a master’s at Pratt in library and information sciences, one of the things I’ve been trying to do is a lot of outreach to other LIS programs in our area. [6:45] We’ve been getting a pretty fair amount of students coming in who, in a field that is becoming vastly more digital. They can really start getting their feet wet and get an idea of where everything’s going, whether this is a good career choice. [6:53] A lot of times, those are who the best ideas come from. We’re very egalitarian. We’re looking…If you’re a member, you can present because we have a lot of experts but we also have a lot of people, even if they’re just starting out. They’ve come up with fantastic ideas or they have great internships. We’re looking for knowledge from everybody in that way. Henrik: [7:19] What advice would you share with other DAM professionals and even people aspiring to become a DAM professional? Michael: [7:26] That’s a good question because…It’s interesting how the whole field, the space has changed because, again, if you’re going back to the early part of the last decade, you could go around and ask 15 different people who are managing a DAM how they ended up in that job. It was really like a company bought a system and they looked around the room and looked at one guy or one girl and said, “That person’s running it.” [7:58] Invariably, they came from some print field, usually production or something like that. There are a lot of people, like myself who were just thrown into the breach and they just had to learn all the different aspects of how to make this happen, how to do it on the fly. [8:23] I’m cheering for the home team here, but I think having a library science degree is a fantastic way to do it. It’s a great way to get a grounding in it but I think it’s kind of a specific type of person, in a lot of ways, too. [8:38] In the end, what we’re talking about is classification. Classification is, again, another really holistic concept and it’s a very basic concept because it’s like when…It’s so inherent in our human experience because the one thing all humans do when they look at something…After they look at something, they classify it. They put it in a particular box or a particular category. [9:05] It’s really taking an organization’s assets and trying to…Not only to classify it but also to figure out how they move and what are the best states for them to move from. It’s a bunch of different complimentary, somewhat what’s the term I’m looking for sometimes competing skill sets. [9:29] Being able to be very granular but have that holistic sort of overarching, big picture view at the same time. Having a lot of focus but also having to be incredibly gregarious and willing to be very social and just always trying to find a way to develop stuff in a new, different way. You have to be very patient and very impatient at the same time. [9:57] I would say it’s an interesting field to get into if you want to be the hub of everything. If you have a lot of ideas about content and where the web is going and where digital content is going, as well. [10:19] I was reading a really interesting “Wired” article on the train coming in about how we’re moving into more of an application model again, in terms of the Internet with apps, with mobile. Everything is becoming little pieces rather than the free, wide open web anymore. [10:45] One of the things that got me thinking…This kind of goes back to the whole of Jonathan Zittrain throughout the…We’re really going back into a stage in computing that’s based around appliances again. That’s where DAM fits in beautifully as, really, the content delivery device for all these different applications. [11:12] At the same time, what it really comes down to…You just have to be a very good communicator, I think. Somebody who’s really willing to just roll up their sleeves and try and iron out a problem that you’ll probably never completely iron out because everything moves too quickly. [11:34] You just really have to be willing to build as many bridges as possible and love technology, but also hate it a little bit, too, in order to find where technology stops and where culture starts and how to fix those culture issues, as well. I think you’re building bridges not only through technology, but also through just getting people to talk to each other. [12:04] In the end, you’re more a personality type than you are somebody who has a specific set of skills at the beginning of it. Henrik: [12:15] That’s fair. Thank you, Mike. Michael: [12:16] No problem. Henrik: [12:18] For more on Digital Asset Management, log on to anotherdamblog.com. Thanks again.
How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
Do you do documentation and process?
Do you like particular standards?
You write a blog which recently you have written some posts which have been quite popular. Tell us more about this.
Is it fair to say that Digital Asset Management is not a temporary task?
Where can we find your blog?
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 Podca st about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today, I’m here with Leala Abbott. Leala,
how are you? Leala Abbott: [0:09] Hello. How are you? Henrik: [0:11] Good. How are you involved with Digital Asset Management, Leala? Leala: [0:15] I am the Senior Digital Content Analyst for the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. In other circles, it’s known as Digital Asset Manager. It’s basically
the same role. It just has more of an information science bent because I
love metadata. I like working with metadata schemas and information architecture
and the documentation of standards, along with usability for Digital Asset
Management systems or other information retrieval systems. I do branch out
from time to time and strategy for Digital Asset Management, big picture stuff.
Educate people on what Digital Asset Management is, as a practice, and to understand
that it’s not just an application. That’s really my educational charge. Henrik: [1:07] Do you do documentation and process as well? Leala: [1:11] Yeah, I do. Because of my information science bent, I’m really into
metadata schemas and the cataloging of the assets and what taxonomies that
we leverage. I like to write that stuff all up so other people can read it. Imagine
that. Somebody can just pick up that document, and pick up right where they
left off. I like to provide guidance for people that are the future Digital Asset
Managers in that particular organization or institution, guides for the catalogers.
I’ve written many librarians’ manuals. Henrik: [1:46] Do you like particular standards? Leala: [1:48] I do. I’m a big fan of Dublin Core. I don’t know how you
couldn’t be. Henrik: [laughs] [1:54] True. Leala: [1:57] Because it really is very much in line with my pragmatic approach
to Digital Asset Management. Henrik: [2:02] Excellent. Leala, you write a blog in which recently you’ve written
some posts about DAM, which have been quite popular. Tell me a little more
about that. Leala: [2:11] I’m excited about that. I’m glad they’re popular. My last two postings
have been, “What kinda ‘Who’ do you need to make DAM work?” I go
into descriptions of the types of roles that are necessary to do Digital Asset
Management properly. I think a lot of times, people think, “We’re just going to
buy this wonderful application, and it’s going to fix the fact that we’re drowning
in all of this digital information.” [2:38] There’s very little understanding out there
that it’s not just an application, it’s a process. It’s a business need, and there is
technology to help with that business need, but you also have to have the right
staffing. I think because it’s very cross disciplinary in the practice of DAM, it
brings together professions that weren’t normally at the same table before.
[3:00] Business analysts and creatives, production managers, librarians and information
science people in rights and usage experts. You have your programmers
and developers, and all these people do have to actually work closely together.
[3:16] I think that that’s something very new. There are a lot of professional stylers
out there, so I think that breaking those down and having to come together
on a project was a really new thing for a lot of organizations. Henrik: [3:29] That sounds like there is a lot of collaboration involved. Is it fair to
say that Digital Asset Management is not a temporary task? Leala: [3:34] I believe that it is not a temporary task. I think that it takes, depending
on the size of the organization, one to two years in terms of having
the experts that you need onboard. Consultants, integrators, to get the project
rolling, and the process rolling. [3:52] Again, depending on the size and what
you are really ingesting. Once you have most of the process nailed out, you can
have other staffing involved, and take over where the experts left off. Henrik: [4:03] As long as you have accountability and governance, is that
fair to say? Leala: [4:07] Yep. As long as you have your standards that can be used as a
guide, and as long as you continue to revisit your processes. I think it’s really
important that your staff have a professional development chart. That should
be part of their role. [4:24] To make sure that they’re continually educating themselves
on the process and the DAM landscape. That way they stay current. Henrik: [4:31] Leala, where can we find your blog? Leala: [4:33] It’s actually my name, I’ve tried to keep it simple. That’s my approach,
and it’s lealaabbott.com. That’s L-E-A-L-A-A-B-B-O-T-T dot com. Henrik: [4:46] Excellent. What advice would you have to share with other DAM
professional, or even people aspiring to become DAM professionals? Leala: [4:54] Particularly when I look at resumes, I like to see that people that
worked in different types of organizations. From big ones to small ones, to
cultural heritage organizations to for-profit organizations. [5:09] I find people
that have more multidimensional experiences bring a lot more new ideas,
fresh ideas, innovative and more creative solutions to problems than someone
who’s just been in the same place or organization or field of work the length of
their career. Henrik: [5:33] Makes sense. Thank you, Leala. Leala: [5:35] Yeah. Henrik: [5:37] For more on Digital Asset Management, you can log onto anotherdamblog.com. Thanks again.
How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
What advice would you have to share with other Digital Asset Management Professionals or people aspiring to become Digital Asset Management Professional?
Transcript:
Henrik de Gyor: [0:02] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today, I’m speaking with Mark Davey. Mark,
how are you? Mark Davey: [0:10] I’m good, Henrik. You? Henrik: [0:10] Great. Mark, how are you involved with Digital Asset
Management? Mark: [0:16] How long have you got, Henrik? Henrik: [laughs] [0:18] Mark: [0:20] I’ll tell you what. Let’s go back to how it all started for me. How
about that? Henrik: [0:25] Sure. Mark: [0:27] Just over 10 years ago, I was with a marketing advertising agency
doing traditional stuff, and we picked up a reasonable contract with an engineering
group. They were a buying group for small to medium-sized enterprises.
What they wanted to do at that time was to create a huge catalog, something
like 600 pages. [0:53] Now, there was over 120 individual businesses within this
buying group, and something like 240 suppliers, all supplying content for this
one catalog. This one catalog had to be personalized for the individual businesses,
as well.
[1:10] 10 years ago, that was a very nice contract, but an absolute nightmare to
put together. And so, I did some research, looking at any services that could
streamline that and I came and found Digital Asset Management. That’s when
the love affair began. Henrik: [1:32] Mark, you write a very popular…Actually, the most popular blog
about DAM, DigitalAssetManagement.org.uk. What inspired you to create this
amazing resource for people interested in DAM? Mark: [1:51] Thanks. About three years ago, we migrated to looking at software
as a service for Digital Asset Management in terms of our approach was to talk
to advertising agencies about the benefits of DAM and also to printers because
a need existed for that. Unfortunately, four or five years ago, we got to a situation
that every time we got into a really decent discussion about DAM, we
noticed that people’s heads were kind of lopping to one side and they switched
off. It was just too much for them. [2:33] It was a big leap from the traditional
practices. The job banks that sat in a file, pull them out, and that’s where all the
information got. Then they had to scoot around everywhere else, trying to find
assets, and FTP, and ISDN at the time. Then we were also sort of…Because it
was software as a service, this was something new then as well, to them, and it
was just too big of a leap of faith.
[3:02] The approach we took was okay, this Digital Asset Management space
encompasses an awful lot of business processes, even four years ago. The idea
behind the blog was to help educate, or at least, point people to different aspects
of DAM and how it would relate to their business, and maybe get a feel
for what other people are doing, and where DAM can bolt into different aspects
of company’s approaches, and that’s how it began.
[3:30] It was a conversation between myself and Nigel, my partner at Cliffe
Associates. I’d been blogging anyhow, and said…Nigel came up with the idea.
“Why don’t we do a blog about DAM and utilize that for our Digital Asset
Management consultancy?” That’s how it began. Henrik: [3:48] It’s been quite popular, and in full disclosure, you aggregate my
content as well from my blog, AnotherDAMblog.com, and I greatly appreciate
that. Mark, what advice would you have to share with DAM professional, or even
people aspiring to be a DAM professional? Mark: [4:05] I think it’s a process. The more we get involved in consulting for small
to large corporations. It’s very much starting with a blank piece of paper, and
then working their workflow. That’s the most important point because a lot of
people buy software and make the workflow work with the software, whereas,
actually, it should be the other way around. It should start at the people. [4:34]
It should be looking at how they actually engage with assets. What’s the long
tail of those assets, and where are they looking for the future to repurpose
everything and the long tail of that? My advice would be workflow first, then an
understanding of metadata, then the actual software, and then where that plugs
into platforms, or services, or products that they’re offering. Henrik: [5:04] In full disclosure as well, Mark and I have been collaborating
for the past 20 months on the blogosphere, and between our blogs, and our
Skype and Mark is in the UK, and I am in the United States in Virginia, and
we’ve actually never met in person. [5:22] Finally, we’ll have that opportunity at
Createasphere on September 23rd and September 24th at the Createasphere
DAM Conference. I’m really looking forward to that. Mark: [5:32] Yeah, can you believe that? We’ve been talking digitally to each
other for 20 months and never met. Incredible. Henrik: [5:39] That’s the kind of business and the economy that we’re in today,
is that we can do that successfully. It’s an amazing thing. I’m really looking forward
to meeting you and collaborating more with you, even in person this time
[laughs] and continuing our relationship online. Mark: [5:58] Yeah, I’m very much looking forward to that and the conference
as well. Henrik: [6:01] Likewise. It’s going to be very exciting. I look forward to meeting
everyone else at Createasphere. That will be in New York City in late September. Mark: [6:16] See you then. Thanks very much, Henrik. Henrik: [6:18] For more on Digital Asset Management, log onto AnotherDAMblog.com. Thanks again.
Another DAM Podcast 