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Another DAM Podcast interview with Heather Hedden on Digital Asset Management

Here are the questions asked:

  • How are you involved with Digital Asset Management (DAM)?
  • You recently wrote a book called The Accidental Taxonomist. What inspired you to write this book?
  • What advice would you give to DAM Professionals or people aspiring to be a DAM Professional?

Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with Heather Hedden.
Heather, how are you?
Heather Hedden: [0:09] Fine, thanks. Thanks for inviting me.
Henrik: [0:12] Heather, how are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
Heather: [0:15] Actually I’m a taxonomist. That’s closely related. I create taxonomies
which are usually structured sets of terms used for metadata to tag or
classify content item. The content can be digital assets or text documents. I’m
involved in more than just Digital Asset Management as I see it. [0:36] I originally
got into the field from a background of indexing with a company that has now
become Cengage Learning, indexes, reference materials for libraries, magazine
and newspaper articles, pamphlets, maps, charts, and images too. I’ve worked
as a taxonomist in both full-time positions and as a consultant or contractor. I’m
in between jobs at the moment.
[1:03] My most recent job was as the taxonomy manager in a wind energy company
based in Boston. There I developed a better nested folder for the hierarchical
classification of content to better support browsing. I also developed
taxonomies with numerous synonyms for auto classification of content to better
support search.
[1:24] A third taxonomy project included metadata for manually tagging content
was also in the plans. Although many documents there were text files, they also
had CAD drawings, topographical maps, PowerPoint presentations, and image
files such as many photos of wind farm locations and wind turbines.
[1:46] The taxonomy covered lots of terms dealing with all these different documents,
technical, legal, financial, covering all areas of the business. I’ve also
been involved in developing policies or guidelines for tagging or classifying
content with a taxonomy which is an important component of taxonomy work.
Henrik: [2:07] Heather, you recently wrote a book called “The Accidental Taxonomist.” What inspired you to write this book?
Heather: [2:12] I’m glad you asked. I also teach a continuing education workshop.
It’s a five week workshop through Simmons College Graduate School
of Library and Information Science. It’s an introduction to taxonomy. I’ve been
doing that for a couple of years. [2:27] I got an inquiry if I would teach a second,
more advanced class. I just got to thinking about how much work that would be
because it’s ongoing every other month or something. Since I had accumulated
some other written materials and giving presentations, I thought maybe it would
better to put this all into a book that would serve both those at an introductory
level and at a more advanced level if you had a lot of material together.
[2:54] As a backup I had also been doing kind of freelance side work back to the
book indexing, writing indexes to nonfiction books. I’ve been reading a lot of
different nonfiction books, some of them professional books. I thought, “Well,
maybe I could write a book too.”
[3:11] I consider my background pretty comprehensive in both that I created
taxonomies used by human manual indexers, taggers, and those for auto classifications.
I’ve also created taxonomies for more commercial, published content
and those that are for internal enterprise content.
[3:34] With that kind of broad background I felt pretty qualified to write a book
on this. Some people have written book that are more narrow just for enterprise
taxonomy. When I looked around, there really wasn’t that much out there just on
taxonomy today.
[3:52] There’s another book that’s more on knowledge management or some
that are focused on controlled vocabularies more for wide learning focus areas.
It was a need that needed filling.
Henrik: [4:05] Heather, is there a website where you can get more information
about this?
Heather: [4:09] Oh yes. It’s www.accidentaltaxonomist.com which has a lot of
information about the book, the table of contents, the index, the introduction,
forward. It also has all the websites mentioned throughout the book, the URLs,
and they are hyperlinked. You can actually get a lot of information that I have in
my book without reading it, although I hope you do. Readers can go do that.
Henrik: [4:41] What advice would you give to DAM professionals or people aspiring
to be a DAM professional?
Heather: [4:47] Considering I’m a little bit on the sidelines of the DAM profession
myself being a taxonomist, I do see similarities there and I recommend this
for people going into taxonomy as well or other fields such as content management.
[5:01] It involves having more of a broader skill set and experience,
so combining a DAM background with, perhaps, taxonomy management or
content management experience or also indexing background that I have had
or experience with maybe search technologies or more of a technology background
and perhaps a subject area expertise, so something to some specialty
area to distinguish one’s self.
[5:38] Also, I think people should be open to any industry. You might think of
maybe traditional media based industries, but all kinds of companies, all kinds
of industries now have a growing core list of different types of assets. I never
thought I’d end up in the wind energy industry. Keep your eyes open to anything
and network a lot.
Henrik: [6:04] Great idea. Thanks, Heather.
Heather: [6:07] OK , you’re welcome. It was nice to talk to you.
Henrik: [6:10] No problem. For more on 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.

Need Digital Asset Management advice and assistance?

Another DAM Consultancy can help. Schedule a call today


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Is there another weekly podcast about Digital Asset Management?

Another DAM podcast is a weekly series of audio recordings which complement Another DAM blog.  In September 2010, these podcasts began to appear with weekly interviews of different DAM professionals from around the world.  Everyone interviewed have different stories to tell, information to share and is passionate about what they do. Some people interviewed are well-known in the practice of Digital Asset Management or related fields.

Every person interviewed is asked at least three similar questions:

  1. How are they involved with Digital Asset Management
  2. A question related to what they do
  3. What advice would they give DAM professionals or people aspiring to become DAM professionals

You can listen and even subscribe to this podcast series on:

This weekly podcast series is hosted by Henrik de Gyor, the author of Another DAM blog.

Another DAM Podcast weekly interviews will continue into 2011. Who would you like to hear interviewed?

Is there another weekly podcast about Digital Asset Management?

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 David Price on Digital Asset Management

Here are the questions asked:

  • How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
  • How does a health care provider use a DAM?
  • What is the difference between an organization that has a DAM where they sell their content versus just manage their content such as marketing material?
  • What advice would you like to give to DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM professionals?

Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: [0:03] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with David Price. David,
how are you?
David Price: [0:10] I’m very good, thank you.
Henrik: [0:12] David, how are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
David: [0:15] I am a applications manager at a healthcare provider. I work within
a marketing and sales group that manages a number of different Digital Asset
Management systems and workflow related project work.
Henrik: [0:29] How does a healthcare provider use a DAM?
David: [0:34] Well, this particular healthcare provider has a large marketing and
sales group. As with any company that has marketing and sales, we have a lot
of marketing and sales collateral. We have posters, brochures, fliers, booklets.
We have rich media. We have TV. We have radio. All of that content needs to
be managed.
Henrik: [0:53] Makes sense. David, what is the difference between an organization
that has a DAM where they sell their content versus just manage their content,
so it’s just marketing material?
David: [1:03] That’s a good question. One of the things that I’ve realized is that
is an important differentiator between DAM users largely because the people
that sell their content who typically are in the entertainment or media business,
TV, radio, music, etc., are much more concerned with the full work flow
process from start to finish because the DAM and the workflow management
and the product management cycle manage their end product. It’s their bread
and butter.
Henrik: [1:37] Sure.
David: [1:39] For that type of company, a DAM implementation is a much more
integral part of what they do if they’re a mature organization. For companies
that only use DAMs to manage marketing materials but don’t sell those materials,
it’s still important, but it’s not as important. [1:56] It’s more difficult to
directly tie it to the bottom line. It’s more difficult to measure the effectiveness
of your marketing materials because they don’t generate direct sales. They only
indirectly affect your sales.
Henrik: [2:12] That makes sense. Sure, yeah.
David: [2:13] That can actually be an impediment to purchasing, implementing,
and supporting DAM systems also. Each one has its pros and cons.
Henrik: [2:25] Sure, I agree. One is certainly more vital than the other if you
actually want to deliver something to be seen and sold.
David: [2:33] Right. Interestingly enough, one of the things that I learned
coming to shows like this and listening to all of the people that are in entertainment
and media is they develop a huge repository of older media that they
reuse and repurpose. [2:50] Often times, you watch TV. If a famous actor dies or
a movie re-released, they’ll go back and pull assets from 10, 20 years ago, repackage
them in some new format and you’ll see them again.
Henrik: [3:07] Smart.
David: [3:09] Our type of DAM user doesn’t do as much.
Henrik: [3:12] Sure, that makes sense, but you can still reuse those marketing
materials.
David: [3:14] Sure, we can, but we probably wouldn’t as much as…
Henrik: [3:19] For a different campaign or…
David: [3:20] Yeah, right.
Henrik: [3:21] OK , fair. What advice would you like to give to DAM professionals
or people aspiring to become DAM professionals?
David: [3:27] That’s a good question. I’d give aspiring DAM professionals the
advice to several things, first off, DAM is a discipline and not a tool. [3:39] Lots of
people who first get into Digital Asset Management think, “We’re going to go
out and buy this wonderful, cool new software, then life will be easy.”
[3:49] You’re chuckling because anyone who’s worked in practically any discipline
for some amount of time knows that a particular tool will do nothing if you
don’t have the business process and agreed upon structure and organizational
processes in place within the business to make it work and to utilize it to its best
advantage.
[4:13] Another statement that summarizes that is “Garbage in, garbage out,”
that’s the advice I’d give.
Henrik: [4:19] Great. Well, thank you, David.
David: [4:21] You’re welcome.
Henrik: [4:22] For more on digital 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.

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 Abby De Millo on Digital Asset Management

Here are the questions asked:

  • How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
  • Why does an information and media organization use a DAM?
  • What advice would you like to give to DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM professionals?

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 Abby DeMillo. Abby,
how are you?
Abby DeMillo: [0:10] I’m fine. How are you doing today?
Henrik: [0:12] Good. Abby, how are you involved with Digital Asset
Management?
Abby: [0:17] At the McGraw Hill companies, we view Digital Asset Management
as one component of what we call the digital supply chain. We’re not looking at
Digital Asset Management purely as an archival tool or as a brand management
tool. We’re looking at it as really a component of our content delivery ecosystem
so to speak. [0:48] It’s very much integrated in with our Content Management
Systems, our delivery platforms, our enrichment tools, so on and so forth. It is a
key component, but we look at it as a component of that whole chain.
Henrik: [1:03] Great. Just to reiterate, why does an information and media organization
use a DAM?
Abby: [1:10] We use it to help deliver content. Digital Asset Management
through the years has grown and matured, and the technology has matured as
well, to really offer more than just the storage and delivery out of rich media
assets. [1:30] It still does that. It still does that very, very well. I highly recommend
any company that has branding, marketing assets, rich media assets,
or any object related content to really invest in a repository, invest in a Digital
Asset Management. That is the best way to keep track of your master assets.
[1:54] B to B business are using it really in terms of delivering out and reusing
those components. You can supply a B-to-B site and web channel delivery of
content without a Digital Asset Management. It is completely possible to do
that, but you’ll find that you’ll be wasting a lot of infrastructure.
[2:20] Your technology footprint will be greater, because you will not have control
of your parent and child assets. The value to B-to-B business is to really keep…
you’ve heard of master data management. There’s not an acronym for this but
it’s really keeping track of your master rich media assets and delivering versions
of those assets.
[2:45] Rather than keeping the same asset in 100 different places, you keep it in
one place and deliver out renderings of that same asset. It saves a lot of money.
It saves in operations. It saves in human processes, business processes. That’s
why B to B businesses are very interested still in this technology.
Henrik: [3:08] It makes a lot of sense.
Abby: [3:09] It sure does.
Henrik: [3:10] What advice would you like to give to DAM professionals or
people aspiring to become DAM professionals?
Abby: [3:15] For people aspiring to become DAM professionals, you can go to
school in library sciences. You can go to school and get your degrees in taxonomies
and all of these great things today. Don’t think of it as a siloed discipline.
[3:32] You can’t really today think of Digital Asset Management without thinking
of the related fields and the related technologies that help deliver content
including enrichment, which we haven’t really touched on. In other words, creating
metadata structures, and taxonomy structures that deliver that content and
make it reusable in a number of different systems, delivery platforms, and the
ability to transform those assets into a number of different channels.
[4:03] Be able to, if you’re holding video assets, because Digital Asset
Management today you can hold video assets or flash assets. Are you planning
on transcoding those internally and delivering them out? Or are you planning on
really just holding the end product in your depository?
[4:21] No matter where you work those are the types of questions that will be
asked of you. If you are aspiring to become a Digital Asset Management professional,
don’t think of it truly as an archival tool. Think of it really part of that
whole ecosystem. You really have to have an understanding, at least at a high
level, of how those other systems play into this.
Henrik: [4:46] Great. Thank you, Abby.
Abby: [4:48] You’re welcome.
Henrik: [4:50] For more on 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.

Need Digital Asset Management advice and assistance?

Another DAM Consultancy can help. Schedule a call today