How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
How do you use the process of digital asset management before having a DAM system in place?
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 Kyle Hufford.
Kyle, how are you?
Kyle Hufford: [0:09] I’m doing great today. Henrik: [0:11] Kyle, how are you involved with Digital Asset Management? Kyle: [0:13] I’ve been working with Quiksilver for a little over seven years now.
We’ve been working out our Digital Asset Management objective. It’s gone
through an interesting phase. I went from being the sole individual person responsible
for Digital Asset Management to actually building bit of a team. [0:30]
We’ve been building our systems. We’ve been through a phase of having a
fully functioning system to paring back and re-evaluating what we have. We’re in
the process of rolling out a new system, at this time, to manage all our product
images, our lifestyle images, and everything that goes around supporting our
business and sales of our products. Henrik: [0:50] Kyle, how do you use the process of Digital Asset Management
before having a DAM system in place? Kyle: [0:57] That’s a really good question. Initially, we had purchased an enterprise
level system, and we had rolled it out not understanding what Digital
Asset Management really was. It went along and worked great for about two to
three years. Then we actually pared back and removed the asset management
system from our workflow and identified a proper workflow before reintroducing
our asset management system. [1:26] The biggest challenge I think that
people have is, they think, “I’ll have a Digital Asset Management system. That’s
going to solve all my problems.” That’s not true. If you have a Digital Asset
Management system, you still have to have a proper workflow or process in
place in order to solve your problem.
[1:43] If your process is broken, Digital Asset Management is not going to solve
your process. Our biggest challenge is, we removed Digital Asset Management
from the process and identified where in the process we were having challenges,
and identified where we could actually optimize that process.
[1:59] Once that process was optimized, we then now are reintroducing the
Digital Asset Management system to individual workflows one piece at a time
and identifying that this is the proper workflow, this is where the assets need to
go, and this is how the images or assets need to be distributed. Henrik: [2:15] If I understand correctly, you started with people. Then you developed
the process of Digital Asset Management, and then you introduced the
technology. Fair? Kyle: [2:25] Yes, exactly. We learned over time. It wasn’t like that was our first
approach. Our first approach was, “Let’s throw an enterprise Digital Asset
Management system at it.” That didn’t work. We identified that there were challenges
in pieces, in broken processes, in workarounds, and then we pared back.
[2:44] As you said, we started with people and understood what the process was
and identified how we could better that process. Once we identified a proper
process, we could then support that with the proper technologies. Henrik: [2:56] What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and
people aspiring to become DAM professionals? Kyle: [3:00] I think the biggest part of being a Digital Asset Manager is it’s a
thankless job. But at the end of the day, when you’re able to go in and search
for something and find something and be able to have a repository where the
images are, that’s the biggest feeling of success. [3:18] I think being a DAM professional
is more than being a Digital Asset Manager. From my perspective, it’s
about the process and the workflow and identifying better ways to do business.
It’s not just knowing how to tag an image or tagging 100 images a day or 1,000
images a day. It’s being able to work in an organization where you can identify
challenges in the process, and you can work with the right individuals to fix that
process so that the assets that you’re producing are better assets and more
accurate assets. Henrik: [3:50] Couldn’t agree more. Thanks, Kyle. [3:53] For more on Digital
Asset Management, log on to AnotherDAMblog.com. Another DAM Podcast
is available on Audioboom, iTunes and the Tech Podcast Network. If you have any
comments or questions, feel free to email me at anotherdamblog@gmail.com.
Thanks again.
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 Daniel Sieberg.
Daniel, how are you? Daniel Sieberg: [0:09] I’m fine, Henrik. Thanks for having me. Henrik: [0:11] Daniel, how are you involved with Digital Asset Management? Daniel: [0:14] Well, I’ve always had great respect for the folks who work in the
Digital Asset Management field. I’m always invited to moderate and to talk at
the Createasphere Conference. Met a lot of the folks that worked in Digital
Asset Management. [0:27] To be honest, my understanding of it, going into
Createasphere, was probably about 10 percent of what they do. Afterwards,
certainly, went up and have tried to learn more about it.
[0:38] I have an extensive tech background. I’ve worked in technology as a correspondent
and now at Google, for the better part of 13 or 14 years, to be involved
with the tech community, in some way.
[0:49] Have always had some understanding of what Digital Asset Management
means. I think the logistics and the amount of work that they do to manage that
content, whether it’s through servers or storage area networks, and the breath
and the depth of what they have to keep track of is pretty staggering. I have, as
I say, the utmost respect for those folks. Henrik: [1:13] You recently authored a book called, “The Digital Diet: Four Step Plan to Break Your Tech Addiction and Regain Balance in Your Life.” Tell us tech
addicts more about this. Daniel: [laughs] [1:23] I would say that I was a tech addict. Maybe I’m a recovering
one now. The book is all about approaching technology in a healthy way.
Consuming it, loving it, but just not loving it unconditionally. [1:38] What that
means is not letting it harm your relationships, your own personal well-being.
Trying to find that balance between being connected, staying immersed in the
digital world but not letting it overwhelm you.
[1:50] I think that we can all relate to that on some level. The book is meant to
be this guidebook, much like a diet book for food. In that it’s not at all anti-technology.
In fact, it’s more about embracing it, just for the right reasons, on the
right occasion.
[2:04] It’s driven by a personal narrative, my own feelings of getting too caught
up in the virtual world. I lost track of relationships with my friends and family
members, in real life. I think my wife would attest to the fact that I wasn’t as perhaps
as present as I should have been in our relationship.
[2:22] I just came to rely too heavily. I guess, I skewed too heavily to the digital
world. I’ve talked to a lot of tech professionals and people who work in Digital
Asset Management. People who work, very, very immersed in the tech world,
and they see that this message resonates with them.
[2:40] As much as they love their technology, they still have lives. They have
families. They have friends. Sometimes it’s about just using technologies on the
right occasion, and thinking about whether it’s email, or it’s a video chat, or is it
a text, or do you actually pick up the phone. When can you have those face-to-face
conversations and not be distracted your technology?
[2:59] Just getting up from behind the screen and enjoying life without becoming
too caught up in what’s happening online. Henrik: [3:06] Daniel is donating a copy of his book to one lucky listener
of our book drawing. To enter this book drawing, send an email to AnotherDAMblog@gmail.com, telling me why you like Another DAM Podcast
and/or Another DAM Blog , before March 1st, 2012. Feel free to rate the podcast
and blog as well. The winner will have the book mailed to them.
[3:30] Daniel, what advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM professionals? Daniel: [3:36] First of all, I love the name of your podcast and your blog, [laughs]
Another DAM Podcast and Blog. I think it’s very clever. [3:42] I think that it’s obviously
an area that requires a lot of technical expertise, but just like any profession,
and certainly I can share this firsthand, it becomes about the people that
you meet, whether you’re going to Createasphere or other conferences like that,
and I think there’s always that networking aspect.
[3:55] There’s a networking side on the technical end, but there’s also the networking
side with people, and at Createasphere and meeting different Digital
Asset Management folks. It feels like a very tight-knit sort of community. So it’s
important to reach out to those people. Meet with them. Talk with them. Share
your work. Talk about your struggles in the different technologies. Whether it’s
coding, storage, servers. What sort of innovations are you looking at, and try to
be as well-read as you can be.
[4:25] I often feel like I’m constantly learning. I think that the best advice I give
to people is, “Don’t act like you know everything, because there’s always somebody
who knows a bit more than you. There’s somebody who’s innovating in
a new way.”
[4:39] Taking the time to explore those ideas, see what they’re working on. You
don’t have to necessarily do exactly what they’re doing, but maybe you incorporate
a little bit of it. You share what you’re doing. This is the way that, I think,
innovation springs up in new ideas and ways to manage digital assets. It’s obviously
an area of growth.
[4:59] Everything is going the way of digital content, and we have to be thinking
of new ways to distribute that, to share items, to store items. When people talk
in terms of the size of data that we’re referring to, it’s kind of overwhelming for
some people. So sharing what you’re working and your ideas, I think, is essential
in having an open mind to what others might be doing.
[5:20] That’s what I took away from the Createasphere Conference, just people
were sharing and learning along the way. Henrik: [5:25] Thanks, Daniel. Daniel: [5:27] Henrik, thank you. I appreciate it. Henrik: [5:29] For more on this and other Digital Asset Management topics, log
onto AnotherDAMblog.com. Another DAM podcast is available on AudioBoom, iTunes and the Tech Podcast Network.
If you have any comments or questions, feel free to email them at anotherdamblog@gmail.com. Thanks again.
Another DAM Podcast 