Introduction to DAM Essay 1 November 2014

Transcription

1 Introduction to DAM Essay 1 November 2014 A digital asset management (DAM) project to properly curate, organize and control photographic assets for the University Communications (UC) department has been in the research stages for the past two years. Within the past year, out of a staff of 26, all research, planning, and assessment of a DAM system has become the charge of one employee. The UC staff recently issued an RFP and strategy planning is taking place in conjunction with the vendor search. Because growth will be fast and consistent over the next year, as part of the DAM Maturity Model assessment, projections were also made as to where we would like to fall on the model by the end of 2015 and then in PEOPLE: FOCUS ON ALIGNMENT Previous attempts at organizing digital assets did not have the attention of a dedicated staff member. An early version of a DAM was abandoned and Adobe Bridge was the replacement, but without the proper use of its metadata capabilities. The web staff undertook a more successful attempt at managing collateral. Five years ago a campus-wide initiative to employ one content management system for all web content was initiated. Since that time, the team not only effectively installed a proper web content management system into the campus culture; it also created a community of practice surrounding all web initiatives. Because of this and the earlier attempts at a DAM, UC staff have a basic understanding of how a centralized depository for assets could function. In addition, the web content process has laid the groundwork for the DAM, and its accompanying policies, to be properly understood and accepted. Therefore, in regards to the DAM Maturity Model, the UC staff is at an incipient level on all three dimensions, notably, the area of alignment. According to a recent posting to the DAM Maturity Model site, alignment is

2 2... the collaboration between technical and business areas utilizing the value of DAM to achieve the organizations mission. This collaboration provides the capability for the groups to anticipate the needs of one another with complementary strategies. (The DAM Maturity Model Version 2.1) Because of the web content management initiatives, not only does the UC staff have both a technical and business based understanding of the underlying benefits of a DAM, campus communicators and the university administration are familiar with the idea of content management. INFORMATION: FOCUS ON FINDABILITY Under the Information Assessment section of the DAM Maturity Model, the UC staff again is in the incipient category, with the exception of Findability, which falls in-between Ad Hoc and Incipient, and Use Cases which is somewhere between the Incipient and the Formative stage. Use cases were created for the UC DAM business case and will be used to evaluate DAM solutions during the RFP process. However, there is a larger departmental issue around standard workflows, which exist for all project types. Communications staff often tweak workflows per project, usually to better manage a clients timeline. A revisit of use cases in regards to workflows may help solidify where we fall on the maturity model. Not surprisingly, the outstanding issue with asset management within our department is findability and up until three months ago, we were solidly in the ad hoc column, relying mainly on institutional memory to source images. For the past half year, a focus on the metadata capabilities of Adobe Bridge, coupled with the beginnings of DAM governance, has helped make findability within Bridge less time consuming. In addition, a spreadsheet of our asset inventory, including keywords, is being maintained. This temporary solution is the very beginning of indexing efforts, and staff is able to search this file and cross-reference it to the folder structure on the internal server. Most of the time, however, staff just ask me to find assets

3 3 for them, which I do using a combination of Bridge search capabilities and the inventory spreadsheet. SYSTEMS: FOCUS ON INFRASTRUCTURE For the System area of the DAM Maturity Model, the department again straddles the line between Ad-Hoc and Incipient. Over 55,000 photographic assets are currently kept on an internal server. The majority of these images are from 2009 and later, leaving the archives on external hard drives, CDs, DVDs, and even slides. Our IT department backs up the server regularly, and the external hard drives are duplicated, but that is the extent of security efforts. Usability is disjointed, although some users do attempt to use the Bridge/Spreadsheet system. And to say that efforts are siloed, not only in our department but across campus, would be a grand understatement. Infrastructure, therefore, is mostly reactive. However, what is becoming more common on campus, are project-specific implementations. Almost like a test case, a projectspecific way of dealing with an issue has the ability, if done successfully, to drive change. Seen over and over in our web design projects, we tend to try something for a specialty job and if it works and receives a good reaction, that implementation is adopted across the web infrastructure. While the DAM project is looking to ride on the coattails of the web content management success, it will likely be the project implementation of the DAM system that will drive change for asset management at the University. Our campus library is considering a DAM (projected 3-5 years out) and the CCTV system of digital signage on campus is essentially a very outdated (and very siloed) DAM system. As DAM projects grow on campus, our project specific implementation of a DAM will be looked at as a role model for projects in the future. Therefore, continued growth and development of the DAM system, towards more Formative, Operational, and Optimal statuses on the DAM Majority Model, is projected and imperative.

4 4 PROCESSES: FOCUS ON GOVERNANCE The web content management system can also serve our purposes as a role model for process. As mentioned earlier, departmental workflows are not always followed and integration is not commonplace, therefore governance will be our largest challenge. On the plus side, one of the most effective selling points when presenting the DAM business case to administration was the need for better rights management in regards to our photographic assets. Improper use of the DAM or the lack of correct attribution could have legal ramifications. This very necessary function of the DAM, along with management support, gives teeth to the governance surrounding the DAM. As mentioned earlier, the web content team manages a community of practice surrounding the CMS, including a well-thought out training process and schedule. Training, motivation, and continual user feedback could be modeled on the CMS community but reflective of specific needs when working with photographic assets. One way to begin this modeling is to involve stakeholder support early on in the process. The manager of the IT Project Office, the Digital Projects and Preservation coordinator with the campus libraries, the UC Design Director and the UC Marketing Director all sit on the RFP committee. Additional stakeholders from schools and departments that frequently use our digital assets, as well as power users within the UC department are all welcome to sit in on vendor presentations. Once a vendor is chosen, a DAM road show will be put together to introduce the concept and begin the education of campus communicators. CONCLUSION A review of the DAM Maturity Model was completed twice within the past six months and a third time after attending Theresa Regli and Mark Davey s webinar, Measuring DAM Success (October 15, 2014). In the webinar, Theresa and Mark suggested completing the Maturity Model in an as is state and then in a to be state. Therefore, during the last review I also included

5 5 projections on where I d like to see our DAM project develop by both this time next year and into For the most part, I hope to move each category up one level each year. If the DAM project stays on track, most of this maturation will happen naturally. For example, by this time in 2015, we will have demonstrated experience with implementation, including ingestion, cataloging, etc., moving technical expertise and business expertise of our staff more towards the Formative level. Because education of DAM will need to continually take place outside of our department, we will probably not hit that level with Alignment until Natural growth will more than likely also happen in the Information area. I am expecting our level to leap frog to Operational in the Assets and Metadata sections but only advance to Formative during the same period, not catching up until I am hopeful that the DAM will initiate and drive change in our systems and processes but am also aware, and a bit wary, of the cultural and political challenges. Efforts are often siloed, on an individual, department, and sometimes division level. There are ownership issues with certain tasks related to the DAM, and there are still staff members within our department that see the DAM as a threat, something that will take away parts of their job. Educating within our department as well as without, we will need to highlight the long-term benefits of streamlining tasks and adhering to policies while showing the rewards of a DAM. We will need to base our governance on use cases and stakeholder needs and be as judicial as possible with any type of enforcement. We will need to have a strict set of performance indicators and use that data for continual, positive promotion of the DAM. And we will need to rely on the DAM Maturity Model as a guide for navigating this process. But first, we need a vendor!

6 6 WORKS CITED Measuring DAM Success. Theresa Regli and Mark Davey. RealStory Group, 15 Oct Webinar. < Effectiveness>. "The DAM Maturity Model Version 2.1." The DAM Maturity Model. DAM Foundation, 21 Oct Web. 23 Oct < version-2-1/>.