DAM Lowdown: Metadata and Digital Assets, DAM as Non-Commodity

By Irina Guseva (@irina_guseva) Nov 4, 2010

Yes, what you see in front of you is a DAM new column. I’ll try to bring you some of the latest news in Digital Asset Management, as well as thoughts around the DAM industry. Off we go…

Why a DAM Column?

Because it's fun, of course! Also, as we discussed on a number of occasions, DAM is getting more and more traction alongside the world of content management. I could go into a long discussion on why DAM is important and how it relates to Web CMS and Enterprise CMS, but this endeavor deserves a separate post.

As we’ve been exploring the world of WEM and how it relates to DAM (and as I've asserted before, DAM loves WEM, and WEM should love DAM back) it became rather clear that Digital Asset Management is on the upswing with more and more organizations turning to the power of using digital assets in their online or offline presences.

DAM becomes critical to media-intensive companies that are looking beyond a Web CMS or an Enterprise CMS. Media moguls of the world are in need of specific systems that will allow them to manage assets – be it images, audio, video, etc. – wisely, cost-efficiently and productively.

While DAM exists in a close coalition with ECM and WCM, it deserves it's own special attention.

Making Meaning for DAM: The Mega Metadata

In the special metadata issue, the Journal of Digital Asset Management looks beyond assets on the surface and delves into their guts – metadata. Tom Bachmann authored one of the articles – Video metadata modeling for DAM systems – and talked about the challenges faced by video content managers.

When they use a Digital Asset Management system and have to manage gazillions of hours of digital footage, just like with content management systems, metadata is queen. And digital assets are king, of course, in this case.

Bachmann stresses the importance of a well-structured metadata architecture. Just like sound content modeling in CMS, metadata is important to DAM not only for search and findability, but also for a wider range of functions: tagging, ingesting, transcoding, distributing derivative formats, etc. For organizations looking to construct a healthy video metadata strategy, it is recommended to look closely at developing metadata schemas, carefully document data dictionaries and establish standards for inbound and outbound A/V formats.

More recommendations in this review aim to steer DAM users clear from unhealthy metadata strategies and crucial mistakes.

Is DAM a Commodity?

A Digital Asset Management vendor Widen (news, site) posted their thoughts on the commoditization of DAM. Beware of the vendor lens, but do take a look at this two-part series on why DAM in not a commodity.

Widen asserts that DAM is not commoditized because there is a lot of fragmentation in the Digital Asset Management market. In addition, DAM products are not uniform, prices are very different. Other reasons for non- commoditization include varied deployment options, specialized vs. core features mix, competitive market.