Digital Asset Management is not just an application, but it is a business practice requiring certain roles in place for success in any organization. For the most part the profession of Digital Asset Management is not fully understood, except for by those in the ‘know’. This is due in part to the maturation and growth of the field in just over the last few years. Have you taken a look at the landscape of content management technologies recently? This is no longer a one-trick pony in a one-horse town, but a process that requires support from a skilled selection of professionals and has touch-points across the organization. To quote one of my favorite bloggers on DAM, H. de Gyor, “Digital Asset Management is a business need, not just a technology or another database”.
Many institutions who have systems that were implemented over 4 years ago are now facing the challenges of an over-accumulation of content, poorly defined DAM scopes and ones that are no longer meeting the needs of the staff. First and foremost DAM systems should be a means to efficiently and effectively transmit ‘valuable’ and high-use assets throughout an organization. Some of these complications arose out of the transition from analog to digital with no change in staffing. Old staff were just ‘transitioned’ into working in the digital realm without any real training or professional development requirements. The skills used in managing analog materials were not the same as those necessary for the effective management and creation of digital materials. Analog workflows do not cleanly transition into digital ones, nor should they, there are better ways of doing things now. So many institutions had to ‘make-do’ as there were no other options that didn’t involve sweeping the human resource slate clean and starting over again.
Digital asset management is not just the system (i.e The DAM), but a combination of content management related professional disciplines. These disciplines include, but are not limited to: business management, information architecture, library and information science, software engineering/development, content creation and publications development. So who or what are these most integral roles at the bare minimum of the resource chain to make a DAM project successful? What follows is a summary of 4 essential DAM roles, some of which originate from the epic work The Content Management Bible by Bob Boiko. However, many folks will never get around to reading this most essential work, so I’ve made it easier for you. If you don’t have at least these three roles present in a dedicated DAM team, you’re not doing it right.
Business Analyst:
They need to fully understand the discipline, concepts and execution of digital asset management. They are the business representative for the digital asset management project to the rest of the organization and the outside world. They understand how digital asset management fits into the overall strategy of the institution. The business analyst will negotiate support and cooperation from the institution in regard to digital asset management initiatives on behalf of the DAM team. They perform business analytics on all processes and workflows that are effected by digital asset management. They will then help the team to apply these analytics to the creation of new processes and workflows to meet organizational needs.
Content Analyst:
They need to gather content requirements and determine the value of assets to be managed in the DAM. They create standardization documentation for polices surrounding the cataloging and management of rich media assets. Design the framework for the architecture of the information (metadata schemas, folder architecture). They will need to establish a asset lifecycle schedule from the ingestion of assets to their retirement. They will need to have a strong emphasis on cataloging and standardization skills. The content analyst determines project plans for the ingestion of new rich media into the DAM system, workflows and surrounding processes. In leaner times the content analyst also performs the role of a content metator for the DAM (digital librarian). This entails the review of incoming assets to make sure they adhere to written standards, add metadata where needed, perform training in all aspects of DAM (end-user to admistrator). Information Science professionals are often ideal candidates as content analysts, however not all library science professionals are good fits for the role. The library and information science professional should be well rounded and come from various environments (for-profit and not-for-profit), have experience in working with digital creative agencies and in more traditional archives.
Rights & Usage Analyst:
The focus of digital asset management is on the distribution of valuable assets both within and outside the organization. The rights and usage expert will evaluate the the organizations rights and usage approach and workflow. They will streamline the distribution process of assets both within and outside the organization, standardize the rights associated with assets, and increase the amount of assets available for use. They will work closely with the Digital Asset Manager/content Analyst to asses the collection based on rights and usage. They will have advanced experience with creative commons, PLUS and other rights management initiatives, workflows and tools.
Programmer/Developer:
This person will implement necessary changes, enhancements and extensions to the digital asset management system or chose the development environment for new DAM projects. They are able to automate acquisition routines, create and run system diagnostics and provide system intelligence to the DAM team. They have expertise in database and XML technologies. They need to be a SQL ninja as some DAM systems do not provide an easy front-end for doing analytics.
Along with these four roles you may have some borrowed talent such as a administrators, project managers, production mangers or even a CIO. Some of the roles above may even overlap into a general Digital Asset Manager role depending on the project. In the short run if you do not have at least these 4 professional roles (this does not mean you can lump them all into one person), your DAM might survive, but its success over time originates with the inclusion of these individual professionals in your project specifications. If you want more on this topic as I have really glazed over what takes many pages to describe into a few short paragraphs please read The Content Management Bible by Bob Boiko, specifically chapters 12-14 and 33. In short, Digital Asset Management is too big to saddle on the shoulders of any one person and requires at minimum a team of 4 dedicated, experienced professionals to be effective.
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