Extensis DAM Forum at MW2011

Digital Asset Management Forum damlearningcenter.com/mw2011
Maggie Hanson
Collections Information Manager
Portland Art Museum
Edward Smith
Product Manager
Extensis

Presentation Outline
Introduction
Preparing for DAM
Evaluating Solutions
Implementation
Daily Use
Maintenance & Next Steps

Introduction: Extensis
Founded in 1993
Software Company
Digital Asset Management products and services
Edward Smith
DAM Product Manager
DAM Learning Center Editor

Introduction: Portland Art Museum
Founded in 1892
Oldest museum in the Pacific Northwest
50,000 works
~130 FTE
No Rights & Reproductions dept.
Maggie Hanson
Collections Information Manager
Manage CHAMP grant
Supervise DAM and interns
Lead an interdepartmental team of mostly senior staff

What Is Digital Asset Management? DAM is the effective management and distribution of digital assets such as images, documents, creative files, audio and video clips. DAM solutions allow organizations to centrally catalog, store, retrieve and distribute large collections of valuable digital assets.

Asset Metadata
“ Data about data”
Information (metadata) about files (assets)
Machine or human generated
Examples:
Informational (The date a picture was taken)
Index (search keywords)
Rights (where/how can this file can be used?)

What Is An Asset? “ Anything tangible or intangible that is capable of being owned or controlled to produce value…” (Wikipedia) “ A media file plus metadata” “ They’re only assets if you can find them”

The Need for DAM
Locating assets
Understanding what assets are available
Providing access to the “correct” assets
Providing access to the “correct” format and size
Reusing assets
Recreating assets
Inconsistent use
Usage and rights management

Problems
Confusing navigation of current folder structure
Deletion/duplication of files
Proliferation of files on desktops, etc.
No easy access to collections images for staff
No way to embed metadata in files (or use embedded metadata in a meaningful way
Needs: Portland Art Museum

Benefits of DAM
Improve efficiency
Reduce costs
Increase revenue
Brand consistency
Customer service

Introduction
Preparing for DAM
Implementation
Daily Use

Portland Art Museum
Awarded substantial CHAMP grant in 2009
CHAMP is an Oregon state “cultural reinvestment package to strengthen state agencies and cultural institutions”
Goals of grant:
Increase Access (Internally & Externally)
Standardize information
Manage our digital assets
Digitization

Identify and Involve Stakeholders
Find champions
Create a project team
Involve your IT department
Obtain director/executive level support

CHAMP team:
Directors of Collections, Education, Development, and IT
Interactive Media Producer
Digital Asset Manager
Stakeholders: Portland Art Museum

Take Inventory
IT Assets
Hardware and Operating Systems
Software and Applications
File Assets
Types (formats)
Number
Size (disk space)
Annual Growth
Existing Systems and Data
CMS
Spreadsheets
FileMaker/MS Access
Physical Information Systems
Other Databases?

Inventory: Portland Art Museum
IT Assets
Primarily Windows
Some Mac users
File Assets
JPEG, Bitmap, TIFF, PDF, .MOV, .MP4, .WAV
20,000+ collection images
Existing Systems and Data
Mimsy XG
Museum Shared Server(s)
Several other systems
FMP databases
Access databases
Educational programming content and interfaces

Portland Art Museum CMS (MimsyXG)

Making a Business Case for DAM How does DAM support organizational goals/mission? Quantify the current pain points Does the cost justify the outcome? (ROI)

ROI Tool

Business Case: Portland Art Museum
Supports the mission of our grant
Supports our institutional mission
Address pain points associated with:
Rights management
Access
Permissions
Search
Limited staff and minimal resources

Document Current Workflow
Questions to Ask:
Who is responsible for managing assets?
Who needs access to assets?
What are they looking for?
What formats do they need?
What is the folder hierarchy convention (if any)?
What is the file naming convention (if any)?

Document Current Workflow Prior to evaluating DAM systems, document use case scenarios that describe how people currently work today, and how they would work in an ideal DAM system in the future.

Document Current Workflow Present Day Scenario Images are frequently requested by staff for use within PowerPoint presentations or for print and web use. The person maintaining the image collection fulfills image requests by browsing through folders on several different file servers. Once an appropriate image is located, a spreadsheet is cross referenced for usage rights. If the image does not meet the desired usage, the search continues. Once an appropriate set of images are selected, each image is opened in Photoshop and resaved in the correct format and resolution. The images are then uploaded to an FTP server and download instructions are emailed to the requesting staff member.

Document Current Workflow Ideal Scenario Images added to file server folders are automatically ingested by the DAM system. The collection maintainer adds search keywords and usage rights information to images in the DAM system using drop-down menus. A secure web portal allows staff to search items from the image collection using keywords and other automatically applied information such as “Date Created”. The web portal only displays search results for items that have an “approved” metadata value. Important information such as usage rights appear next to search results. Staff can download and convert images on the fly into low, medium, and high resolution formats.

Present Day Scenario
Curator search the folders on the server
Grabs whatever size/format for their presentation
Results in calls to registrars (about the image) and IT (about the presentation freezing).
Ideal Scenario
Curators open a centralized repository
Search any number of useful fields
Download appropriate derivative using presets
Workflow Scenario #1

Marketing calls Registrars about images
Discussion takes place about image selection, appropriateness, quality, and rights
Ideal Scenario
Self-service image access for Marketing
Fields and galleries available for search and usage info
Marketing adds usage info to DAM

Staff needs images of a past event
Looks through poorly organized folders
Tries to locate images based on filenames alone
Ideal Scenario
Staff searches DAM
Search on event name
Search on person name
Search for specific purpose

Introduction
Preparing for DAM
Implementation
Daily Use

Focus on solving problems, not features.
What problems do you want to solve?
What problems are the most important?
What problems can be solved later (phase 2)?
Evaluation of DAM Systems

Requirements: Portland Art Museum
DAM for curatorial and marketing search/download
Intuitive interface
Ease of
Searching
Downloading
Reduction of duplicates
Lowers strain on the IT department
Rights management

Must Have
Cost
Ease of use
Search/embed/extract metadata
Download derivatives
Accessibility (Search & Retrieval)
Managing duplication, providing access to appropriate versions
Nice to Have
Customizable views
Customizable access levels
Phase 2/TBD
Granular levels of control
Deal with our messy folder structure on the back-end.
Incorporate non-collections assets
DAM Evaluation: Portland Art Museum

Types of DAM Systems
Commercial, Open Source, or Custom
Location
Centralized onsite
Distributed onsite (multiple locations)
Cloud based (hosted)
Licensing
Per server
Per named user
Per connection
Subscription
Scalability

Give vendors your notes and documentation.
Ask to see how the system would work with your assets, processes, and data instead of generic data and demos.
Use cases
Sample assets
Metadata schema
Folder structure example

Ask Vendors:
For a web demo
For trial software
For customer referrals
How long have they been in business?
What other organizations like yours are using their software?
“ How does your system…?” not “ Can your system …?”.

Introduction
Preparing for DAM
Implementation
Daily Use

1. Project Team
2. Catalogers – dependant on cataloging strategy:
Who will add files?
How much time for initial cataloging?
How much time for ongoing cataloging?
3. Server Admin
4. Training and Documentation
Assign Responsibilities

Preliminary Discussions
Installation
Configuration
Configure
Test
Review
Documentation
Training
Post-Implementation Evaluation
Installation Steps

Define Schema
Schema is the framework or structure of your DAM database.
Your schema will affect:
How people add assets
How people categorize assets
How people search for assets
How people will understand assets, including:
Descriptive Info
Usage Info

Define Schema Controlled vocabulary A taxonomy or thesaurus that uses predefined lists of values. Unrestricted vocabulary An non-hierarchical collaborative method to categorize metadata where freely chosen keywords are used instead of a controlled vocabulary. Many organizations prefer not to use folksonomy, as it creates inconsistencies in the classification of information (kitty versus cat; product SKU versus product part number). Hybrid Vocabulary Offers users the choice of choosing values from controlled vocabulary list or entering in a desired value not available in the list.

Prioritize metadata field entry
1. Crucial Info…
Capture device
Asset creator’s name
Date created
EXIF metadata
2. Nice to Have…
Conservation treatment status
Object collection information
Curatorial approvals
3. Can Live Without…
Work order information
Exhibition information
Define Schema

MIMSY Related Custom Fields
Accession number
Title
Date
Artist
Artist Nationality
Artist Life Dates
Collection / Curatorial Dept.
Object Type
Credit Line
Copyright Status
Copyright Instructions
Schema: Portland Art Museum

Other Custom Fields
Department
Copyright Status
Archival Storage Disc
Archival Storage Location
Event(s)
Exhibition(s)
Professional Photograph
Program(s)
Project(s)
Schema: Portland Art Museum
Resource Type
Digital Image
View Type
IPTC Copyright
IPTC Copyright Status

Metadata Planning Tool

A folder hierarchy is a structure of folders and subfolders.
Folder hierarchies are used for:
Browsing assets (instead of searching)
Access outside of a DAM system
Applying metadata (keywords from path)
Folder Hierarchy

Folder Hierarchy Example

Folder Hierarchy: Portland Art Museum
Server #1: Museum Shared Server
All departments have folders
Minimal structure
Messy access issues

Server #2: Collections Server (CMS media—highly limited access)
Audio
Video
Collection Images
Archival (large images, formatted/unformatted)
Full
Thumb
Conservation, Damage, etc.
Images
Documents
Documents

Server #3: Marketing Server
Publications
Branding
Etc.

File Limitations
File extensions?
Long file names (more than 32 characters)?
Mac resource forks?
Mac color labels applied?
Files larger than 2GB?
Filenames with anything other than letters (A-Z,a-z), numbers (0-9), spaces ( ), underscores (_), dashes (-), or periods(.) ?

File Naming Convention: PAM Current Portland Art Museum file naming convention: 2009_64_43c.tiff Proposed file naming convention: 2009_0064_0043c_AM.tiff

Documentation: Portland Art Museum

Documentation: Miami Dade College

DAM Implementation Summary

Introduction
Preparing for DAM
Implementation
Daily Use

Workflow Example #1: Yale

Workflow Example #2: MDC

Workflow Example #3 – AMNH

Workflow Example #4 – NWF

Workflow Example #5 – PAM

The process of adding files to a DAM system is also known as “ingesting”, “uploading”, or “cataloging”.
The process may be invoked or automatic (“watch folders”)
The Process May Involve:
Addition of metadata by user
Automatic extraction of embedded metadata
Automatic generation of derivatives like thumbnails, previews, or video proxies
Adding Files

Automatic generation of keywords from file and folder names
Extraction of metadata from files
Embedding of metadata to files
Batch editing
Import or export of metadata to or from other systems and databases
Metadata Management

Custom fields
File-naming convention
CMS
IPTC
Predefined lists
Metadata Management: PAM

Controlled Lists, examples

Basic Search Advanced Search Search

Collections Assets
File-naming convention incorporates accession number
QuickFind searches Accession Number, Artist Name, and Title
Galleries
Public Domain
High-res
Professional photog
Search: Portland Art Museum

Search: Portland Art Museum
Non-collection Assets
Include
Marketing collateral
Education & Public Programming
Events photography
Folder and filenames provide keywords
Controlled lists for user-added info
Future:
Cataloging schemas for non-collection assets
Institutional master keyword list

After previewing an asset on screen, a user may need access to:
Download a high-resolution original file
Download a low to medium-resolution file
Download a watermarked file
Playback time-based media (video streaming)
Download

Batch processing can change one or more of the following attributes on a selection of assets:
Format
Color mode
Dimensions
Resolution
Filename
Image content/pixels (image scripting)
Processing

Read-only users (most) download using presets:
.ppt
web/email
thumbnail
large
Department reps can access original
Download original untouched
Batch convert
Processing: Portland Art Museum

Users maintaining digital asset collections typically use client applications to add and maintain the digital asset management system.
Other “outside” users that are not familiar with the collection may benefit from self-service web portals that provide:
Access to approved assets in the correct formats
Insight into collection contents
Instant and remote access via the web
Intuitive user interfaces and search forms
Self Service Web Portals

Media Sets

The Solution: Portfolio Server

Introduction
Preparing for DAM
Implementation
Daily Use

Archive != Backup
Types of DAM workflows:
Production/Work in progress
Archive/Distribution
Back-up your files!
RAID is not backup
Invaluable in terms of recovering files accidentally lost
Get backups out of the building!
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/people/roadhunter/

Software Updates Major Updates (Version 2.0) Minor Updates (Version 2.1) Hosted Solution Updates Maintenance Contracts Customization

Support
Internal Support
Vendor Support
Email
Phone
Web/KB
In-House vs. Outsourced?
Consultants
The Community
Professional Orgs/List-servs (MCN, ImageMuse, VRA, etc.)

Next Steps: Portland Art Museum
Training Timeline
Registrars (with individual follow-up training as needed)
Education & Marketing
Curators
Assistance and check-ins as needed

Next Steps: Portland Art Museum
Cataloging Timeline:
Refine Mimsy reports
Schedule CMS imports
Ongoing rights research
Incorporate Marketing server
Cataloging schema for Marketing and Education files

More Information Portland Art Museum www.pam.org DAM Learning Center: www.damlearningcenter.com /mw2011 @DAMGeek Extensis Portfolio Server: www.extensis.com/portfolio

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Extensis DAM Forum at MW2011

by Extensis on Apr 08, 2011

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