How DAM Enables Efficient Publishing Processes

My Background 32 years on the dusty road of publishing 5 years directing Seybold Seminars 7 years studying the impact of the Internet on graphic communications 3 years studying XML, CMS, workflow and production automation I first said “DAM” in 1997 (a decade ago)

My Objective To position DAM in the broader context of content management and workflow automation

The Challenge of Terminology Asset management Media asset management (MAM) Digital asset management (DAM) Content management systems (CMS) Workflow (et al.)

For example: “Cross-Media”Is it… Cross-media publishing Media-neutral publishing Multi-channel publishing Cross-platform publishing Re-purposing or Media agility?

DefinitionsDigital Assets:Electronic files containing text, images,sounds and/or moving images that(generally) have been used in previouscommunication campaigns or publishingprojects.

DefinitionsAsset Management:Software system used to catalog digitalcontent for archiving or reuse.

DefinitionsContent Management:Technology and processes to maintain digitalassets in a form where they can be quicklyand easily reclaimed and reused inpublishing workflows.Content management is not just archiving.

DefinitionsWorkflow:A meaningless generalization!

Better Names for Workflow Workflow is a noun, it describes a state, not an activity Process improvement Publishing automation

The Workflow Ghetto “Workflow” is a term used all too frequently in the graphic arts, used casually, loosely and inaccurately Everybody’s got a “workflow” product What exactly is the commonality of these products?

Content Management vs.Asset Management Asset management essentially stores content, and makes it available for reuse Content management deploys content into multiple media and (often) controls workflow

What is Content Management? Collecting, managing, cataloging and deploying content**Content = all digital assets –> text, images, rich media, and associated metadata

Content Management (CMS)A fundamental technology for: Efficient workflows Dynamic Web sites Controlling rights & permissions Cross-media publishing The future of your work

Becoming aContent-centric Business The existing model is “product-centric” Clearly the form of the products is fast- changing But the content has enduring value A publishers’ core competency is content- creation And it’s existing customer relationships

The “Workflow” Challenge Authoring and design take place remotely from prepress and printing Data flows downstream with insufficient data to inform the process Islands of automation are not unified into a single process

Islands of Automation rightsauthoring & illustration & editing photography distribution production & preflight  Limited manufacturing (workflow) efficiencies  Doesn’t support content management  Doesn’t support cross-media publishing

Asset Types Images — raster, vector Composed assets: completed documents, pages, films, designs, etc. Audio Video Metadata (data about data)  Including project/job ticket data

File Format Issues Challenges of existing formats The ideal format for DAM Corporate standards Cross-platform standards Do you retain ALL of the elements?  including fonts

PDF as an Archive Format Strengths:  a standard format (PDF/A)  all of the PDF authoring & production benefits Limitations  resizing  limited editability  font issues (not fully embedded)  data not always tagged

Dealing with Legacy Data Analog  phased approach Digital  appropriate formats for archiving?

Metadata:What Gets Tracked? Authoring data Rights data Past usage Access Production info

Metadata Does the label on the photograph read “Mother & Child” or “Trust”? A host of developing standards:  Dublin Core Metadata Initiative  DOI  CEDARS  proprietary schemes

Different ROIs1. Replacement cost of images2. What else could have been done with the time spent searching3. Situations where you dont use effective or appropriate graphics because it was too hard to find them4. Finding new revenue streams for media assets

The Complexity of Media-Agility XML, XSL, XSLT, XSL-FO, and five metadata standards Archiving vs. digital asset management (DAM) vs. content management systems Requires mastery of print processes, Web architecture, and increasingly an understanding of alternate electronic formats

W3C – from A to Z CSS  URI/URL DOM  WebCGM HTML  Web Services HTTP  Web Ontology InkML  XForms MathML  XHTML OWL  XLink RDF  XML Semantic Web  XML Schema SMIL  XPath SOAP/XMLP  XPointer SVG  XSL and XSLT

Reusable Content Objects (RCO)Terminology A section (fragment, chunk) of content that can be re-used in another form

Understanding Content Objects Books, magazines, newspapers, and CDs and films are often just the commercial packaging around content

Which Content Objects ? We’re still trying to discover what “granularity of content” will offer value Will it be a:  Chapter?  Section?  Song?  Glossary item?  Table?  Scene from a film?

Content Objects (Reusable) Content Object ↓ Product/Service ↓ Decreased (Relative) CostIncreased Value Product Family ↓ Cross-product family ↓ Cross-subject ↓ Cross-media type ↓ Outside your company

Accessibility RisingDigital doesn’t mean accessible XML affords a flexible, cost-effective solution Tagging alone is not enough Section 508 has driven everyone to address accessibility W3C/WAI Guidelines  Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/) explain making Web content accessible to people with disabilities

The Human FactorNew Internal Roles, Skills & Positions The production skill set changes substantially  Much of the existing knowledge base changes or obsoletes  The move from design & composition & production management to content & product architecting and engineering  There is an enormous training challenge ahead

The Vision: Smart DocumentsAuthors w. Text and vectortemplates graphics in XMLEditors working Knows whereelectronically it’s been and where it’s going: • print & bindProofing • Web & PDAdone digitally • distributionFile contains allpreflight info & Contains multiplerevision history language versions

For More InformationContact:Thad McIlroythad@thefutureofpublishing.com

How DAM Enables Efficient Publishing Processes

by Thad McIlroy

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