Digital asset management

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Digital asset management (DAM) and the implementation of its use as a computer application is required in the collection of digital assets to ensure that the owner, and possibly their delegates, can perform operations on the data files. [1]

Contents

Terminology

The term media asset management (MAM) may be used in reference to Digital Asset Management when applied to the sub-set of digital objects commonly considered "media", namely audio recordings, photos, and videos. [2] Any editing process that involves media, especially video, can make use of a MAM to access media components to be edited together or combined with a live feed in a fluent manner. A MAM typically offers at least one searchable index of the images, audio, and videos it contains, constructed from metadata harvested from the images using pattern recognition, or input manually. [3]

Management

Creation

Applications implement Digital Asset Management (DAM) by importing it from the analog and/or digital domains (by encoding, scanning, optical character recognition, etc.) or by authoring it as a new object. [4]

Indexing

A primary function of a DAM system is to make assets easily available to its users by providing a searchable index that supports retrieval of assets by their content and/or metadata. [5] The cataloging function is usually part of the ingestion process for new assets. [6]

Workflow

Digital assets will typically have a lifecycle, which may include various states such as creation, approval, live, archived, and deleted.

Version control

Often a DAM system will store earlier versions of a digital asset and allow those to be downloaded or reverted to. Therefore, a DAM system can operate as an advanced type of version control system.

Access control

Finally, a DAM system typically includes security controls ensuring relevant people have access to assets. This will often involve integration with existing directory services via a technology such as single sign-on.

Categorization

Smaller DAM systems are used in a particular operational context, for instance, in video production systems. The key differentiators between them are the types of input encoders used for creating digital copies of assets to bring them under management, and the output decoders and/or formatters used to make them usable as documents and/or online resources. The metadata of a content item can serve as a guide to the selection of the codec(s) needed to handle the content during processing and may be of use when applying access control rules to enforce authorization policy. [7]

Requirements

Assets that require specific technologies to be used in a workflow need to have their bandwidth, latency, and access control requirements considered in the design of the tools that create or store them, as well as in the architecture of the system that distributes and archives them. [8] When assets are not actively being worked on, they can be stored in a DAM in various formats, including as a blob (binary large object in a database) or as a file in a standard file system, which is "cheaper" to store than the form needed during operations on them. [9] This allows the implementation of large-scale DAM as an assembly of high-performance processing systems within a network with a high-density storage solution at its center. [10]

Types of systems

Digital asset management systems fall into the following classifications: [11]

All of these types will include features for workflow management, collaboration, project management, and revision control.

Media asset issues

An asset can exist in several formats and in a sequence of versions. The digital version of the original asset is generally captured in as high resolution, colour depth, and (if applicable) frame rate as needed to ensure that results are of acceptable quality for the end-use. There can also be thumbnail copies of lower quality for use in visual indexing.

Metadata for an asset can include its packaging, encoding, provenance, ownership and access rights, and location of original creation. It is used to provide hints to the tools and systems used to work on, or with, the asset about how it should be handled and displayed. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dublin Core</span> Standardized set of metadata elements

The Dublin Core, also known as the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES), is a set of fifteen main metadata items for describing digital or physical resources. It was the first metadata standard for describing web content. The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) is responsible for formulating the Dublin Core; DCMI is a project of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), a non-profit organization.

A document management system (DMS) is usually a computerized system used to store, share, track and manage files or documents. Some systems include history tracking where a log of the various versions created and modified by different users is recorded. The term has some overlap with the concepts of content management systems. It is often viewed as a component of enterprise content management (ECM) systems and related to digital asset management, document imaging, workflow systems and records management systems.

A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content . A CMS is typically used for enterprise content management (ECM) and web content management (WCM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Data management</span> Disciplines related to managing data as a resource

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Enterprise content management (ECM) extends the concept of content management by adding a timeline for each content item and, possibly, enforcing processes for its creation, approval, and distribution. Systems using ECM generally provide a secure repository for managed items, analog or digital. They also include one methods for importing content to bring manage new items, and several presentation methods to make items available for use. Although ECM content may be protected by digital rights management (DRM), it is not required. ECM is distinguished from general content management by its cognizance of the processes and procedures of the enterprise for which it is created.

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The Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) is an ISO standard, originally created by Adobe Systems Inc., for the creation, processing and interchange of standardized and custom metadata for digital documents and data sets.

A digital asset is anything that exists only in digital form and comes with a distinct usage right or distinct permission for use. Data that do not possess those rights are not considered assets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Image organizer</span> Software for organising digital images

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Cumulus is a digital asset management software designed for client/server system which is developed by Canto Software. The product makes use of metadata for indexing, organizing, and searching.

The digital supply chain is a new media term which encompasses the process of the delivery of digital media, be it music or video, by electronic means, from the point of origin to destination (consumer). In much the same manner a physical medium must go through a “supply chain” process in order to mature into a consumable product, digital media must pass through various stages in processing to get to a point in which the consumer can enjoy the music or video on a mobile device, computer, or television set.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metadata</span> Data about data

Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:

The Handle System is the Corporation for National Research Initiatives's proprietary registry assigning persistent identifiers, or handles, to information resources, and for resolving "those handles into the information necessary to locate, access, and otherwise make use of the resources".

Document Capture Software refers to applications that provide the ability and feature set to automate the process of scanning paper documents or importing electronic documents, often for the purposes of feeding advanced document classification and data collection processes. Most scanning hardware, both scanners and copiers, provides the basic ability to scan to any number of image file formats, including: PDF, TIFF, JPG, BMP, etc. This basic functionality is augmented by document capture software, which can add efficiency and standardization to the process.

Content storage management (CSM) is a technique for the evolution of traditional media archive technology used by media companies and content owners to store and protect valuable file-based media assets. CSM solutions focus on active management of content and media assets regardless of format, type and source, interfaces between proprietary content source/destination devices and any format and type of commodity IT centric storage technology. These digital media files most often contain video but in rarer cases may be still pictures or sound. A CSM system may be directed manually but is more often directed by upper-level systems, which may include media asset management (MAM), automation, or traffic.

The Entertainment Identifier Registry, or EIDR, is a global unique identifier system for a broad array of audiovisual objects, including motion pictures, television, and radio programs. The identification system resolves an identifier to a metadata record that is associated with top-level titles, edits, DVDs, encodings, clips, and mashups. EIDR also provides identifiers for video service providers, such as broadcast and cable networks.

Islandora is a free and open-source software digital repository system based on Drupal and integrating with additional applications, including Fedora Commons. It is open source software. Islandora was originally developed at the University of Prince Edward Island by the Robertson Library and is now maintained by the Islandora Foundation, which has a mission to, "promote collaboration through transparency and consensus building among Islandora community members, and to steward their shared vision for digital curation features through a body of software and knowledge."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Krogh (photographer)</span>

Peter Krogh is an American photographer, author, public speaker, filmmaker and publisher. He is best known for his work in the field of digital asset management (DAM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audiovisual archive</span>

In archives, the term "audiovisual" is frequently used generically to denote materials other than written documents. Films, videos, audio recordings, pictures, and other audio and visual media are collected in audiovisual archives. A vast amount of knowledge is included in audiovisual records, which are considered cultural treasures and must be preserved for future use. Print materials would not have the same reach across various audiences as audiovisual resources.

References

  1. Theresa Regli (2016). Digital and Marketing Asset Management. Rosenfeld. ISBN   978-1-933820-12-5.
  2. Bardoz, Sebastien. "Council Post: How To Personalize Your Content Through Data And Successfully Leverage A Digital Asset Management Solution". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  3. Jacobsen, Jens; Schlenker, Tilman; Edwards, Lisa (2005). Implementing a Digital Asset Management System: For Animation, Computer Games, and Web Development. Focal Press. ISBN   0-240-80665-4.
  4. Blanke, Tobias (2014). Digital Asset Ecosystems: Rethinking crowds and clouds. Elsevier. ISBN   9781780633824.
  5. "Digital asset management". www.ibm.com. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
  6. Krogh, Peter (2009). The DAM Book, Second Edition. O'Reilly Media. ISBN   978-0-596-52357-2.
  7. Elizabeth Keathley (2014). Digital Asset Management: Content Architectures, Project Management, and Creating Order out of Media Chaos. APress. ISBN   978-1430263777.
  8. "What is Digital Asset Management (DAM)? - Artwork Flow". www.artworkflowhq.com. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  9. Diamond, David (2012). DAM Survival Guide: Digital Asset Management Initiative Planning. DAMSurvivalGuide.com. ISBN   9781478287667.
  10. "Business Management Magazine no 39- Optimizing Digital Asset Management (page 86)". Archived from the original on July 14, 2009. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  11. Austerberry, David (2006). Digital Asset Management, Second Edition. Focal Press. ISBN   0-240-80868-1.

Further reading