Ayda Pourasad

Ayda has worked with video and audio assets, and understands the process is always evolving.

What companies/organizations have you worked for as a DAM professional? What was your role at each?

I have worked at both CNN and NPR. I have assigned metadata to raw video and audio stories. I also have made decisions on what video asset to include in the archive and what to let go. I have taken care QC of audio assets. I made sure that the audio stories and their transcripts matched, and the audio was playing correctly. I am responsible to make sure each of the story records in our database were linking to the correct audio on npr.org website.

How did you learn DAM? Any recommended sources?

I mostly learned digital asset management from my managers and also by simply trying out different DAM systems. There are no resources or university courses that I am aware of that would work better than training at your work place. I do however think that having an Archives degree definitely benefits a Digital Asset Manager.

What’s the most important thing for someone new to DAM to understand about DAM?

I think DAM is all about learning and understanding the needs of the organization that the system is supposed to serve. The DAM first should learn about how the organization is using those assets. So usability of the assets is the most important concept the DAM needs to keep in mind.

If you weren’t doing DAM as a career, what would you be doing?

I would be doing research and reference services, as I am doing now. I would also consider doing production in the media field.

This interview originally appeared on DAM Guru on Mon, 06 Apr 2015. For more DAM News interviews, see the interviews index page.

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