Call for Contributions: Open Source within DAM
As budgets become increasingly stretched, organisations – especially not-for-profit, academic and cultural institutions – may be looking to save costs on proprietary DAM software solutions, many of which come with a hefty licensing price tag. Open-source software, although having gained traction over the last few decades via platforms such as Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress, is not as prominent as one might expect. If you take a look under the bonnet of many modern DAMs, you’ll find a host of open-source technologies, including Linux, Apache, PHP, Node.js, MySQL, ImageMagick, and Bootstrap. This begs the question: why are there so few wholly open-source DAM platforms?
While free to install and operate, open-source platforms generally come without any guarantees or in-depth technical guidelines, and may often require the services of costly third-party consultants, specialists and service providers in order to get up and running. Figure in the additional cost of training, storage space, and ongoing maintenance and upgrades, and the option to have it all handled for you tends to become more appealing.
In order to explore the topic further, we are inviting our readers, subscribers and DAM professionals to share their experiences regarding the role of open-source software in DAM. We are particularly interested in gathering insights on the benefits and challenges of open-source DAM, real-world implementation experiences, security considerations, and the impact on innovation and interoperability.
How does open source compare to proprietary solutions? What are the best practices for organisations looking to adopt or contribute to open-source DAM initiatives? Have you had success with a particular open-source DAM platform, integration or service? Given the complex technical requirements of running and servicing your own codebase, can a Do-It-Yourself approach truly represent value for money, flexibility and greater control?
Submissions should be between 800–1,500 words, exclusive to DAM News (i.e. not previously published elsewhere) and adhere to our editorial guidelines.
You can send your contributions to russell.mcveigh@activo-consulting.com.
We reserve the right to modify submissions in order to comply with our editorial guidelines and will notify the author should we need to make any changes. We will also provide a link to either you or your company’s website and/or LinkedIn profile.
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