Improving DAM In 2017 And Beyond: Call For Contributions

Over the last few years, I have written a number of articles commenting on DAM innovation and how it seems to have become stuck in a rut and has not really moved forward a great deal (at least in a way which is tangible).

Having talked to a number of people (both on the sell and buy-side of DAM) I am beginning to see some common themes emerging which go some way to explaining why this might be the case.  To an extent, it can be attributed to DAM systems architects coming to the realisation that their current platforms do not scale.  Not only does this manifest itself in terms of asset volumes (i.e. ingesting many more of them) but also from a functional perspective: being able to adapt a platform to address a multitude of different requirements and integrate their products on a case-by-case basis.  The issue goes further than efficient application design, however, it also suggests a lack of understanding of what users want to do with a DAM system beyond a searchable storage facility for some fairly basic sets of corporate media files.  As noted in some of the comments from our recent articles, more fundamental issues with system reliability persist among a number of products and too.

There is, however, now almost an entire industry sub-sector devoted to giving DAM vendors a hard time for delivering partially successful products.  Frequently, this criticism is well-deserved, but complaining about the current state of DAM without offering any suggestions to improve solutions (and the delivery of them) is not productive for end-users nor vendors.  With that in mind, I am making a call for contributions to a DAM News special feature series which we will commence early next year with the title: “Improving DAM In 2017 And Beyond”.

I invite those who have an interest in Digital Asset Management to write an article explaining how they would modify and enhance current product platforms, other associated services or possibly introduce industry-wide initiatives.  I am willing to consider quite a diverse range of subjects covering metadata management, technical/systems-related issues, operations management, interoperability, education and DAM professional services (to name just a few).  Here are a few potential ideas:

• Metadata management capabilities which would simplify the process of managing digital assets.
• Media processing enhancements and improved management of media assets.
• Integrating semantic technologies and linked data.
• DAM interoperability: possible ideas for standards and improving the ease with which assets can be transferred between solutions.
• DAM service delivery: enhancing the rollout and maintenance of enterprise DAM solutions.
• Utilising AI without compromising risk.
• Quality management for DAM: delivering more robust solutions that are less likely to experience reliability issues.
• DAM-oriented models for microservices and developing digital asset value/supply chains.
• DAM infrastructures and DAM services that can scale.
• Innovative approaches to professional services.
• Enhancing DAM training and education.

These are suggestions only; if you have a different subject that you want to cover, I am willing to listen and offer an opinion on whether it would be suitable for this series.  Contact us via the form on the DAM News site, message me personally on LinkedIn or email me (the address is on the about page).

I am particularly interested to hear from DAM end users, however, vendors, consultants and other parties can participate also.  There are two key stipulations: any material that is clearly self-promotional in nature will get ignored, so if you are eyeing this as a potential ‘content marketing’ opportunity, think again before you send something.  Second, I am not accepting articles that offer no constructive suggestions for improvements, critique of current models or techniques is encouraged, but you must offer a solution and it needs to be reasoned one, even if you are unsure whether it would be feasible.  The implementation details are less important than the objectives for this exercise.  All published pieces will be fully attributed with links to any relevant websites, profiles, blogs etc but if you prefer to post anonymously, that can be arranged also.  We do not usually have strict length guidelines on DAM News, but a minimum of 700 words seems like it would be necessary to give the subject the required depth to make an item useful.

I get the sense in the DAM market that there are a lot of passively discontented end users who put up with poorly performing products (or consulting services) and then go away and complain about them at conferences or on-line forums etc.  This is your opportunity to take a more active approach to getting something done about the situation.  I gather a reasonable cross-section of this industry reads DAM News, so you can be assured that at least a few people will take notice of what you have proposed.

The deadline for submissions is 31st January which (even allowing for the Christmas holiday period) should allow a fair amount of time for those who want to participate to write something, but we will start running items from earlier in January, depending on what we receive.

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