David Diamond Interview Series – Third Instalment
A few weeks ago, we published the first two instalments of an interview I conducted with David Diamond, author of the DAM Survival Guide, founder of The DAM Guru Program and former Marketing Director of vendor, Picturepark. In this piece, I ask David whether the DAM market has ceased to innovate, what he thinks of Dropbox and also his take on DAM Lite. https://digitalassetmanagementnews.org/features/interview-with-david-diamond-part-3/
There are some great points made by David during the interview. The following two quotes are particularly significant:
“I wrote a piece once that theorized that if DAM didn’t exist, you would invent it. My point was that the need for DAM is so basic and so real that its absence wouldn’t go unnoticed for long. If you accept that premise, then why is it that we have an industry full of “good enough” software solutions, yet no absolutely amazing tools that seduce people into wanting to get content organized.” [Read More]
“So where’s the DAM system that encourages people to invent metadata schemas, build taxonomies, explore synonyms, or even add content? In most of the cases I’ve seen—and I’ve seen many—DAM customers think of their systems as houses of cards that, once operational, should be left alone. Few people want to explore taking things further than absolutely necessary. Few people get creative with DAM.” [Read More]
Throughout this series, one point that is striking is that David’s period of involvement with DAM has been exclusively served with vendors. I note he reveals that he was asked to join analysts, Real Story Group by Theresa Regli but decided against it because he felt he had nothing positive to say about any of the systems on offer and didn’t want to be known as ‘the guy who hated everything’.
I regularly talk to lots of vendors and representatives of professional services partners, many of whom privately concur with David’s perspective also. While this might surprise some, the lines of demarcation between those who want to see Digital Asset Management develop its true potential and others who have a different agenda are less clear cut than they may initially appear.
In addition to this interview, David also recently participated in a panel entitled ‘The State of DAM Today’. This was organised by New Jersey and London DAM Meetup groups which also featured Carin Forman, myself and Frank DeCarlo. Frank has made a recording of this event which can be viewed on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OguWBN9Wfw
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