Extensis DAM Forum at MW2011

Digital Asset Management Forum

damlearningcenter.com/mw2011

Maggie Hanson

Collections Information Manager

Portland Art Museum

Edward Smith

Product Manager

Extensis

Presentation Outline

I. Introduction

II. Preparing for DAM

III. Evaluating Solutions

IV. Implementation

V. Daily Use

VI. Maintenance & Next Steps

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Introduction: Extensis

• Founded in 1993

• Software Company

• Digital Asset Management products and services

• Edward Smith

• DAM Product Manager

• DAM Learning Center Editor

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Introduction: Portland Art Museum

• Founded in 1892

• Oldest museum in the Pacific Northwest

• 50,000 works

• ~130 FTE

• No Rights & Reproductions dept.

• Maggie Hanson

• Collections Information Manager

• Manage CHAMP grant

• Supervise DAM and interns

• Lead an interdepartmental team of mostly senior staff4

What Is Digital Asset Management?

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DAM is the effective management and distribution of digital assets such as

images, documents, creative files, audio and video clips. DAM solutions allow

organizations to centrally catalog, store, retrieve and distribute large collections of

valuable digital assets.

Asset Metadata

“Data about data”Information (metadata) about files (assets)

Machine or human generated

Examples: Informational (The date a picture was taken)

Index (search keywords)

Rights (where/how can this file can be used?)

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What Is An Asset?

“Anything tangible or intangible that is capable of being owned or controlled to produce value…” (Wikipedia)

“A media file plus metadata”

“They’re only assets if you can find them”

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The Need for DAM

• Locating assets

• Understanding what assets are available

• Providing access to the “correct” assets

• Providing access to the “correct” format and size

• Reusing assets

• Recreating assets

• Inconsistent use

• Usage and rights management

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Problems

Confusing navigation of current folder structure

Deletion/duplication of files

Proliferation of files on desktops, etc.

No easy access to collections images for staff

No way to embed metadata in files (or use embedded metadata in a meaningful way

Needs: Portland Art Museum

Benefits of DAM

Improve efficiency

Reduce costs

Increase revenue

Brand consistency

Customer service

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I. Introduction



IV. Implementation

V. Daily Use


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Portland Art Museum

• Awarded substantial CHAMP grant in 2009

• CHAMP is an Oregon state “cultural reinvestment package to strengthen state agencies and cultural institutions”

• Goals of grant:

• Increase Access (Internally & Externally)• Standardize information

• Manage our digital assets

• Digitization

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Identify and Involve Stakeholders

Find champions

Create a project team

Involve your IT department

Obtain director/executive level support

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CHAMP team:

•Directors of Collections, Education, Development, and IT

•Interactive Media Producer

•Digital Asset Manager

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Stakeholders: Portland Art Museum

Take Inventory

IT Assets Hardware and

Operating Systems

Software and Applications

File Assets Types (formats)

Number

Size (disk space)

Annual Growth

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Existing Systems and Data CMS

Spreadsheets

FileMaker/MS Access

Physical Information Systems

Other Databases?

Inventory: Portland Art Museum

IT Assets Primarily Windows

Some Mac users

File Assets JPEG, Bitmap, TIFF,

PDF, .MOV, .MP4, .WAV

20,000+ collection images

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Existing Systems and Data Mimsy XG

Museum Shared Server(s)

Several other systems

FMP databases

Access databases

Educational programming content and interfaces

Portland Art Museum CMS (MimsyXG)

Making a Business Case for DAM

How does DAM support organizational goals/mission?

Quantify the current pain points

Does the cost justify the outcome? (ROI)

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ROI Tool

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Business Case: Portland Art Museum

- Supports the mission of our grant

- Supports our institutional mission

- Address pain points associated with:

• Rights management

• Access

• Permissions

• Search

• Limited staff and minimal resources

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Document Current Workflow

Questions to Ask:

Who is responsible for managing assets?

Who needs access to assets?

What are they looking for?

What formats do they need?

What is the folder hierarchy convention (if any)?

What is the file naming convention (if any)?

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Prior to evaluating DAM systems, document use case

scenarios that describe how people currently work today,

and how they would work in an ideal DAM system in the future.

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Present Day Scenario

Images are frequently requested by staff for use within PowerPoint

presentations or for print and web use. The person maintaining the image

collection fulfills image requests by browsing through folders on several

different file servers. Once an appropriate image is located, a spreadsheet is

cross referenced for usage rights. If the image does not meet the desired

usage, the search continues. Once an appropriate set of images are selected,

each image is opened in Photoshop and resaved in the correct format and

resolution. The images are then uploaded to an FTP server and download

instructions are emailed to the requesting staff member.

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Ideal Scenario

Images added to file server folders are automatically ingested by the DAM

system. The collection maintainer adds search keywords and usage rights

information to images in the DAM system using drop-down menus. A

secure web portal allows staff to search items from the image collection

using keywords and other automatically applied information such as “Date

Created”. The web portal only displays search results for items that have an

“approved” metadata value. Important information such as usage rights

appear next to search results. Staff can download and convert images on the

fly into low, medium, and high resolution formats.

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Curator search the folders on the server

Grabs whatever size/format for their presentation

Results in calls to registrars (about the image) and IT (about the presentation freezing).

Ideal Scenario

Curators open a centralized repository

Search any number of useful fields

Download appropriate derivative using presets

Workflow Scenario #1

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Marketing calls Registrars about images

Discussion takes place about image selection, appropriateness, quality, and rights

Ideal Scenario

Self-service image access for Marketing

Fields and galleries available for search and usage info

Marketing adds usage info to DAM


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Staff needs images of a past event

Looks through poorly organized folders

Tries to locate images based on filenames alone

Ideal Scenario

Staff searches DAM

Search on event name

Search on person name

Search for specific purpose



I. Introduction



IV. Implementation

V. Daily Use


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Focus on solving problems, not features. What problems do you want to solve?

What problems are the most important?

What problems can be solved later (phase 2)?

Evaluation of DAM Systems

Requirements: Portland Art Museum

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• DAM for curatorial and marketing search/download

• Intuitive interface

• Ease of

• Searching

• Downloading

• Reduction of duplicates

• Lowers strain on the IT department

• Rights management

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Must Have

Cost

Ease of use

Search/embed/extract metadata

Download derivatives

Accessibility (Search & Retrieval)

Managing duplication, providing access to appropriate versions

Nice to Have

Customizable views

Customizable access levels

Phase 2/TBD

Granular levels of control

Deal with our messy folder structure on the back-end.

Incorporate non-collections assets

DAM Evaluation: Portland Art Museum

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Types of DAM Systems

Commercial, Open Source, or Custom

Location• Centralized onsite• Distributed onsite (multiple locations)• Cloud based (hosted)

Licensing• Per server• Per named user• Per connection• Subscription

Scalability


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Give vendors your notes and documentation.

Ask to see how the system would work with your assets, processes, and data instead of generic data and demos.

Use cases

Sample assets

Metadata schema

Folder structure example


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Ask Vendors: For a web demo

For trial software

For customer referrals

How long have they been in business?

What other organizations like yours are using their software?

“How does your system…?” not “Can your system …?”.



I. Introduction



IV. Implementation

V. Daily Use


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1. Project Team

2. Catalogers – dependant on cataloging strategy: Who will add files? How much time for initial cataloging? How much time for ongoing cataloging?

3. Server Admin

4. Training and Documentation

Assign Responsibilities

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1. Preliminary Discussions

2. Installation

3. Configurationa) Configure

b) Test

c) Review

4. Documentation

5. Training

6. Post-Implementation Evaluation

Installation Steps

Define Schema

Schema is the framework or structure of your DAM database.

Your schema will affect: How people add assets

How people categorize assets

How people search for assets

How people will understand assets, including:

• Descriptive Info

• Usage Info

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Define Schema

Controlled vocabulary

A taxonomy or thesaurus that uses predefined lists of values.

Unrestricted vocabulary

An non-hierarchical collaborative method to categorize metadata where freely chosen

keywords are used instead of a controlled vocabulary. Many organizations prefer not to

use folksonomy, as it creates inconsistencies in the classification of information (kitty

versus cat; product SKU versus product part number).

Hybrid Vocabulary

Offers users the choice of choosing values from controlled vocabulary list

or entering in a desired value not available in the list.

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Prioritize metadata field entry

1. Crucial Info… Capture device Asset creator’s name Date created EXIF metadata

2. Nice to Have… Conservation treatment status Object collection information Curatorial approvals

3. Can Live Without… Work order information Exhibition information

Define Schema

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MIMSY Related Custom Fields

• Accession number• Title• Date• Artist• Artist Nationality• Artist Life Dates• Collection / Curatorial Dept.• Object Type• Credit Line• Copyright Status• Copyright Instructions

Schema: Portland Art Museum

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Other Custom Fields

• Department• Copyright Status• Archival Storage Disc• Archival Storage Location• Event(s)• Exhibition(s)• Professional Photograph• Program(s)• Project(s)

Schema: Portland Art Museum

• Resource Type• Digital Image• View Type • IPTC Copyright• IPTC Copyright Status

Metadata Planning Tool

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A folder hierarchy is a structure of folders and subfolders.

Folder hierarchies are used for: Browsing assets (instead of searching)

Access outside of a DAM system

Applying metadata (keywords from path)

Folder Hierarchy

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Folder Hierarchy Example

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Folder Hierarchy: Portland Art Museum

• Server #1: Museum Shared Server

• All departments have folders

• Minimal structure

• Messy access issues

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• Server #2: Collections Server (CMS media—highly limited access)

• Audio

• Video

• Collection Images

• Archival (large images, formatted/unformatted)

• Full

• Thumb

• Conservation, Damage, etc.

• Images

• Documents

• Documents

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• Server #3: Marketing Server

• Publications

• Branding

• Etc.

File Limitations

File extensions?

Long file names (more than 32 characters)?

Mac resource forks?

Mac color labels applied?

Files larger than 2GB?

Filenames with anything other than letters (A-Z,a-z), numbers (0-9), spaces ( ), underscores (_), dashes (-), or periods(.) ?

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File Naming Convention: PAM

Current Portland Art Museum file naming convention:

2009_64_43c.tiff

Proposed file naming convention:

2009_0064_0043c_AM.tiff

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Documentation: Portland Art Museum

Documentation: Miami Dade College

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Documentation: Miami Dade College

DAM Implementation Summary

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I. Introduction



IV. Implementation

V. Daily Use


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Workflow Example #1: Yale

Workflow Example #2: MDC

Workflow Example #3 – AMNH

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Workflow Example #4 – NWF

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Workflow Example #5 – PAM

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The process of adding files to a DAM system is also known as “ingesting”, “uploading”, or “cataloging”.

The process may be invoked or automatic (“watch folders”)

The Process May Involve: Addition of metadata by user

Automatic extraction of embedded metadata

Automatic generation of derivatives like thumbnails, previews, or video proxies

Adding Files

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Automatic generation of keywords from file and folder names

Extraction of metadata from files

Embedding of metadata to files

Batch editing

Import or export of metadata to or from other systems and databases

Metadata Management

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Custom fields

File-naming convention

CMS

IPTC

Predefined lists

Metadata Management: PAM

Controlled Lists, examples

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Basic Search

Advanced Search

Search

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Collections Assets

File-naming convention incorporates accession number

QuickFind searches Accession Number, Artist Name, and Title

Galleries

Public Domain

High-res

Professional photog

Search: Portland Art Museum

Search: Portland Art Museum

Non-collection Assets• Include

• Marketing collateral

• Education & Public Programming

• Events photography

• Folder and filenames provide keywords

• Controlled lists for user-added info

• Future:

• Cataloging schemas for non-collection assets

• Institutional master keyword list

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After previewing an asset on screen, a user may need access to:

Download a high-resolution original file

Download a low to medium-resolution file

Download a watermarked file

Playback time-based media (video streaming)

Download

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Batch processing can change one or more of the following attributes on a selection of assets:

Format

Color mode

Dimensions

Resolution

Filename

Image content/pixels (image scripting)

Processing

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-Read-only users (most) download using presets:

- .ppt

- web/email

- thumbnail

- large

-Department reps can access original

- Download original untouched

- Batch convert

Processing: Portland Art Museum

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Users maintaining digital asset collections typically use client applications to add and maintain the digital asset management system.Other “outside” users that are not familiar with the collection may benefit from self-service web portals that provide:

Access to approved assets in the correct formats

Insight into collection contents

Instant and remote access via the web

Intuitive user interfaces and search forms

Self Service Web Portals

Media Sets

The Solution: Portfolio Server

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I. Introduction



IV. Implementation

V. Daily Use


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Archive != Backup

Types of DAM workflows: Production/Work in progress

Archive/Distribution

Back-up your files! RAID is not backup

Invaluable in terms of recovering files accidentally lost

Get backups out of the building!

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Image source: http://www.flickr.com/people/roadhunter/

Software Updates

Major Updates (Version 2.0)

Minor Updates (Version 2.1)

Hosted Solution Updates

Maintenance Contracts

Customization

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Support

Internal Support

Vendor Support• Email

• Phone

• Web/KB

• In-House vs. Outsourced?

Consultants

The Community

Professional Orgs/List-servs (MCN, ImageMuse, VRA, etc.)

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Next Steps: Portland Art Museum

Training Timeline

- Registrars (with individual follow-up training as needed)

- Education & Marketing

- Curators

- Assistance and check-ins as needed

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Next Steps: Portland Art Museum

Cataloging Timeline:

- Refine Mimsy reports

- Schedule CMS imports

- Ongoing rights research

- Incorporate Marketing server

- Cataloging schema for Marketing and Education files

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More Information

Portland Art Museum

www.pam.org

DAM Learning Center:www.damlearningcenter.com/mw2011

@DAMGeek

Extensis Portfolio Server:www.extensis.com/portfolio

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http://www.pam.org/

http://www.damlearningcenter.com/

Extensis DAM Forum at MW2011

Technology

Transcript of Extensis DAM Forum at MW2011