Gert Says
a rather irreverent discusssion
Seybold 2002 HighlightsTrudy Levy |
While Seybold was smaller and quieter, there were still some tricks to be
learned and new products to be tried. Two of the themes, XML and content management
were quite interesting. Yes, XML is really in the air and not just as a means
to publish across various media. XML
One of the most interesting applications that saw using XML in this way was Media Spider, a MAM, work flow, project management and communications tool. When a file is entered into the system, it is assigned appropriate XML tags . Digital Graffiti was doing this in 1996 at Seybold, though it seems to have disappeared off the radar. Media Spider does do more then just tag files though so maybe it will fly. It has combined tagging with image compression, contact management and project management software to create a very interesting approach to work flow/project management. Within this program you can layout your time line, job assignments etc., plug in the files needed, set up the review order - Spider will bump the file up to the next notch when the first person has not acted in the time allotted. With its compression program everyone gets a small file which they can then zoom in to see the finest detail. Its all done in a very clear graphic format, color coding for deadlines. Check it out for only $30,000.
Established DAMs are also checking out the benefits of XML, such as Artesia's software called TEAMS. At Seybold the newest version was announced as creating an "asset-centric work flow". They have taken advantage of xml tags to maintain historical information about a file as it progresses through a system. This means that the image files history within a document becomes part of that document files attached data.
In the MAM/DAM realm the biggest news seemed to be that DAM was winning as descriptor of choice, although the main competition is not MAM but Content Management.
DAM was defined by Sebastian Holst of Artesia as being assets which had cultural value that required check in, security, and version control. At the Gilbane conference on Content Management, the CM people seemed to be moving toward being Knowledge bases. Of course on the NET, digital content is the form in which knowledge is delivered. They talked about hubs and push pull, but the one of the most interesting points was "smart context" and the need to integrate content development with the code. In other words assign descriptive metadata as content is created. And how better to do that than with XML tags.
Other DAM news is:
- Getty Images, the stock house not the museum, is now offering hosted media management services.
- On the practical level - Extensis' Portfolio 6.0 Hot Sync folder system, is not really network ready, but they are working on it. Interesting gleaning is that you can set Portfolio to create and save screen images when the originals are cataloged rather then generate them on the fly. This requires more storage, but if you are using removable storage, this means you can always access the screen image. Also since you can set the size and location for these images, these jpgs might also be used for say, PowerPoint shows and thus save you making them.
- Lizardtech has launched a Rebranding effort and is now calling their product Document Express with DjVu. Their practical input was that Mr. Sid is best used for Photographic - color blends - while DjVu is best for crisp edged graphics and text. In Document Express you can specify photo and it will use a Mr.Sid type compression. Either program still delivers great image compression and zoom capabilities and free browsers.
- Adobešs new Acrobat also includes something they call Web capture. It can create a PDF file of a web site, including live links and add that to your report.. Hmmm I foresee more IP headaches here.
