Gert Says
a rather irreverent discusssion
What are those DAM Systems?
Well, doesn't everyone already have such a system? In this case, the purpose of the system is to alleviate frustration, not to cause it. The acronym stands for Digital Asset Management, what used to be called Media Asset management or Digital Library. Itıs purpose is to allow people to reuse digital files which they have created at great time and expense, or at least effort, by making them easily accessible to the creators and others. The key to creating a system which does not frustrate you is understanding what you or your company mean by the word REUSE.
What exactly do you want to reuse?
Do you want to reuse single images, composites or image and content? The method of creation and storage of the images are two major components of any system upon which other parts depend.
Sometimes a marketing group, in the interest of quality control and corporate image identity, wishes to only distribute completed marketing material digitally. This material can be selected and sent over the web to local printing bureaus. In other situations a menu of selections might be offered so individuals may tailor their presentations themselves in preordained formats. Finally for others it is simple making available accurate product or graphic images to be used at the individuals discretion.
Why do you want to reuse that image.
Do you need images which show people in certain activities, express a concept such as "romantic sunsets" or a public gathering place, document a product or are graphic elements such as logos, borders, or trademarks. Why you choose an image will influence how you describe it for retrieval.
For some, a file name may give all the information necessary to retrieve the image, such as Logo_8x11. In other situations you may want a image which matches several criteria, such as a public gathering, in a romantic setting with your product visible. In this case you will need to develop a descriptive information structure.
How do you plan to reuse it
Do you want to reuse material in different formats such as proposals, exhibit boards, reports and promotional material or different media such as projected images, CD-ROMs, printed, web sites, and acrobat or other portable document files.
When others are to reuse your material in different formats or mediums, they will require different resolutions, sizes and orientation. Based on your evaluation of your users skills and the need for quality control you may decide to either create a base image which satisfies the highest need of size and resolution and let the user create the image which they require from that base image or to provide the best image fore each of the basic needs.
Once you have a firm handle on what the purpose and content of your DAM system is, you can evaluate what the criteriais necessary to design it.
The axiom on which it should be evaluated is:
Entering into a system an image and whatever descriptive information is necessary to retrieve it easily should take less time and effort then recreating/scanning/ shooting the image each time you think you will need it
