Rapidly Iterating the Digital Asset Management space. Part 1 (of 5) ~ Mark Davey

I rarely write. What with my dyslexia, time sinks and the grammar police patrolling the web. Nee, trolling the thoughts and ideas of the fearless ones who score a D in English … I have forsaken my comfort zone in order to write a series of five musings on the current and future state of the DAM/MAM/VAM/BAM/MedAM/ECM/BI/CI/KM worlds. So here goes….please excuse the grammar, but envision the picture….

Last week I was a speaker at the Henry Stewart DAM Chicago event looking at the future of DAM. I gave a talk called The Secret Life of an Asset about invisible/intangible asset values and how an attempt to monetise them could take the shape of micro payment tools. Then a quick flight (actually a long flight) to New York where I moderated a panel called the ‘Zen of Search’ at the Createasphere conference. In part, due to the universe having some mishap or other, I ended up moderating the ‘Future Trends in DAM’ panel at the same time which was fun, given I only had ten minutes to combine both subjects and create a suitable theme with a veritable panel of experts. I settled on Zen and the Toa of DAM with an off-the-cuff attempt to reach Wu wei by virtue of MU.

Sometimes pressure is a force multiplier. What with my cognitive dissonance (where we are – where we are going) I saw a world of possibilities that could transform the dualism of the hype and the reality.

I think I may have blown the minds of most of the audience and my peers in my attempt to imagine a world where silos of information were set free and where the gatekeepers of IT and knowledge had pushed the release button, in error.  Reaching some nirvana in my mind I captured the cognitive dissonance of a world where we are currently unable to create a workflow, find an asset, tag it, and engage even in our own content … ‘Euston we have a problem’ –  and it ain’t going away any time soon. So I will attempt to break down what I was trying to get at.

For some time now, perched on my DAM mountain top, looking at trends, cycles, thoughts and iterations, it is becoming abundantly clear this space is about to undergo a rapid transformation. It is not least because technology is driving it but more importantly because employers need it in the knowledge economy. DAM, quite frankly, is the foundation of all future business.

DAM is 20% technology and 80% business process workflows ~ David Lipsey Managing Director, Media & Entertainment at FTI Consulting

I see this as confirmation from the trends and the detailed talks I am having with clients. It used to be you were lucky if you could get one person around a table to talk DAM. Now you get a whole team of people looking to contain, manage and exploit their growing information and data landfills. We are also starting to see the CEO, CMO and CIO’s attending our consultancy meetings, which is gratifying indeed for all stakeholders. DAM champions are rising up through the ranks and librarians are taking their place in becoming thought leaders … about time, I say, rock-on librarians!

The Zen of Search:

Recently Google tweaked their search engine and we now see our queries appear as we type, which is clever, but more importantly Google Instant will change the search landscape. Once we have had enough Google search experience we will become conditioned to expect this with all our search queries. The fact is, we will not go back from this point. Which leaves the DAM space with a bit of a problem. How do you compete in the search field, pardon the pun, with a giant like Google?

Of course, that is not to say Google have found the Zen of search, far from it, but they are getting closer with every iteration. With the faceted search capabilities our expectations are once again heightened. Some vendors may decide to integrate Google search with their systems and indeed some already have. I would be interested to see how security of that data is handled. What are the risks of doing this or the opportunity cost of not doing so?

Sure, Google is great at performing some levels of search. Indeed, if you also know how to use the facility to search the deeper web – the hackersphere if you will – you can get into the unstructured structure of the deep web. Since the big G recently acquired Metaweb, search is only going in one direction – SMARTER. Maybe we can dream of the day when we could discuss this openly without being thought of as Mad Men, the day we get closer to the Zen of find

Others are building out their own search engines, mashing up different tools and services to create a secret sauce. Some charge £millions for the privilege. ‘May you live in interesting times’ is said to be a Chinese curse. We do indeed. Perhaps the truer meaning, as some might propose, is ‘May you find what you are looking for’……

Part 2: The Tao of DAM

Part 3: Wu wei and other dreams of fallen silo’s

Part 4: MU, transcending dualism or handmaidens of the Borg.

Part 5: Metacrap or something completely different.