Open Forum

Hi all:

I work for a new museum that will open in 2017. We're trying to get a handle on organizing our existing media assets (object photography, event photography, video content, etc.), which currently live in folders on our Office 365 Sharepoint site. This platform isn't ideal for managing large image and video files, so a team of us representing marketing and collections are looking into better strategizes for storing, organizing, labeling, and protecting these assets and preparing for new assets to come. I'd appreciate any advice on how your institution managed a similar asset re-organization and whether you've found any DAMs particularly effective.

Thanks so much!

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Jennifer Dionisio
Digital Content Manager
Museum of the American Revolution
Philadelphia PA
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We used a firm called North Plains to implement a DAM product called Teleacope. We use it for digital images, not video but it's quite robust.

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Melissa Felder
Chief Marketing Officer
California Academy of Sciences
San Francisco CA
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Jennifer,

Simple question, complex answer. Digital Asset Management is a topic we've been wrestling with in the museum sector for more than a decade. Unfortunately, there is no single "correct" approach or "best" system. That being said, there's plenty of info and opportunity out there.

I suggest: define your needs as completely as possible, and resist the shiny & fancy features that vendors will try to sell to you. The law of parsimony: keep it simple - just not too simple!

If you could possibly make it to this upcoming one day conference, you could learn a ton: http://henrystewartconferences.com/DAMCHI2015/  (two of our museum staff will be presenting there, about a new metadata model and open source DAMs we've been working on that might intrigue you).

Our colleague Leala Abbott has compiled a great list of resources, start here: http://lealaabbott.com/wp/?p=423

And this group can be of real help to you as you move forward: http://mcn.edu/community/special-interest-groups-sigs/digital-asset-managment-dam-sig/

Best of luck,

Douglas

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Douglas Hegley
Director of Media & Technology
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis MN
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Hi Jennifer,

Edwards Technologies (ETI) has worked for the last 10 years on a wide range of applications for a sophisticated cloud-based platform called Videro.  It can be used to store a wide range of digital assets which then can be used and re-used in many different ways to deliver content - the system is very simple to use too.  So, combining storing and delivering across many platforms is possible.

Edwards Technologies have been around or a long time, but haven't done an enormous amount for the museum, zoo, and aquarium worlds - but that is starting to change with this new ETI/Videro platform.

I have spent 30 years in museums, and am now lending them a bit of a hand with opening up our industry to a more sophisticated way to operate.

You can find more information on their website:   ETI

Or, feel free to get in touch if you would like to learn more.  Best of luck with your work!

Audrey

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Audrey O'Connell
President, Audrey O'Connell + Associates
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Anyone have experience with NetX? On their website they have a whitepaper about their project with MoMA and integration with TMS, wondering if any other museum has done that as well.

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Tim Dever
Systems Administrator
The Speed Art Museum
Louisville KY
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