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Maybe it’s time: making print simple
| Author | Janice Reese, Paul Van Hoesen |
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| Abstract | Information Technology is transforming our economy and society. Customers want and need 3 basic things as systems and technology change. This infrastructure begins to allow an entire digital workflow process to create a true manufacturing process with real time information. This process can connect with customer service for planning and into prepress. Automating print production functions with JDF enabled systems allows additional productivity through the reduction of labor – intensive processes. |
| Editorial | How can one use JDF enabled systems to automate print production? Reese and Paul Van Hoesen of Network PDF contribute this article on the digital workflow of the print industry, diving deep into the use of Job Definition Format (JDF) enabled systems to speed the ease of collaboration between colleagues and reduce labor costs. |
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The next step: Simplifying DAM
| Author | Jennifer Neumann |
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| Abstract | After almost 20 years, DAM still awaits its mass-market adoption. Two factors are now challenging the stand-alone DAM business: The Enterprise Content Management approach to orchestrate the data from all business applications, and Microsoft’s recent SharePoint release in particular. DAM systems adopting the likely success of ECM might finally see broader market penetration and stand the chance to become a core component of the overall Enterprise IT Infrastructure. This paper looks at the impact of SharePoint on DAM and the opportunities which result from that. The workflow technology SharePoint offers and the capability to efficiently integrate DAM with major Line of Business applications, or other specific technology components, indicate vast potential to increase the effect of DAM. DAM business is likely to change and customers might soon be able to select DAM components instead of locking themselves into the corner of a single DAM vendor. |
| Editorial | What factors challenge the mass-market adoption of digital asset management? Jennifer Neumann, of Final Candidate consultancy, argues for simplification, in her in-depth look at enterprise content management, citing Microsoft’s new SharePoint platform in particular. Neumann takes a look at the impact of ECM towards the creation of complete end-to-end workflow solutions. |
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Taking DAM risk management beyond the technology: Sources of ongoing business-related risk and practical ways to address them
| Author | Steve Kotrch |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Normally the discussion of risk in terms of technology implementations focuses on risk associated with the technology. When it comes to DAM, this represents the lesser risk. The greater risk is that users will ignore the digital asset management system (DAMS) and continue organizing (or not) their digital files in the ways they always have done. The author focuses on lessons learned through three implementations of DAM at a major publishing house: on sources of risk, and on practical ways to address them. |
| Editorial | What are the sourcecs of risk in a DAM implementation? Steve Kotrch of Simon & Schuster takes on risk management for DAM-related services. He emphasizes the risks that result from users ignoring the protocols and workflows of DAM and who persist in their old habits of file management. |
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Interview with Scott Pellicone, Vice President of Digital Publishing Business Development for Quebecor World’s magazine business
| Author | Scott Pellicone |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Michael Moon interviews Scott Pellicone of Quebecor World Magazine Division on their transition to a digital content management strategy, as their business expands across multiple channels. |
| Editorial | How does a major magazine publisher transform their business into a multimedia platform with multiple revenue channels? We interviewed Scott Pellicone of Quebecor World Magazine Division on their transition to a digital content management strategy, as their business expands across multiple channels. |
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How AGFA implemented a DAM solution
| Author | Dirk Stevens |
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| Abstract | DAM at Agfa is used since the middle ’90, since the beginning of the 21th century or was since the use of Adam as engine the DAM application has become much then a nice interface for controlling assets. We try to explore our DAM application as much as useful, not only to retrieve the highest ROI, but also because it make senses. This is no option of what has to come first, but people start to realise that assets, no matter of which type, are valuable, even more then even before. |
| Editorial | How does an enterprise extract the highest ROI from their DAM? Dirk Stevens contributes an AGFA case study of their own digital journey from photography to digital imaging distribution. |
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The publishing [R]evolution
| Author | Darin McBeath |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Throughout history, the field of publishing has been profoundly influenced by technological advances ranging from Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press to the creation of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee. Along the way, the term publisher has also been redefined to not only imply traditional publishers, such as Elsevier, but to additionally include governments, corporations, and daily users of the Internet. During the past decade, publishers have embraced the presentation neutrality of XML and translation capabilities of XSLT to personalize a user’s experience. But until now, the technology has not been available for a publisher to truly exploit database functionality for their XML content, repurpose these assets, and unleash the power of XML. With the W3C XQuery 1.0 Recommendation in January 2007 and the introduction of XML Databases, the next significant technical advancement in publishing is currently underway and will forever change how XML assets are viewed, used, and repurposed within the publishing industry. This paper provides some background information on these new technologies, describes how some publishers are unlocking their XML content with XQuery and XML Database technologies, and presents some best practices identified through experience. |
| Editorial | How has the use of XML revolutionized digital publishing? Darin McBeath provides some background information on the use of XQuery and XML databases to fully unlock database functionality for their XML content. |
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Interview with Joseph Bachana, President of DPCI
| Author | Joseph Bachana |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Michael Moon interviews Joseph Bachana, President of DPCI, on his insights concerning the implementation of DAM and related workflows. |
| Editorial | In the past, publishers had DAM systems in which they stored print images. Now they want to be able to interact. How does DAM technology address these new challenges? We recently interviewed Joseph Bachana on how to use technology to take advantage of the new opportunities which result from the integration of new, social media-influenced web technologies, which moves companies from simple repositories to integrated workflows. |
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Interview with Sandeep Malhotra, Head of the Vertical Solutions Group in HCL Technologies–Supply–chain strategies for the publishing industry
| Author | Sandeep Malhotra |
|---|---|
| Abstract | We spoke to Sandeep Malhotra of HCL Technologies on the current state and evolution of the publishing supply chain, with some input from Subhankar Bhattacharya, also of HCL. |
| Editorial | How do publishing supply-chains become centers of excellence within an integrated end-to-end industry supply chain? Sandeep Malhotra and Subhankar Bhattacharya of HCL Technologies highlight key developments in medium delivery formats including web-based authoring tools, digital talking books, learning management platforms, and custom book publishing. |
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Rights management and its role in social media markets–Interview with Bill Rosenblatt, President of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies
| Author | Bill Rosenblatt |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Rights information management is an ongoing and difficult problem for content owners, but it’s one that’s necessary to solve for those who want to scale up their ability to create new products for an ever-widening set of distribution channels. Bill Rosenblatt, president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies, discusses the issues and how content owners should go about addressing them. He also discusses some of today’s thorny issues of digital copyright, such as copyright issues for collaborative and user-generated content, search engines’ rights to index commercial content, and why DRM has such a bad rep. |
| Editorial | As an enterprise resolves to implement a social media initiative, how do they deal with copyright issues for collaborative content, and other digital copyright issues implicit in the new social media markets? Bill Rosenblatt, in an earlier paper published in the Journal (Volume I, Issue 4), asserted that whether or not you encrypt your content, it’s crucial that your rights information travels with the content, with rights expression language as the glue. Since that time, “…the market has taken a look at rights expression languages and yawned.” In this interview, Bill conveys some essential information on new rights languages currently in use, the impact of search engine indexing on content rights, and the overall concept of fair use of content. A must-read for any DAM executive looking to marshal their rights information management effectively. |
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Publishing in the automation era
| Author | Douglas S. Liles |
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| Abstract | Digital asset management as an industry still provides primarily a horizontal application. For those end user customers that have bought DAM systems, the impact is certainly understood. Is DAM really an accelerator technology for communications or is it just a foundation component for other tools? What constitutes a best of breed DAM solution? What is the future of DAM? |
| Editorial | Is DAM just a foundation component for other business tools? Douglas Liles, Strategic Business Development Manager at Quark, Inc contributes this opinion piece on the state of the industry, extended into an extensive point-of-view on the past and future of DAM, as well as an exploration of what makes a DAM “best-of-breed”. |
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Interview with Carl Hixson, Vice President of Digital Asset Management at McGraw-Hill Education
| Author | Carl Hixson |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Recently, Michael Moon spent some time with Carl Hixson of McGraw-Hill Education, discussing the publishing technologies they employ and taking a look at the current state and new trends in DAM for the publishing industry. |
| Editorial | In addition to being in the business of creating high quality educational content, McGraw-Hill is also developing new and innovative learning solutions based on emerging digital technology. What is their strategy? Carl Hixson spoke to us on how McGraw-Hill Education is moving towards integration of social networking and Web 2.0 learning environments into the publishing supply-chain. |
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Interview with David Bercovici, Project Manager in Strategic Publishing Operations at Hachette Book Group
| Author | David Bercovici |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Hachette Book Group implemented their first DAM back in 2000. With a mature and widely used DAM they set out in 2007 to reexamine how the DAM was being used and what the obstacles were to content being added or used. Through user involvement and senior management support the project identified goals that the DAM should meet and ultimately led to the selection of a new DAM system that is being deployed out in March. |
| Editorial | There is a shift going on in the book industry—both in terms of its business model and the nature of the market. David Bercovici of Hachette Book Group spoke to us in detail on both Hachette’s recent upgrade of their DAM system, their new projects around e-publishing formats, gives his insights into the future of the book industry. |
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Playboy’s Digital Journey: Extending the Power of the brand
| Author | Michael Hires |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Playboy has launched a corporate wide digital asset management (DAM) solution to leverage assets across media platforms. As that DAM solution gets rolled out across business units the ultimate goal is to have a single repository tied to rights and content management streamlining the production of new branded content distribution points that are scalable allowing for optimal revenue growth. |
| Editorial | How did a large, multinational, multichannel media organization leverage their brand by implementing a DAM solution? Michael Hires, of Playboy Entertainment Group, brings us “Playboy’s Digital Journey: Extending the Power of the brand’, on the unique challenges faced by Playboy in leveraging brand and digital assets across multimedia platforms. |
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Interview with Abby DeMillo, Senior Director of Content Management Technology
| Author | Abby DeMillo |
|---|---|
| Abstract | XML publishing is a way to transform your content into meaningful tags, meaningful schema that can be read by any receiving system. So by translating your content into XML, you’re making your content truly neutral. And the tags that surround it - the schema that surrounds it - is schema that can be interpreted by a number of different systems. So the key is to be able to create your content once and publish it many times - and this has only recently become achievable through XML publishing. |
| Editorial | What are the key benefits of XML to a publishing operation? We recently interviewed Abby DeMillo to get a historical overview of DAM at McGraw Hill and to discuss the benefits of XML for publishing—how the XQuery function facilitates much of the more advanced features in this type of platform. |
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Factors to consider before building your own DAM
| Author | Cheryl Scheer |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Despite the availability of commercial digital asset management (DAM) systems, some organizations – including the author’s employer, August Home Publishing – choose to build solutions using in-house or contracted expertise. This paper explores important factors to consider in a “buy vs. build” discussion. It will also discuss some open source technology options that can be utilized to develop a digital photo archive solution and an overview of the expertise that will be required. |
| Editorial | Buy vs. build? The perceived advantages of both types of solutions are examined in our next article, from Cheryl Scheer, Multimedia Activist for August Home Publishing. Weighing in on the organizational culture, the cost of customization, software resources, and the ability to measure the ROI of either solution are all considered. |
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Beyond digital asset management–Unlocking value where interactions and content intersect
| Author | Brian Meek |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Journal of Digital Asset Management systems provide a foundational component of enterprise software solutions aimed at managing and delivering effective customer-facing communications across a broadening array of communications channels. This article identifies “Web Content Management” software as the other key foundational element of multi-channel “Automated Publishing Systems” that are now evolving from conventional DAM implementations in order to drive customer acquisition and build customer loyalty. |
| Editorial | How does web content management unlock the value of content interactions? Brian Meek, due to his experience evolving Media Bin Asset Server is expert on topics of image data rendition management. In this article, he identifies web content management software as a key foundational element of multi-channel automated publishing systems. |
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Integrating DAM in the enterprise architecture
| Author | Peter Hausken, Paul Heisholt |
|---|---|
| Abstract | The Journal of Digital Asset Management system should not be just another system, but an integral part of the IT architecture. This paper outlines why and how a publishing company did this. |
| Editorial | How does Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) work? Peter Hausken and Paul Heisholt, both of J.W. Cappelens Forlag AS, present some case studies of SOA. In the cases they cite they were determined to create a system that would appear as one single application to the professional users in the editorial, marketing and production departments, thus making the DAM system an integrated part of the toolset which supports many different business processes. |
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Content server scalability
| Author | Michael Blakeley |
|---|---|
| Abstract | The growing size and complexity of content makes it increasingly difficult for content management systems and content-based applications to keep up. Fast access to terabytes of XML is increasingly important to many companies and organizations. Filesystems and relational database management systems are adequate for gigabytes of rich content, but terabytes demand a repository that was built for content. |
| Editorial | Once legacy documents are migrated to XML, how do you then store the data in a cost-effective manner? Michael Blakeley is next with a thorough look at different approaches Mark Logic has taken towards solving the ROI issue. |
