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Welcome: Who am I? Why am I here? what do I do? Lets get right into it…
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Here’s what we are going to talk about. You will be somewhat dangerous at the end of this presentation You will be able to ask better questions and evaluate products You will realize that there are no true “experts” in this field, and lots of opinions
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A database with pictures is easy! I can build one in FileMaker Pro in minutes! Quickly relate story of Rainbow Program Services, who started with a FileMaker Pro app in 2000 Made in house. Grew and grew. Became so big that it took over multiple servers. Became an inhouse industry all to itself. Couldn’t manage change easy, was replaced by Harris Invenio, but the core still lives on
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What is MAM? What isnt MAM? Depends on the beholder.
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Some of the things it is or “can be”. Some of the things it can do for an enterprise (if deployed right)
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What it is in a nutshell. This is all it does. Simple idea, hard to execute. With lots of pitfalls on the way to a successful deployment.
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We only design things within our experience. It’s the human way of dealing with the physical world. Our logical world is built on the same principles. Its just the way our brains work.
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Eyes, ears and hands discover, evaluate and sort content and its containers. There is simply no other way we deal with life. Example of Faberge’s “olfactory MAM” in Paris. Shelves with bottles in a robotic archive-like environment to save perfume formulations.
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My favorite MAM – The grocery store! Its set up so that things are sorted logically. It has a designed workflow from arrival to exit.
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Why are they designed like this? Why are they so similar? Because the concepts fit the way we think. Not only planned for the consumer, but planned for restocking capability as well. Grocery store throughput is finely attuned to the way humans work and think.
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Foods are essence. Media is what the content is stored in. Assets are composed of media with content inside. Just like a can of peas has a container, the peas inside and a label, so do “virtualized” cans of peas… Just like MXF files, LXF files, etc.
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If you went to school back in the 60’s and ‘70’s, you used MAM in the library. Managing periodicals as assets in a collection for the library
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Dewey Decimal system: One of the first higherarchical management concepts developed. The “base” DTD for proto-MAM. Executed as well as it could have been for the technology available at the time. Virtualized periodicals. Each periodical is an Asset of the library.
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So is it MAM? Lets find out!
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Lets investigate its main properties. You can search it – you can get detail – you can zero in on specifics of a periodical.
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Each Asset is made of content… That content is data about a subject. This is the core of why the periodicals become “information assets”: the catalog logically objectizes periodicals on a shelf. The periodical asset contains data objects; this is their value.
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Now we will look at the virtualization of periodicals. Yank out a drawer and look inside at a card…
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The card shows granular detail of a specific periodical and its companion related assets. The periodicals are found on a shelf as a collection. Within the collection are specific items described on the card.
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Here is an object within an asset! Specific granular description of a specific instance within the collection. I can find it on the shelf with the file number. I see the data, I see the number, I access the data with my eyes while holding the periodical with my hands. The information and the metadata construct a virtual asset!
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So is this MAM?
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Absolutely, but with caveats.
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It has some operational issues: Would be tough to cart this thing around. Its single user at a time for a specific asset. Does not manage content transformation, this is all manual (the Xerox machine down the hall!). Does not automatically manage media (the librarian has to check the periodical in and out and put it on the shelf). You can lose content (I can tear the sheet out of the magazine, and that content is GONE!). Lots of problems… But the basics are there. It creates virtual assets from the physical periodicals on the shelf and manages them! So if you have used a card catalog, you already know how DMAM works!
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We can sort, index and organize anything. Because we deal with objects with our hands eyes and ears, we can sort them and manage them. DMAM should work ACROSS physical assets. Any reasonable data can be object-ized, and made into a virtualized asset. Then, it can be sorted and managed in machine assisted systems in ways that relate to our senses.
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Good question! Lets look at the assets themselves and discover what they are, since we are talking about managing them, right?
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An Asset is constructed of essence and metadata. Essence and metadata are objects within the asset, and it doesn’t matter if they are virtual or real... Or a combination of the two. Assets contain objects and are granular down to atoms. These objects create “children”, or Aunts, Uncles, Brothers, Sisters, Cousins… (different versions, resolution changes of the original, etc.). We call these Instances of the Asset. Instances can inherit certain properties and form a “family lineage”. They “relate” to each other in specifically defined ways: Or create new assets with independent content!
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METADATA is what describes assets! As a matter of fact, an object and its associated metadata actually form an instance of an Asset! All assets need “some” metadata to become logical or physical assets. Sometimes metadata is implied (ripe bananas are yellow, Ford Model T’s have only one color: Black). Some asset instances are only machine readable, others are only human readable. Regardless, we deal with identifying assets with our senses, there is no other way to do this because we are humans.
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And here is the proof: We will discuss physical assets and their methods and properties.
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Lets look at the metadata. EVERYTHING, virtual or physical, has descriptive metadata! Its how we humans define our world using our three senses.
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An asset can self describe their methods. Both physical and virtual assets advertise methods and properties. Methods are the metadata that let us use and or manipulate asset-objects with our five senses. Methods can be both human and/or machine readable.
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What is Class inheritance? A Class is a “type” of asset that has similar properties. We can then reuse properties and methods across a class… We only need to learn the methods once, and they apply across a class. Methodical convention and canonical information within classes are the hallmark in human designed Asset Management systems. All MAM, for physical or logical content, has this in common.
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Here is a different object class, but still an asset. It has different methods, but commonality across its class. It has a full bandwidth content display property instead of proxy display (you can see the content directly through the container).
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This object is in a different class than the Teabag, but similar methods based on similar concepts of containers for atoms (content = essence: both are held together by a wrapper, the teabag is paper and this bottle is glass).
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The label on the container object shows us its metadata. What would happen if the label was missing? How would we know what was in the container? Spaghetti sauce or Ketchup (made of the same atoms, but slightly different with different purposes and usage)?
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Ancilary metadata is used to define the atoms within the asset’s content.
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The asset displays its de-encapsulation methods. They are “advertised” by the asset’s wrapper/container. Class spanning methods of de encapsulation mean that I can apply these methods across a wrapper class.
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This example displays commonality in de-encapsulation methods for a class of assets. Learn how to de-encapsulate one, you than know the procedure for the entire class of this type of assets!
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There is no mystery in virtual assets. We treat them the same as physical assets, just that they live in a virtual world, not a physical one. There is nothing really new here: You have been doing this all of your life! If you played in a sandbox and sorted toys as a 2 year old, you can deal with the objectivization of data in a virtual world, because you have already learned the methods and they are intuitive. The key for the software designer is to make the software as intuitive for a human to use as the sandbox was to you as a 2 year old. This is where the complexity of MAM lies, and where the rubber hits the road for MAM vendors.
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So now we know the basics. What does a REAL WORLD DMAM system look like and what can it do for you?
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Here is my opinion on what one should be able to do in a well developed and intuitive DMAM system, no matter how big or how small or how cheap or expensive.
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Index, store and retreive, in an efficient manner, intelligently assisting users with the terms and priorities of the search. That’s another key to a good DMAM system! Assistance, not foreberance. The user must know what he wants, or doesn’t want, in a search, and the system needs to add to this intelligence with concise and intuitive tools.
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The biggest question of them all!
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The biggest question is this: How can a machine know what a human wants and, conversely, what a human DOES NOT want? Taxonomy is key in this regard!
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Good things about Full text: Find lots of stuff fast! Bad things about full text: find lots of stuff! Up to you to know the terms, up to you to decide what you want and do not want. The language is broad. It is term agnostic. Its full of literal in interpretation. Full text is not nuanced. Its GLOBS of information!
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How to find terms by their definitions: Thesauri manage a given language. Thesauri can add a layer of assistance to a DMAM system that will help users find the right thing faster. Thesauri can be taught (if properly designed) to learn from searches.
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Good thing about Thesauri: Associate terms with sound alikes, antonyms and synonyms. Bad thing about Thesauri: Slower and less acurate at the start. They get better with use, but at the mercy of the users who use and modify them. Wikipedia is a pseudo thesaurus at the mercy of its users.
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Taxonomy: It is a definition of how terms will be used and how a schema will be applied to searching for data across a system. There are several types, and not one of them is perfect, but they are better than most other search tools for purpose built DMAM systems that are applied to a particular industry or narrow schema. THE BIG DEAL: VOCABULARY CONTROL!
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The good: Term Lists are simple to use, and simple to implement The bad: Term lists are rigid and unchangeable. They are best for things that don’t vary
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Authority files are a little more complex but still simple to use. Rely on UBERUSERS or Subject Matter Experts to know the correct search terms. More efficient than a Thesaurus at the start, but don’t grow with use They are better for names of places or people because they rely on literal interpretations. Not “fuzzy logic friendly”; they “take you at your word” and assume you know what you want.
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Hierarchies are “Definitions within definitions”. Like sorted lists. You can “drill down” to find what you are looking for. They are extensible by users. Depending on the application, they are easy to deal with. Seen mostly in sports and statistical applications (goals, scores, touchdowns, errors, home runs). They may be too malleable for news (murders: of whom? By whom? With what weapon? In what location?) You can see where you will get bogged down within the minutia of this search scheme! They rely on OS-style “folder” action… Unfortunately, Sometimes OS’s have constraints on folder depth. How to parse them in this case? Good thing: Can use folders to parse “automatic metadata classification” – Explain Odyssey’s OASIS system and its base idea… which worked somewhat, but was constricting in nature.
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Now we know the basics of how a DMAM operates and what its contents are: How do we put this stuff together?
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There are lots of places to search in a content repository. Lots of places contain assets. Lots of similar/identical assets/instances of assets defined differently (if you don’t have good vocabulary control or UMID). All the separate DB’s virtualize each other, if the system is well architected and the users are diligent with metadata decoration of the contents. In all actuality, DMAM is the “traffic cop” that decides who goes when and who tells who what.
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So, again, what are the keys of things to look for? The biggest of all may be how to manage future stuff when I don’t know what the hell its going to be or what Im going to be looking for? The answer: By objectifying the data!
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The key is to have consistent methods across platforms. Automatic media movement and transformation to lessen user involvement and streamline the process Subject taxonomies that can be extended as the amount of content under management grows and as new media formats are created and deployed. Powerful vocabulary controls to both allow users that know what they are looking for find things and assist users that have a slight clue of what they are looking for narrow their scope.
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DMAM that grew up through video seem to be the most efficient of the bunch in my experience. Video is second nature to these applications, where older Document based systems get bogged down with the plethora of video content containers and metadata. Document management centric systems have a long learning curve for video management. Being able to present video assets in multiple contexts and deliver them where they are needed are critical benefits to both users and staff support of enterprise DMAM systems in general.
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Every systems within your environment must play well with others and be standards based for an enterprise wide DMAM deployment to be painless in use.
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Here is my opinion of a modularized, expandable and extensible DMAM architecture. Abstract the databases. Access via web or direct clients. Server centric processes. Communications with external applications via API or common languages. Not necessarily limited to three tiers, this simple conceptual block diagram is presented for ideas and illustration of how an effective and efficient DMAM system should be architected.
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What you as an end user can do to help developers is to give accurate critical input to the system’s operation. If they tell you that what you suggest doesn’t make sense for their workflow, look for another vendor! They should be building their system for you and not the other way around.
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What the future holds. A sandbox simple way of managing both physical and logical assets with a short or non existent learning curve!
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That’s all folks!
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