Digital asset management (DAM) is becoming more of a necessity for businesses across all verticals, from the corporate world to academia, the health industry to non-profit – just about every sector needs DAM. There’s a lot to know about DAM and the best way to learn is straight from the experts. Blogs provide direct communication from the top dogs in the DAM industry, giving the public access answers to many of those DAM questions. They go over everything from best practices, security, structure, metadata management, and more; to help you, our dear reader, out, we’ve put together our own list of personal favorite DAM blogs to help get to know DAM from A to Z.

(And yes, the DAM pun gets used. Embrace the puns, DAM it!)

Another DAM Blog
http://anotherdamblog.com/

Henrik de Gyor does a great job covering all aspects about digital asset management, from beginner-friendly blog posts to articles chock full of info targeted at DAM experts. Whether you’re a user or an administrator, you’ll find plenty to relate to on Another DAM Blog. Henrik’s writing style stays objective while covering a wide range of DAM topics.

Digital Asset Management – Covering Your Assets
http://digitalassetmanagement.org.uk/category/digital-asset-management/digital-assets/

This blog comes from a team with a strong technical skill base in web marketing. This one stands apart from most blogs, as it acts more as an information library with relevant industry articles instead of posting their own opinions and analysis. However, the broad range covered here – with input from multiple websites and authors – creates a unique one-stop perspective across subjects, voices, and opinions.

DAM News – Digital Asset Management News, Reviews, Trends & Opinions
http://digitalassetmanagementnews.org/

A lot of good DAM information can be found on this site.  They’re another article library with tons of relevant articles ranging from DAM, MRM, metadata, controlled vocabulary, and more. They compile what’s out in the DAM world and provide a convenient one-stop shop to read about digital asset management from many different perspectives.

CMSWire
http://www.cmswire.com/

Not quite a digital asset management blog, but for those of you who want more information on content management systems, this web magazine provides a lot of good news and articles. The content is broken down into two sections: Enterprise CMS (ECM) and Web CMS (WCM). Depending on your focus, it’s just a click away to find articles relevant to your industry or interests.

DAM-It! The Blog
http://www.webdamsolutions.com/digital-asset-management/

Last but certainly not least, we’ll naturally feature WebDAM’s own awesome digital asset management blog! You can find in-depth articles and blog posts exploring the ins and outs of digital asset management, all from the knowledge-packed mind of our own resident expert, Jody Vandergriff. With Jody’s 10+ years of experience, along with cameos from other members of the WebDAM dream team, this blog is the best DAM place to get the latest and greatest digital asset management info.

Digital asset management can be demystified through the knowledge of these experts in this field.  It may be a little intimidating if you’re just getting started researching DAM, but with these blogs you’ll feel like you have your own DAM specialist right by your side.

CM Content Management
A system used for organizing, managing and editing digital content.

WCM Web Content Management
A sub-set of CMS used more specifically as a web application for the managing, editing and storing of HTML content.

ECM Enterprise Content Management
Content management within an enterprise which provides the necessary tools, methods, skills and strategies needed to manage, store and edit the company’s digital content.

MAM Multimedia Asset Management
A sub-set of digital asset management, which more specifically entails DAM with multimedia content.

MDM Master Data Management
The method and strategy of centralizing data within an organization in order to define and manage information making searching, consolidating and distributing data more efficient.

SEM Search Engine Marketing
The process of utilizing search engine visibility as a form of internet marketing to promote one’s company.

SEO Search Engine Optimization
The process of improving a website’s search engine ranking through a variety of techniques.

WM Web Management
A sub-set of a Content Management System that applies to content derived from the internet.

XML Extensible Markup Language
A specification used for writing structured data on the Web.

RDF Resource Description Framework
A framework for composing languages to allow the integration of metadata.

ROI Return on Investment
A measure of net profits generated by a company.

SaaS Software-as-a-Service
A software distribution model giving a provider the capability to develop and operate software for customers to use as a service. Often time referred to as software on demand because of the consumer’s ability to access it whenever needed.

IPTC International Press Telecommunications Council
An association of the world’s major news agencies and news industry vendors, headquartered in London, England. The IPTC defines a set of standards for improved news exchanged.

XMP Extensible Metadata Platform
A platform that creates a set of standards for applications to describe, create and store metadata files.

EXIF Exchangeable Image File
Data attributes to an image detailing the image file format used by digital cameras.

VAM Video Asset Management
A sub-set of digital asset management, which more specifically entails the previewing, editing, storing and managing of video content.

BAM Brand Asset Management
Management of marketing and sales related content by providing a database wherein content spanning from marketing, advertising, promotions and sales is stored.

DM Document Management
Very closely related to Content Management, Document Management provides a system used for organizing, managing and editing digital content. However, Document Management refers specifically to electronic documents and images.

BRM Brand Resource Management
A system designed for a brand owner to better streamline processes and speed up the exchange of information with their business partners through the utilization of a shared database.

MCM Marketing Content Management
A system used to manage content involving web marketing and promotion tools used for the acquisition of customers as well as for building brand loyalty.

KM Knowledge Management
The process of managing, organizing and storing knowledge data and information within a company. Knowledge Management allows for easier implementation and sharing of information among employees.

DRM Digital Rights Management
Copyrighting digital files within a system in order to control who is accessing the digital content as well as how it is being used.

WebDAM Web-Based Digital Asset Management
The most cutting edge, cloud-based digital asset management solution by WebDAM Solutions.

What is Enterprise Digital Asset Management Software?

Simply put, enterprise digital asset management software is a special type of digital asset management software that can be implemented across an enterprise, accessible by associates of an organization such as employees, colleagues, partners, and customers,. It’s designed to meet the specific needs of larger organizations, across departments and divisions: a large user base, workflow integration, data security, accountability, among other things.

Key Features of Enterprise Digital Asset Management Software

When exploring digital asset management software solutions for implementation across an enterprise, here is what you should look for:

• Role-based permissions: When working within different departments and divisions in a company, roles become critical. An enterprise digital asset management system provides the ability to specify permissions based on real-world roles within the digital supply chain. For example, distributors need access to retrieve content while the marketing department needs to manage the content.
• Security: In the past decade, digital files transitioned from a luxury to a mission-critical aspect of any business. To keep a company safe, enterprise digital asset management software must be the guardian of organizational data. This means providing appropriate safeguards to protect both user information and digital assets from misuse and also data backup/disaster recovery adaptable to any situation.
• Scalability: Enterprise-level companies can grow very quickly, especially in today’s 24/7 global economy. Enterprise digital asset management software must accommodate this, providing the scalability to grow with a business, whether it’s located in one building or across the world. That means the ability to handle anywhere from thousands to millions of files based on the needs of the organization. However, it’s not just processing the files, it’s also about granting access — a worldwide corporation might require thousands of simultaneous requests, and good enterprise digital asset management software must be able to handle all of it without losing availability or data integrity.
• Reliability: For any business, downtime can bring things to a screeching halt. This is amplified umpteen times at the enterprise-level– the more users, the greater potential for lost time and money. This means that an enterprise digital asset management software solution must be mature and stable, ensuring high availability and uptime. For organizations choosing to outsource, the proper research must be performed so that the selected vendor comes with a solid track record.
• Integration: Intranets, content management systems (CMS), and other core organizational systems are an everyday part of enterprise-level business. That means that good enterprise digital asset management software must flow with this, not against it; workflow integration with systems are absolutely necessary so that users get a seamless experience. To achieve this, enterprise digital asset management software often offers plug-ins to other enterprise software applications or open APIs to integrate with custom systems.

The digital business world is continuously evolving, making digital asset management software a requirement for today’s business. At the enterprise level, it can be more than just a requirement — it can be the central nervous system that binds and unites the organization’s entire workflow. Each of the aforementioned points is a key piece to the puzzle that is a digital asset management solution. And just like any puzzle, it’s not complete without all of the pieces in place.

If you have made it to the other side, then you are well familiar with hashtags: keywords added to tweets and prefixed with a hash symbol (#). Like photo metadata, hashtags add context and search-ability to your tweets. For instance, if you are interested in tweets about Software-as-a-Service, you can search Twitter for #SaaS. Hashtags, however, are driven by the Twitter community. In other words, there are no real conventions or standards for using hashtags. This makes it a little tricky to know which tag to use for a given subject matter. In addition, it often leads to inconsistencies. For instance, one can find tweets on cloud computing tagged with #Cloud and #CloudComputing. In another example, the hashtag #DAM has dual meaning. It is often used within the Digital Asset Management community to tag DAM-related subject matter. More commonly though, it is used as slang.

The website hashtags.org tracks Twitter hashtags and reports metrics such as usage frequency. However, like most user-generated content, there is a lot of information to sift through when you are looking for specific subject matter. So I have compiled a list of hashtags related to the Content Management industry. Enjoy!

#Accessibility
#Adobe
#Cloud or #CloudComputing
#copyright
#CMS – content management system
#DAM – digital asset management
#EXIF
#InDesign
#Interoperability
#IPTC
#License
#LinkedData
#MAM – multimedia asset management
#metadata
#Opendata
#OpenSource
#Photoshop
#Privacy
#ROI
#SaaS
#SemanticWeb
#Storage
#Usability
#UserAdoption
#WCM – web content management
#Workflow
#XML
#XMP

What is your favorite DAM/CMS-related hashtag? Comment below!