How DAM Enables Efficient Publishing Processes

How DAMEnables Efficient

Publishing Processes

Thad McIlroyThe Future of Publishing

San Francisco

Copyright © 2006 by Thad McIlroy

Presentation toXPLOR

My Background

32 years on the dusty road of publishing 5 years directing Seybold Seminars 7 years studying the impact of the Internet

on graphic communications 3 years studying XML, CMS, workflow and

production automation I first said “DAM” in 1997 (a decade ago)

My Objective To position DAM in the broader context of

content management and workflow automation

The Challenge of Terminology Asset management Media asset management (MAM) Digital asset management (DAM) Content management systems (CMS) Workflow (et al.)

For example: “Cross-Media”Is it… Cross-media publishing Media-neutral publishing Multi-channel publishing Cross-platform publishing Re-purposing or Media agility?

DefinitionsDigital Assets:Electronic files containing text, images, sounds and/or moving images that (generally) have been used in previous communication campaigns or publishing projects.

DefinitionsAsset Management:Software system used to catalog digital content for archiving or reuse.

DefinitionsContent Management:Technology and processes to maintain digital assets in a form where they can be quickly and easily reclaimed and reused in publishing workflows.

Content management is not just archiving.

DefinitionsWorkflow:A meaningless generalization!

Better Names for WorkflowWorkflow is a noun, it describes a state,

not an activity

Process improvementPublishing automation

The Workflow Ghetto “Workflow” is a term used all too frequently

in the graphic arts, used casually, loosely and inaccurately

Everybody’s got a “workflow” product What exactly is the commonality of these

products?

Content Management vs.Asset Management Asset management essentially stores

content, and makes it available for reuse Content management deploys content into

multiple media and (often) controls workflow

What is Content Management?Collecting, managing, cataloging

and deploying content*

*Content = all digital assets –> text, images, rich media, and associated metadata

Content Management (CMS)A fundamental technology for: Efficient workflows Dynamic Web sites Controlling rights & permissions Cross-media publishing The future of your work

Becoming aContent-centric Business The existing model is “product-centric” Clearly the form of the products is fast-

changing But the content has enduring value A publishers’ core competency is content-

creation And it’s existing customer relationships

The “Workflow” Challenge Authoring and design take place remotely

from prepress and printing Data flows downstream with insufficient

data to inform the process Islands of automation are not unified into a

single process

Islands of Automation

Limited manufacturing (workflow) efficiencies Doesn’t support content management Doesn’t support cross-media publishing

authoring &authoring &editingediting

illustration &illustration &photographyphotography

rightsrights

production &production &preflightpreflight

distributiondistribution

Asset Types Images — raster, vector Composed assets: completed documents,

pages, films, designs, etc. Audio Video Metadata (data about data)

Including project/job ticket data

File Format Issues Challenges of existing formats The ideal format for DAM Corporate standards Cross-platform standards Do you retain ALL of the elements?

including fonts

PDF as an Archive Format Strengths:

a standard format (PDF/A) all of the PDF authoring & production benefits

Limitations resizing limited editability font issues (not fully embedded) data not always tagged

Dealing with Legacy Data

Analog phased approach

Digital appropriate formats for archiving?

Metadata:What Gets Tracked?

Authoring data Rights data Past usage Access Production info

Metadata Does the label on the photograph read

“Mother & Child” or “Trust”? A host of developing standards:

Dublin Core Metadata Initiative DOI CEDARS proprietary schemes

Different ROIs1. Replacement cost of images2. What else could have been done with

the time spent searching3. Situations where you don't use effective

or appropriate graphics because it was too hard to find them

4. Finding new revenue streams for media assets

The Complexity of Media-Agility XML, XSL, XSLT, XSL-FO, and five

metadata standards Archiving vs. digital asset management

(DAM) vs. content management systems Requires mastery of print processes, Web

architecture, and increasingly an understanding of alternate electronic formats

W3C – from A to Z CSS DOM HTML HTTP InkML MathML OWL RDF Semantic Web SMIL SOAP/XMLP SVG

URI/URL WebCGM Web Services Web Ontology XForms XHTML XLink XML XML Schema XPath XPointer XSL and XSLT

Reusable Content Objects (RCO)Terminology A section (fragment, chunk) of content that

can be re-used in another form

Understanding Content Objects

Books, magazines, newspapers, and CDs and films are often just the commercial packaging around content

Which Content Objects ? We’re still trying to discover what “granularity of

content” will offer value Will it be a:

Chapter? Section? Song? Glossary item? Table? Scene from a film?

↓Product/Service

↓Product Family

↓Cross-product family

↓Cross-subject

↓Cross-media type

↓Outside your company

Content Objects(Reusable) Content Object

Incr

ease

d Va

lue

Decreased (R

elative) Cost

Accessibility RisingDigital doesn’t mean accessible XML affords a flexible, cost-effective solution Tagging alone is not enough Section 508 has driven everyone to address

accessibility W3C/WAI Guidelines

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/) explain making Web content accessible to people with disabilities

The Human FactorNew Internal Roles, Skills & Positions

The production skill set changes substantially Much of the existing knowledge base changes or

obsoletes The move from design & composition &

production management to content & product architecting and engineering

There is an enormous training challenge ahead

The Vision: Smart Documents

Authors w.templates

Editors workingelectronically

Proofingdone digitally

File contains allpreflight info &revision history

Text and vectorgraphics in XML

Knows whereit’s been andwhere it’s going:• print & bind• Web & PDA• distribution

Contains multiplelanguage versions

Q&A

For More InformationContact:Thad [email protected]