Here’s the last month’s Digital Asset Management articles which had a lasting impression on me – picked from the constant stream of blog posts you can see float by on Planet DAM. For more curated DAM links, see the weekly Digital Asset Management.com Links and Tracy Wolfe’s 10 things on the 10th.

(The list is a bit shorter this month because my new job keeps me busy.)

Favorites: Every enterprise DAM customer and vendor should read Ralph Windsor’s excellent piece on enterprise discontent with current DAM solutions. A sample quote: “DAM users want to be able to drill down through the digital asset supply chain and gain greater control over their digital asset operations. […] The role of the software vendor as provider of a self-contained product which they exclusively control and make decisions about is likely to end.”

Also highly recommended is Nora Gehin’s article Listening and message repetition are key to user adoption which contains tons of useful advice for DAM practitioners.

Industry news: The big news this month is that Bynder is launching a free DAM tool called Orbit – Emily Kolvitz is happy that everyone can now “touch and understand” DAM. CEO Chris Hall’s take on this is DAM for everyone! On DAM News, Ralph Windsor comments on the possible implications for Bynder and the DAM market.

Extensis release Portfolio 2017, and again, Ralph Windsor reviews the update in detail.

Metadata: Heather Hedden first explains metadata, taxonomies and facets, and then discusses whether to build, buy, or contract out a taxonomy. Cathy McKnight says DAM metadata is easier than you think.

Theodora Petkova introduces semantic metadata as the next step. Ian Truscott states that a semantic database is the basis for artificial intelligence (AI). In a podcast, Henrik de Gyor and Emily Kolvitz talk about image recognition. See also Henrik’s slides on keywording alternatives, and his new book Keywording Now: Practical Advice on using Image Recognition and Keywording Services.

Conference reporting: Both Ian Truscott and Nina Brakel-Schutt summarize the Henry Stewart DAM Europe conference in London.

Other articles: Important and sobering: Tony Byrne’s five signs that vendors influenced an analyst report.

Responding to the “DAM or content management” debate, Ian Truscott invites us to cut the acronyms; solve real world content challenges.

Jake Athey gives reasons why your marketing department needs a digital librarian, and Billy Lane tells the story of how the iPod helped him understand DAM.

Antra Silova shares the results of their survey on the top 10 most important DAM features. Spoiler: “ease of use” is number one.

Henrik Lambert introduces a fun way to visualize use cases in his DAM string theory.

DAM people: Don’t miss out on the interviews with Dan Piro and Annella Mendoza!

Interesting case studies: Faber-Castell, NATO, MTV and CNBC.

Product demos: Nuxeo workflow, Cavok (in German).