The Life of a Digital Asset [Infographic]

Did you ever think about it, how does the life of a digital asset can look like? From the time of creation to final archival or decommissioning. Today we can read the life of a digital asset in a nice infographic.

Carl the photographer takes a photo of milkshakes using his digital camera. This creates a high-resolution digital file that contains the Image of the milkshakes. plus some embedded metadata that was inserted by the camera itself Inducting:

We can find the dimensions, date and time created and the GEO location.

Carl then downloads the image to his desktop and opens it up in a software that allows him to embed metadata. Here he adds an additional set  of metadata including:

Keywords: fruit, drink, milkshakes; Photographer: Carl Bright; Title: A trio of milkshakes

Carl then sells this image with a set of others to The “Fruity milkshake company” for their new advertising campaign. They buy total usage of the images for one year so they can use it wherever they want websites. leaflets. advertisements. press features, social media etc. Usage rights and an expiry date are set.

Violating copyrights of protected photos or artwork costs organizations 2 billion USD in 2017, missing expire dates is the number one reason.

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Alter The Fruity Milkshake Company has purchased the Image. Lucy the marketing manager uploads the image 1n10 !he company Digital Asset Management system (DAM). Image previews are generated automatically so all users can easily see thumbnails when searching or browsing bef0re seeing more detailed views. The DAM extracts the existing metadata when the asset is uploaded and it populates the correct metadata fields.

Staff all over the world can now freely use the asset as many limes as they want For example: On websites, on social media, in press advertisements. They can easily find the asset when they search due to the metadata added when the image was uploaded.

A year has passed and the expiry date arrives. One week before, the DAM automatically emails all users who had previously downloaded the asset letting them known is about to expire.

On the expiry date. the asset is no longer visible to anyone except admin users who also receive an email asking whether they would like to contact the owner to extend the license (e.g. if it is popular) or leaving it in an archived state.

This journey has been created using Asset Bank’s Digital Asset Management Software as an example. Understanding the Life of a Digital Asset can help us in the decion to final purchase a DAM for our organizations.