AMIA’s Digital Asset Symposium Unveils Insightful Presentations on Key Issues in Media Management and Distribution

LOS ANGELES (March 15, 2017) – The 2017 New York edition of the popular Digital Asset Symposium (DAS) series, presented by the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA), has announced its program lineup today, which will include a wide range of educational sessions focused on the ongoing challenges facing digital asset management practitioners led by top experts in the field. The daylong event takes place May 5 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Real world presentations will explore the many facets of the life-cycle of content – from collection and maintenance strategies to delivery with the purpose of reaching new, bigger audiences.


“DAS is a thoroughly unique event where attendees learn from and engage with some of the best and brightest in the international digital asset community,” says Program Chair Nick Gold. “Presenters share their knowledge and experiences, which apply across a cross-section of disciplines. We’re also addressing key topics in our program that apply to experts working in many different roles, yet whose work aspires to the ultimate goal of preserving and managing our heritage so that future generations have access to it.”

The 2017 DAS program includes:

Netflix: Cloud-based Media Management and Distribution    
In just 10 years Netflix has become one of the most successful media streaming companies and, beyond that, a significant creator of original programming. For this case study, a Netflix product manager will discuss the platform that powers their original video content workflows, and how it fits into an evolving architecture for the company.

MTV: Archiving the history of music television        

MTV set out to transform a massive footage tape library that encompassed production source tapes, master tapes and audio source tapes, into a curated digital library. A mere four years later, The MTV Vault project allows Viacom to better leverage the value of their content and seize opportunities to increase revenue while preserving the music group’s legacy. Viacom’s Jamie DiVenere and Johanna Salazar will take a deep dive into the processes, teams, and technologies used – recognizing the successes as well as the project challenges past and present.

Automated Metadata

Media content managers yearn for an “easy button” that will help with the massive challenge of usefully tagging assets so they can be as discoverable and productive as possible over the course of their lifecycle. Automation technologies seem like they offer a promise of great potential improvements in this area. Metadata strategist Sally Hubbard will lead a discussion to talk about the state of the art of metadata tagging automation technologies, and where this is leading.

AI and its Role in Managing and Archiving Digital Assets
James Hendler is a recognized visionary, who, along with Tim Berners-Lee and Ora Lassila, created The Semantic Web. He continues to push the boundaries of thinking in computer science and artificial intelligence research with his latest book “Social Machines: The Coming Collision of Artificial Intelligence, Social Networking, and Humanity” that highlights the challenges and the possibilities of the interconnection of human and machine intelligence. Hendler’s talk will focus on how certain approaches in systems engineering can enable massive improvements in productivity for managers of information via sophisticated and increasingly intelligent algorithms, while at the same time leading to systems that perform in ways that are designed to work as naturalistically as possible for their human operators.

“AMIA is the only organization that brings everyone to the table to share their knowledge, enlighten colleagues and educate the diverse content creation and preservation communities,” adds AMIA President Andrea Kalas. “To be able to tap into the expertise of others at an event like DAS provides an unparalleled opportunity to learn and network, as well as develop a better understanding for managing assets today for the future.”

To register for DAS or for more information, visit http://www.digitalassetsymposium.com.