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Competitive Analysis
Systems Evaluated
Art&mis (Fine Art Museum, Boston)
Digital Asset Management Database (Berkeley Art Museum)
Quark DMS (Commercial product)
WebWare MAMBO (Commercial product)
Summary
For our competitive analysis of existing systems
we first looked at two custom solutions in use at other museums.
Art&mis was developed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston using
Filemaker Pro, which is a low-end relational database system common
in the museum world. The Digital Asset Management Database (DAMD)
is a custom system developed by the Berkeley Art Museum, also using
Filemaker.
We also analyzed a third Filemaker Pro system, Making Sense of Modern
Art (MSOMA), which was developed at SFMOMA. The MSOMA material will
be added at a later date. In all three cases we were able to either
evaluate a full working version of the system and/or talk to the
designers of the systems.
Such access provided us with invaluable insight into the institutional
demands that led to the design of these digital asset management
systems, as well as a depth of understanding about how the systems
actually work with real data. For these reasons the in-house systems
proved to be much more valuable than the commercial systems we looked
at.
There are many commercial digital asset management
packages on the market. The two that we evaluated, Quark DMS and
WebWare's MAMBO represent an enterprise level and an entry level
solution respectively.
Microsoft Word versions of the full evaluation
of each system are linked below.
Art&mis
BAM's DAMD
Quark DMS
WebWare MAMBO
In each we provide an overview of the system's
features, then discuss it's strengths and weaknesses relative to
our primary personas' goals. Each evaluation also includes a table
listing the primary features of each system and indicating which
features would be used by which personas.
Below are three summary tables that organize those features we expect
to include in our system, those that we are considering, and those
that we will not include.
Table 1: Features that
will be included in SFMOMA-DAM
Table 2: Features that may
be included in SFMOMA-DAM
Table 3: Features that will
not be included in SFMOMA-DAM
Table 1: Features that will be included in SFMOMA-DAM
(* Primary Personas)
| Features |
Source System |
Anton* |
Robin* |
Ken |
Sophie |
| Find digital media records in DB, read descriptive
metadata. |
All |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| View digital image surrogate of image, if
present. |
All |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Print / view wall labels |
All |
|
x |
|
x |
| Search Image Inventory. |
All |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Print query results |
All |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Capture and manage technical metadata related
to digital media creation. |
Art&mis
BAM |
x |
x |
x |
|
| Capture and manage technical metadata to facilitate
preservation of digital media. |
Art&mis
BAM |
x |
|
x |
|
(top)
Table 2: Features that may be included
in SFMOMA-DAM
(* Primary Personas)
| Features |
Source System |
Anton* |
Robin* |
Ken |
Sophie |
| Quick view of what's new in DB.
|
Art&mis |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Browse records by curatorial
department. exhibitions, etc.). |
Art&mis |
|
|
x |
x |
| Use Artist Authority
File (Source authority used when entering descriptive metadata).
|
Art&mis |
|
x |
|
|
| Request that an artwork be photographed
or digitized. |
Art&mis |
|
x |
x |
x |
| Track rights and permissions
for artworks. |
Art&mis |
|
x |
x |
x |
| Manage new orders for new photography
and digitization of artworks. |
Art&mis |
|
x |
x |
|
| View existing orders for photography
and digitization of artworks. |
Art&mis |
x |
x |
x |
|
| Track progress of photographing
and digitizing artworks. |
Art&mis |
x |
x |
x |
|
| Facilitate standardized encoding
of object relationships |
Art&mis |
x |
x |
x |
|
| Support image editing
workflow |
BAM |
x |
|
x |
|
| Repository for digital
images that are not directly related to a specific object in
the permanent collection (e.g. portraits of artists, exhibitions,
etc.). |
BAM |
|
x |
|
|
(top)
Table 3: Features that will not be included
in SFMOMA-DAM
(* Primary Personas)
| Features |
Source System |
Anton* |
Robin* |
Ken |
Sophie |
| Request that an artwork be examined, for acquisition,
for loan. |
Art&mis |
|
|
|
x |
| Request that an artwork receive conservation
treatment. |
Art&mis |
|
|
|
x |
| Associate artworks
with an upcoming exhibition. |
Art&mis |
|
|
|
x |
| Conservators track work that
they do to artworks. |
Art&mis |
|
|
|
|
| Conservators can print conditions
reports. |
Art&mis |
|
|
|
|
| Conservators can print scientific
exam reports. |
Art&mis |
|
|
|
|
| Conservators can print treatment proposal
reports. |
Art&mis |
|
|
|
|
| Conservators can print conservation
costs reports. |
Art&mis |
|
|
|
|
| Schedule photographers and studios.
|
Art&mis |
|
|
x |
|
| Publish XML records in EAD and
MOA 2 format for exchange with consortia members. |
BAM |
|
|
x |
|
| Check assets in and out |
Quark DMS |
x |
|
|
|
| Import assets from Quark products
and other DBs |
Quark DMS |
|
|
|
|
| Automatically generate thumbnails
and previews |
Quark DMS |
x |
|
|
|
| Distribute large files across
network servers |
Quark DMS |
|
|
|
|
| Store multiple versions of assets |
Quark DMS |
x |
|
|
|
| Manage the relationships between
associated assets |
Quark DMS |
|
x |
|
|
(top)
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