In this issue of the Journal of DAM, Volume 5, Issue 4, we feature articles, interviews and case studies with industry leaders.

In this installment of his Cycle Time column, Michael Moon introduces the concept of knowledge worker productivity, extending the Peter Drucker theoretical model for measuring productivity by tracking processes – how quickly can any worker frame a request for information and get an accurate response?

Also in this issue are articles from Carol Owens, Director of Strategic Engagements for Ascent Media, with her article entitled When metadata worlds collide: The hunter/gatherer dichotomy; and Ramesh Singh, Senior Technical Director with the National Informatics Centre (New Delhi, India) with his article, Digital Preservation of Mass Media Artifacts: Technologies and Challenges.

Interviews in this issue include Rus Littleson, Managing Director for Media Equation, on the key role of business processes to support DAM for cultural institutions; Trae Clevenger, VP of Strategy and Innovation for Targetbase on marketing analytics; and finally, a case study in two parts – James Kober, Prepress Area Manager for Newsday, on the automation of creative workflows; and Vincent DiPaola, President at Moksa, Inc. on workflow in large media operations in general and Newsday in particular.

How can the different cultures of information management and web professionals collaborate, using metadata? Carol Owens is a pioneer in the field of media metadata. In this article she defines the challenges of using controlled metadata vocabularies for both roles.

How does an enterprise ideally address the digitization of large archives of mass media artifacts? Ramesh Singh makes the case for the preservation to be done in such a way that archivists can navigate the inevitable technological changes that will require them to migrate their data from system to system.

How does a cultural institution use technology to streamline their business processes? Rus Littleson believes that a focus on DAM technologies is key to efficiency in workflow for cultural institutions, and to examine what processes need to be in place to support the on-boarding of these technologies.

How can marketers drive improved, sustainable results in their analytics? Trae Clevenger discusses innovations in marketing analytics, from the perspective that the context of consumer relationships is no longer just between company and consumer. The relationship is distributed, including a broader context of content, locations and social influence.

Next, two sides of a case study: examining the implementation of ad operations workflows at Newsday, the first an interview with James Kober, prepress area manager for Newsday, and the second an interview with Vincent DiPaola, of Moksa, the consultant brought in to facilitate the implementation of the open plug-in architecture of Canto Cumulus.

In upcoming issues, we will feature interviews with Tom Marine of Central Restaurant, Kevin Cochrane of Day Software, Leon Wittenburg of SocialMedia8, Sean Knapp of Ooyala and many more.

Thanks for joining us!