Metamedia, or, How I gave up control and learned to love the sandbox

Abstract

When speed to market is the top priority in most businesses, the luxury of deep research and fully flushed methodologies are usually compromised. In fact, content architecture strategies are more akin to laying the tracks down in front of a fast moving train. By the time businesses concede that some kind of cohesive plan is needed for managing digital assets, the train has usually long since left the station. Adding to this complexity is the ever shifting digital landscape. When brands spawn a plethora of consumables from a single intellectual property how can this be tracked at a level meaningful for executive reporting? When teachers choose lesson components to create customized learning, how do you compensate creators for royalty payments? How can this avalanche of formats and mash-ups be successfully managed and tracked? In this article, we'll explore the proliferation of metadata, its many roles, and how to approach a transformative digital asset management strategy.