Beware; there is a lot of enterprisey phraseology thrown around this space. In my more cynical moments I wonder if there’s a there there, or just a bunch of selling. One challenge is that it is often unclear what people mean when they use a phrase such as “Digital Asset Management”, “Enterprise Content Management”, or even good ol’ “Content Management”. Wikipedia’s ECM page seems like a good overview of what I take to be the bigger problem space.

I do tend to wonder how many of these /(asset|content) management/ problems could be solved with free accounts at tumblr or wordpress.

One minor surprise is the meagre availablity of wicked old books in this area. Does nobody want to write about this topic, or is there no market for it, or what?

If you are using the phrase “Digital Asset Management” in its more tightly defined sense, there are a plethora of existing software solutions, many of which are open source. Of the latter, most tend to be written in XML java, with some php options too. Pardon me while I stifle my enthusiasm.

Poking around did reveal one python-based option: NotreDAM. The sense of humor is appreciated in this space. It doesn’t look like the project is super established yet but it looks promising.