hey there...

just wondering if there is anyone out there that can recommend an open source digital asset management program. the non-profit i work for has been using extensis portfolio, and we've been pondering escaping from upgrade costs...

thanks a bunch

Check this link here: Its an online one that is bacially for galleries but if you are looking for more management of app type files, then this isn't your solution

http://gallery.menalto.com/

Not sure what features you would need as I am not in this. You might try "rolling your own" using FileMaker Pro. The newest versions handle a large amount of data (8 terrabytes).

There are also pre built solutions using FMP. This one is on the FMI web site:

http://www.filemaker.com/solutions/c...al_assets.html

Can you tell us a bit more?

How many people need access to this database?
What types of image and other files re used?
What OS is used?
How larhge is the database?

> usually we are accessing this database from a central network, which is not very large, but we are thinking about possibly being able to access the database from outside of our offices (i guess this is pointing to web-based programs)

> we are dealing with mainly jpg files, and are thinking about incorporating word documents as well (but not necessarily)

> OS:....right now we are using OS9, OSX and XP...

> we are verging on 10,000 photos at this point and probably growing by approx. 1000 per year ....

the main concern that we have is that we have a program that:

1. is cheap (i.e. open source or something fairly reasonable...we don't have the means to continually upgrade)
2. is able to categorize photos and allow a (virtually) unlimited amount of customizable categories
3. is user friendly and capable of wading through all of these files to search for what we want

thanks for any help you can provide.

1. Cheap is a relative term. If what you are using is currently worth $100,000 to upgrade, $10,000 is cheap. On the other hand if what you have is a $1500 system, $10,000 is not so cheap. I know that there are digital asset managemet systems that are worth a lot. So more info on the front would be helpful. It does however sound as if your needs are not that great.

2. Filemaker Pro will do all of this. You could have as many descriptive fields as you like.

3. It has probably the most user friendly search engine available. Set up a form when you make the program. the user will then enter find mode, enter data in the form and find it. Complicated And/Or and Omit searches are supported with various wild cards available.

The minimum system requirements are Mac OS X 10.3 I believe and XP SP2. Yes it is cross platform so both windows and mac machines could see the database at the same time on a network.

It is flexible in that you can change the program to meet changing needs. That is one of it's strengths. Development time is also fairly good compared to other choices for doing it yourself.

Regarding your earlier post, Filemaker can be deployed over a WAN or via web. I have two solutions now running via WAN. The number of people involved will influence the cost of deployment as with over 5 people you require the server version which does cost some money. Each work station requires a copy of the desktop application if doing a direct database deployment.

It has container fields that will import jpegs no problem. I would have to check the specs but I do believe that word documents can be inserted also. It is also possible to call the actual file up and have it open in it's own application. Good if everyone has the same programs. Not so good if applications are not widely distributed throughout the company. Also I am not sure just how good this would be in a cross platform environment where the file paths differ depending on platform.

This gives you something to work with anyway.

HTH

Dave McQueen