ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan has selected IBM to pursue a digital vision and to collaborate on a Digital Asset Management system in the Living Laboratory of the university’s Media Union. The two are working on the university classroom of the near future where faculty and students find and use audio, video, animation and other rich media as easily as they draw on text materials.

The project, termed DAMS (The Digital Asset Management System) by the University, is intended to make the University’s huge stores of digital content (video, images, film, etc.) far easier to find and use. Examples of expected results from the University’s digital infrastructure include: far more life-like tools to study anatomy, better pictures of earthquake dynamics, and more facile tools for teaching theater expression.

“We believe that the University endeavor of teaching, learning and research must embrace video, audio, simulations and other rich digital media in the same way that it has historically utilized text and still images,” James Hilton, associate provost for Academic, Information and Instructional Technology Affairs, said. “The project is designed to examine solutions for issues particular to academe, and serve as a model for higher education institutions worldwide.”

The system will make it possible for faculty and students to find, customize and edit media assets from the desktop. “While DAM systems exist in corporate settings, the academic enterprise presents an environment that is far more complex in terms of the range of assets, the diversity of users and intellectual property rights,” Hilton said.

Several projects are already underway. For example, the School of Dentistry is making video demonstrations of dental procedures available online, giving dental students instant and repeated reference to a procedure, such as teeth cleaning, as they practice in the school’s simulation laboratory.

The Business School is creating online video modules of senior faculty delivering lectures on specific core concepts. Students will view the lectures, as needed, to prepare for classes, thus preserving precious class time for more advanced activities.

The School of Literature, Science, and the Arts will digitize and post online one of the world’s larger history of art collections, making it far more convenient to search and deliver these valuable artifacts to classroom, desktop, and class websites. The project is now housed in the “Living Laboratory,” located in the University’s Media Union Digital Tools Lab, a specialized environment for information technology experimentation.

The project utilizes IBM’s content management and other software solutions, including IBM business partner Ancept, Inc. and focuses on the access, manipulation and control of video, audio, images and other digital content in a learning environment.

DAM systems are tools for organizing digital media assets for storage and retrieval. The University is deploying the use of an array of IBM software products and partner products, with IBM’s powerful DB2 Content Management software serving as the workhorse and central repository for the system for managing the school’s digital content. Core technology components of the U-M DAMS project include:

• Asset Management: A storage and retrieval system, based on middleware software from IBM DB2 Content Manager and Ancept Inc. will be used to allow users to ingest digital assets (image, audio, video, metadata), perform searches, preview assets and retrieve them.

• User Access: IBM Strategic Partner Ancept will provide the Ancept Media Server, an open interface for direct interaction with rich media creation tools, categorization tools and edit tools.

• Asset Storage: IBM Tivoli Storage Manager will manage the storage of digital content, ensuring that assets are stored on the lowest cost medium and according to University storage policy and procedures.

The University of Michigan selected IBM as its Digital Asset Management partner because of IBM’s experience in building asset management systems, its commitment to developing advanced solutions with and for the higher education community, and the strength of its partners. The University is also exploring the possibility of joint research with IBM to develop digital rights management technology to address the unique requirements of academe.

The U-M is a leading public university and research institution. The University enrolls 39,000 students on its Ann Arbor campus, and an additional 15,000 on campuses in Flint and Dearborn and offers 600 degree programs. Its FY 2003 research expenditures of $749 million place it among the top five research programs in the U.S. For more information, see www.umich.edu

IBM is a leading information technology company, worldwide, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM helps customers, Business Partners, including Ancept, Inc. and developers in a wide range of industries that leverage the power of the Internet for e-business. For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com.