Theresa Regli’s opening session on the Vendor-neutral Approach to Selecting the Right DAM was standing room only. CMS Watch has published its Digital & Media Asset Management Report 2008 which can be purchased for the large sum of $1900. An interesting debate followed in a panel session regarding its perceived value. A self proclaimed “world-class thought leader and strategist in social media” challenged the need to purchase such reports when the same information could be found on networks and online reviews for free. Theresa responded that since so much information existed on the web today, the value in her report was in the time saved sifting through a plethora of noise to get to the facts needed to make sound business decisions.

Noise was prevalent at this year’s London conference. It took a disciplined ear to mute the proclamations of the evangelists to get to the meat of any given topic. And please, can we stop evangelizing and start achieving?

Here’s hoping that next conference I feel more inspired and encouraged rather than exhausted from enduring so many lectures.

From a meat-and-potatoes (a delicious meal) introduction to taxonomies (from the indefatigable Seth Earley) to BBC’s proof-of-concept demonstration of harvesting Wikipedia’s structured URL’s to import as controlled vocabularies, to analysis of auto-categorization and auto-classification tools available on the market, the conference covered a wide swath. An archive panel even delved into the challenges of raising money for digitisation projects which, while not exactly a metadata or taxonomy topic, resonated as a common ROI dilemma.

It was my first time chairing a conference and I enjoyed myself much more than I thought. Mostly because it was an absolute joy to be in a room with information architects, taxonomists, library scientists, information technologists, XML specialists, and knowledge organizers with such keen and sustained focus. There in the middle of the room were Leonard and Sheena Will, who have been doing information management and thesaurus work since way before the first publication of Wired. Next to them was Stella Dextre-Clarke, the award-winning information consultant who is currently advising the Bridgeman Art Library. Yeah, you heard me right. There are awards for information retrieval!

Unlike other conferences dedicated to taxonomy or search, this small and intimate gathering felt more like a professional association that allowed non-members in for the sake of edification. Even the obligatory vendor presentations were low key and casual.

Here’s what others are saying:

The importance of Taxonomy and Metadata

Semantic Revolution