Data Management Contents

File Management

Find / Search

Naming Files

Metadata

Hierarchical Organization

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

File Management

Managing your documents effectively can save vast amounts of time, regardless of whether you have a piles of papers on the floor, or files in a computer.

Everyone manages files in their own way. Therefore instead of trying to explain the 'right way to manage files' this document aims to provide an insight into some of the common methods and concepts used in contemporary file management.

Ultimately, it is up to you to come up with a document management system which makes sense to you and to the people with whom you work. What ever system you develop, chances are it will evolve as your requirements change.

This document will focus on digital file management, within a hierarchical representation. One of the major advantages of storing files in such a system; is that you have the ability to restrict a search program, so it will only search within a section of the hierarchy.

As the amount of data in a system increases, the ability to perform effective, assisted searches becomes more important. This is because the time it takes to search for information manually is proportional to the size of a hierarchically represented file system.

For a more general description of a computer file, please refer to the wikipedia file reference

Find / Search

Typically three search methods are supported by a system. When a file name is unknown or non descriptive these methods provide other means of locating data within a system. Below are some examples for each method.

(1) Metadata

• Time of Creation / Modification
• Customized Labels
• Location of Creation / Modification
• Who Created / Modified
• File Name (some file systems)

(2) Content Search

• Keyword
• Checksum / Partial Hash

(3) Hierarchical Organization

• Location in Hierarchy

Please Note :

The examples provided are by no means exhaustive.

Some file systems store file names as metadata.

Each search method on its own way is very usefully. However when combined together they provide an extremely powerful search system. Most operating systems will provide at least one of these options.

Below is an example of how you can access all of these search methods in Mac OS 10.2. Most operating systems provide similar options for searching using one or more of the methods mentioned above.

More advanced search systems are now offered by multiple vendors, such as Google. Mac OS 10.4 takes search technology to another level by integrating all these search methods into the core API of the operating system. This search system is called Spotlight.

Naming Files

Taking time to select a descriptive name for a file is a good practice. File name search times are highly dependent upon the size and implementation of the system. File name seach accuracy is primarily dependent upon a combination of how descriptively the files within a system are named and how closely the search name matches the desired file name.

Deciding upon a naming convention is a good idea if you are working with other people.

Many systems include information about the kind of data file in the name. This information is commonly known as an extension, and is added to the end of a file name. Not all systems use extensions to determine the kind of data in a file. Below are some examples of image format extensions.

.jpeg .jpg .tiff .png .gif

This is just a small list from the vast list of available file name extensisons.

Often the length and the characters you can use in a file name is limited by the system. Various systems impose different rules. Choosing a completely descriptive file name for an image may be impossible due to such limitations. If A picture is worth a thousand words, then a truly descriptive file name is not possible with many of today's systems.

In some situations documents will be easy to summarize into one word or even into a letter. However most of the time even a summary is difficult to fit into a file name.

Metadata

Metadata is data about data. In a computer file system, it is information relating to a file. For more general information regarding metadata please refer to the wkipedia metadata reference.

One way to think of metadata is packaging. Think about the cover sleeve of a book. It is attached or in some cases part of the book. It may provide information about the book, such as the author, the year of publication, summary, comments or an ISBN code. Metadata may also contain the be the contents page or the index of a book.

A files metadata can be added manually, or automatically. There are already many standards for metadata. One example is EXIF, used in many digital cameras to automatically store image metadata such as shutter speed, or aperture settings. The EXIF format also supports manually adding information to an images metadata such as comments, or categories.

Metadata is useful information and it provides additional search keys. When searching for information within a file, searching the related metadata may in certain situations provide very accurate search results.

If you are looking for a file which you were working on yesterday, and it was the only file you worked on yesterday, searching the system for a documents modified yesterday, and by you, would quickly find the document.

Hierarchical Organization

Representing a system as a hierarchy allows grouping of related data into sets. Hierarchies consist of files. Some files represent data, some files represent folders, and some represent links to another file.

Different hierarchical systems use different names for each concept. Some systems support more metaphors, however most systems support these three (files, folders, links).

Often systems will use different names to describe essentially the same concept. Under Windows a folder is referred to as a directory, under Mac OS a link is known as an alias. These differences cause confusion even for some IT professionals.

Files represent a group of related bits (zero's and/or ones)

Links allow a file to reside in more than one place within the hierarchy.

Folders allow grouping of related files or folders.

These concepts become increasingly useful as a system grows. Related data can be grouped together, allowing searches to be narrowed. Building such a hierarchy can be accomplished manual or automatically.

As the complexity grows a tree shaped hierarchy is formed.

Root Node where initial access to a tree occurs

Folder Nodes represent folders, or containers

Leaf Nodes represent files

This is a simplification of the situation; trees may merge with other trees, and there may be links possibly between trees, or other concepts not covered in this document.

NOTE : These Hierarchical views are often human readable representations. The information on the storage media may hold no resemblance to this representation. However as users we access information using a representation provided by the operating system .

Asset Management

As we generate and store an ever increasing number of digital assets it becomes more difficult to locate the files we require for a particular project or task. To further complicate the situation, large projects will involve multiple individuals, or teams. Everyone involved will require access to these digital resources or assets during the projects development. In some work flows multiple groups or individuals will be modifying the same documents at the same time.

When an individual or group interact with a set of files, controlling access to these files becomes important. If this is not managed correctly it is easy for work to be accidentally erased, or work to be performed more than once.

There are many commercial and noncommercial digital asset management applications. The need for such an application will depend upon you or your organizations needs.

Managing the digital assets of the organization can quickly become a full time job, even within a small organization

It pays to plan digital management from the start, because tidying up a big mess of assets can prove to be extremely time consuming if left until a project has commenced.

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