From DAM to Consent Management: LightRocket's Transformation Story

If only it had started with a kiss.

But we all know software stories never start with a kiss.

More likely they are conceived in a drab meeting room with a bescribbled whiteboard and a clutch of brow-furrowed, earnest-looking attendees. All meticulously casual, of course. We are software developers after all.

Fortunately, this story, which describes the transformation of our digital asset management system, has a more glamorous beginning than that.

The Moment I Realised LightRocket Could Help Schools Manage Consent

Imagine the gentle clinking of wine glasses at a party in Bangkok. Polite banter wafting through the warm air, peppered with the occasional peal of laughter. NGO workers recounting their adventures. Journalists bemoaning a ‘situation’ somewhere. Plans for holidays. The expat social scene in full swing.

“What exactly is it that you do,” asks Peta. She’s 40 something. Formidably intelligent. Formidably professional-seeming. Slightly indeterminate accent. Slightly intimidating.

On cue, I recount the story of our business. I’ve got our ‘elevator pitch’ down pat.

How LightRocket was founded by a group of media professionals. How we took our first-hand experience of managing archives and our passion for visual media, and created a unique digital asset management platform.

“It’s software,” I explain.

At this point most people are already planning their escape. Eyes darting round the room for an acquaintance who might save them from the somniferous drone of an impassioned software co-founder.

But not Peta. Her eyes widen as if in a moment of epiphany (I’m exaggerating of course). “Goodness, that’s exactly what we need at our school,” she declares. “I’m fed up with how difficult it is for me to access pictures of our children.”

“Really?” I exclaim, not sure if I’m more surprised that I’d never thought of our system as being of value to schools, or that Peta is actually still listening to me…talking about software, at a party.

Freeze frame.

This was the moment of intellectual realisation that would trigger a chain reaction of meetings (with lots of scribbling on whiteboards), ideas, dreams, realisations and almost two years of intensive work; culminating in the birth of a reimagined LightRocket. A system built out of an ethos of protecting privacy, consent, and safeguarding, and putting this at the forefront of our offering. Not to replace the DAM system, but to add on to it.

Reimagining LightRocket: Placing Privacy at the Forefront

Till that moment, we’d always identified ourselves in relation to other companies. The marketing people called it ‘positioning’. Investors see it as the things that differentiate you from the competition; the all-important ‘competitive advantage’.

Which is not to say that positioning and competitive advantage aren’t important. It’s just that if you’re really invested, at least intellectually speaking, in your business and the excellence of your product, at some point you need to look inwards too.

Which is what we’ve done. Thanks, partly, to Peta and her non-epiphany moment at that party in Bangkok.

The challenge, thereafter, was not to think about how we could be different from our competitors but how we could imagine ourselves differently: imagine new horizons of potential, new structures and new features.

We’ve always believed in the evolution of our product but the depth and breadth of the changes we have wrought in the past two years feel more like a full-blown revolution.

LightRocket is being re-born.

Even if the changes are fundamental – new database architecture, an updated codebase, a redesigned interface – the essence of our system remains. The emphasis on the relationship between metadata and effective search. The focus on workflows that reflect editorial realities while delivering efficiencies that save time (and therefore money).

The core of our identity and the concepts that our clients love, are still there. We’ve built on solid foundations laid and strengthened over two decades of doing business.

So, what about schools and the formidable, slightly intimidating, Peta?

What’s Actually Changed? A New Layer of Consent Management

Herein lies ‘the rub’ of our revolutionary path. The DNA of the ‘old’ LightRocket is still there but has been enriched by a brand-new layer of functionality focused on the safeguarding and privacy concerns of parents and schools – and indeed of many other organisations too.

In practical terms, this means a raft of new features relating to consent management. And an array of code changes designed to ensure compliance with GDPR in the UK and Europe and PDPA in Thailand and Singapore (where we’re incorporated).

LightRocket is still brilliant for managing digital assets but it’s now a digital asset AND consent management tool. For schools, and parents like Peta, this is a particular boon.

Many schools know they must gather consent from parents, but most still don’t have a secure and reliable system for doing so. Most still have no effective way of linking parental consent to individual children. Some schools are still using Google Drive, and have no idea which pictures are used by whom.

That translates to increased legal risks for schools, who are vulnerable to parental lawsuits (and wrath), and risks for children and parents who can’t be sure schools will adhere to the scope of the consent they granted. Schools could find themselves breaking privacy laws, and images of vulnerable students are at risk of misuse.

The goal is simple: schools need to be able to manage consent forms, matching consent with individual children, while parents need the reassurance that their children’s privacy is being protected.

Digital Asset and Consent Management

LightRocket is perhaps the most effective and comprehensive media management tool currently available when it comes to the degree of control, oversight and management it grants both schools and parents; ensuring consent, privacy and the law are respected.

Our system reflects a meticulous approach to creating workflows that are both flexible and configurable while leveraging the power of AI through facial recognition.

Peta surely has no idea what she innocently began at that party a couple of years ago and I’m not even sure if her kids are still at school. But if I do meet her again, I’ll be sure to tell her that legions of schools, parents and kids can now benefit from the software that emerged from that chance encounter.

Contact me now if you’d like to find out how LightRocket can help your school manage consent and safeguard the privacy of your students.