Media Centric Discovery of Information

I will be at the Henry Stewart DAM show in New York speaking on Friday May 21 about Media Centric Navigational Experiences.  I often talk about a Media Centric approach to asset management as opposed to a Systems Centric approach when describing what strongly attached metadata can enable.

The concept is pretty simple but also quite powerful – by adding metadata to the asset, one is able to navigate related information from the asset.  Strongly attached metadata allows me to begin my information discovery from the asset itself because it has carried it’s context with it.

How many times have you found a photo or presentation and then wanted to find the email thread that discussed the content of the asset?  Or just simply wanted to know, where did this asset come from? And can I use it?

Well, a metadata savvy email client, or web client would be able to capture some of that context by inserting a related link, relevent URLs, even people or topics into the metadata of the asset you downloaded.  It would enable that asset to be contextually linked to where it came from, allowing you to more easily navigate from the asset to the context.

That is one simple example, but imagine establishing a core schema of critical business properties that can be embedded into all your media.  As the media flowed through your systems, it would populate the schema with values and links to authoritative information source within your company.  Ultimately allowing the end user to quickly jump from the asset to those sources.  The media user would immediately understand who has been associated with the asset, what projects it has been involved with, how much it has or will cost, what the current status is.

You may ask, isn’t that what an asset management system does?  Well, yes but… The difference is one of putting all your informational eggs in one DAM basket versus an organic web of information that can be strongly attached to your asset.  A DAM is still required for caching and indexing information but the media is really at the center of capturing and linking to related information.

A Media Centric approach compliments other search and discovery processes to make it ultimately easier for the end user to navigate to the desired information from the context that they started from.

Barcodes, registries and identifiers

Looks like barcode analogy for media identification and supply chain management is getting to be popular. I was talking with Harold Geller at AD-Id about supply chain management and he pointed me to the video blog post done by Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the ANA (Association of National Advertisers).  In his post, The Marketing Supply Chain & AD-ID, he uses this analogy of the barcode to track information and connect systems. Hurray!

The barcode analogy is what I use to describe the opportunities for OpenSAMSN. The theme of “identification and linking data” is growing stronger as there is increasing pressure on the production and distribution (eco)systems to become more streamline.  The handoff of assets between systems need to become more integrated – this can be done by traditionally connecting the systems via APIs.  The API approach is quite fragile since it relies on connect 2 specific systems, negotiating APIs functions and versions. What happens if one company wants to upgrade and the new system doesn’t support all the required APIs?

An alternative is to use the metadata in the assets as the integration pathway in conjunction with registries to connect the information flow.  The asset itself could contain all the data need for integration or it could contain a reference to a registry that would provide the info.  The question between embedded and referenced data is a strategic one and can get complex.  Embedded metadata could also be encrypted and reference data could be delivered based on an access control list.

In general, this is all fine if the namespaces are well known and understood – like Dublin Core or IPTC.  But what if each company has their own custom namespaces?  There needs to be another feature of the registry to enable a ‘mapping’ or semantic understanding between related properties.  This metadata interchange enables the information to flow more easily between the systems.

A Utopian dream that this can get done? Well, we never thought that we would be scanning our own products in the self checkout line one day.
 

Technorati Tags: metadata, xmp, SAMSN, barcode

Google Goggles

Google Goggles – It’s very cool and very creepy at the same time – like someone whispering in your ear what you need to know about what you are seeing.  The Android application enables the user to user their phone to scan the environment and return search results based on what can be recognized: landmarks, book covers, business cards, art work, store fronts, wine labels, logos and of course barcodes.

Google is once again leveraging it’s massive data set to provide new services. Clearly this is not the open data approach discussed in my last post. It raises a number questions about trust and that I mentioned which goes to the heart of that creepy feeling.  I don’t want to trust Google to recognize everything in my world – I want to be able to trust the authoritative sources themselves.

That where having a mechanism to directly link to the authoritative information is critical – just like the barcode can directly resolve to the product owner.  The distinction between Goggles and Google online search is that the user expectation is all about recognition and identification of a point piece of information rather than exploration of related information about a vague topic.

So as a vendor, how do I ensure that my product is properly identified and communicated to the end user? 

Well, you’ll need to have authoritative reference images and related information that Google can reference – you might as well make that information open so that others can link to it as well.  This becomes your new ‘website’ for Linked Data processes – a reference website for machines only.  Perhaps it is woven into your existing website for humans using RDFa, or it could be a public extension of your internal marketing DAM – or both.

That’s why it will become increasingly important to be able to connect your rich media to authoritative metadata by using the SAMSN principles. Enabling this will be a SAMSN registry that will connect the media to authoritative information and distribute the information as needed.

Getting your rich media and related information out there in an authoritative manner will become increasingly important for SEO.