London (England) -- The IPTC (International Telecommunications Council) is challenging vendors across the media industry to create the conditions for interoperability for metadata embedded in media files.

Following a 2006 Metadata Manifesto issued by the Stock Artists Alliance, the IPTC has created a new updated document the Embedded Metadata Manifesto (www.iptc.org/goto?emm) to cover all media types, including stills and video. The manifesto outlines a set of 5 principles:

• Metadata is essential to identify and track digital media
• Media file formats should provide the means to embed metadata in ways that can be read by all
• Metadata values and semantics should remain the same across media formats
• Ownership metadata should never be removed
• Other metadata should only be removed with permission of the copyright holder

The updated manifesto was presented at the Photo Metadata Conference - www.phmdc.org - organised by IPTC and held in conjunction with the CEPIC - www.cepic.org - European image library Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, on 20 May 2011.

While the stills photography industry has made substantial progress in standardising data embedded in the image file using the IPTC metadata schema, there is a pressing need for similar levels of interoperability in video.

"Metadata is a key driver for business" says Michael Steidl, Managing Director of the IPTC. "With photographers now shooting video and agencies looking to market cross-media and multi-media products, there is a compelling need for metadata which can be used across stills, video, audio and even text. There are challenges in the video sector, with multiple formats in use, and no widely shared way of embedding data in the media file itself. Nevertheless, we believe the challenge must be taken up by users and vendors in the media business, so that solutions can be found. We will work together with the media industries to build on the work we have done with still images, so all businesses can benefit from clear, unambiguous data."

CEPIC President, Christina Vaughan, CEO of Image Source, gave the keynote address at the IPTC Metadata Conference. She said "Our industry is moving fast to incorporate video and audio. We give full support to this IPTC initiative to help CEPIC members and others standardise metadata when exchanging images. The content of the CEPIC Congress reflects exciting new developments in this area, and we are very pleased to provide this opportunity to promote the cooperation needed to drive our business forward."

About the IPTC:
The IPTC, based in London, UK, is a consortium of the world's major news agencies, news publishers and news industry vendors. It develops and maintains technical standards for improved news exchange that are used by virtually every major news organisation in the world.
Information on all IPTC standards such as the Photo Metadata standards, the family of G2-Standards - NewsML-G2, EventsML-G2 and SportsML-G2 -, NewsML 1, NITF, IIM and the NewsCodes together with a list of existing members and information on how to join is available at www.iptc.org

 

About CEPIC:
CEPIC stands for the Coordination of European Picture Agencies Stock, Press and Heritage. Its goal is to be the centre of the picture industry. More information about CEPIC can be obtained from www.cepic.org .