Metadata Working Group Announced
by Jeff Greene /
Today at Photokina in Cologne, Germany, six industry-leading companies announced the Metadata Working Group , whose mission is to publish technical specifications that propose standards for effectively storing metadata into digital media files.
Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, Canon, Nokia, and Sony are the founding members of the Metadata Working Group and today they introduced the first specification providing guidelines designed to increase interoperability and preservation of metadata in digital images across all applications, devices, and services.
“Lack of metadata interoperability has led to significant frustration for both consumer and pro photographers, and our companies have spent considerable resources trying to deal with the problem,” said Josh Weisberg, chairman and founder of the Metadata Working Group and director of Microsoft’s Rich Media Group.
“Getting these industry leaders together to rally around metadata interoperability is a real turning point, one that we believe will result in technology that’s easier for photographers to use.”
Although there are several existing metadata standards, they are often inconsistent and lack interoperability between devices, applications and services resulting in incompatibility issues when searching for information embedded in the file. The Metadata Working Group’s initial guidelines target photo metadata, with a focus on still images and common consumer uses.
“We’ve chosen to address the most common issues photographers face as we feel this will make the biggest impact for the average photographer,” Weisberg said. “Down the road, we will expand our work to include other metadata issues relevant to photographers.”
Addtional coverage about the Metadata Working Group:
ComputerWorld: Microsoft leads effort to solve photo metadata problem .
CNET: Software, camera allies try easing photo data pains.
DPReview: Metadata Working Group
CDRInfo: Working Group to Create Metadata Specifications For Digital Photography.
For more information, press only:
Kate Whitman, Edelman for Metadata Working Group, (206) 268-2222, kate.whitman@edelman.com