The Metadata Working Group has introduced its first specification, which provides guidelines designed to increase interoperability and preservation of metadata in digital photographs.

 

September 25, 2008: The Metadata Working Group has introduced its first specification, which provides guidelines designed to increase interoperability and preservation of metadata in digital photographs.
Formed in 2007, the organisation is dedicated to solving issues that make finding, organising and searching for digital photos a challenge. Members include Adobe Systems, Apple, Canon, Microsoft, Nokia and Sony. The group has been working to produce guidelines that are compatible across all applications, devices and services and that provide best practices for how, when and where metadata should be changed in popular file formats.
Metadata is important to digital photography because it allows photographers to tag their digital photos with information such as where and when they were taken. This information can be used for finding and sharing photos. Although the digital photography industry has several metadata standards, these existing standards often overlap in purpose and lack interoperability guidance. The result is that many interoperability scenarios between devices, applications and services are not possible because no clearly defined rules and standards exist to ensure consistent use.
The initial guidelines focus on still image metadata and concentrate on common consumer usage while also identifying overlapping content between existing standards. Future work will address other metadata issues relevant to photographers. More information can be found at the Metadata Working Group Web site, http://www.metadataworkinggroup.org/.