@ NATPE 2006: It’s All About The Metadata

You know times are changing when not one, but at least two panelists at NATPE bring up metadata as something vital to the success of cross-platform media. Tagging made it to the table as did folksonomy (which includes tagging and other collaborative forms of data organization) and taxonomy. For Channing Dawson, SVP-emerging media, Scripps Networks, moving video to broadband and other platforms has to include creating metadata — data about the data — in each show or each video. It’s part of managing the content from platform to platform but it’s also the basis for giving the user the kind of information needed to make choices.

On an earlier panel, David Watson, Executive Director, New Media & Emerging Technology for Disney ABC Cable Networks and the Disney Channel, raised the issue from a different direction: “I don’t think we’re going to able to look to Google and Yahoo to solve the search problem for us.” He said metadata is woefully underused now and that community, metadata and folksonomy are needed.

Meanwhile, on the same panel with Watson, when asked what kept her up at night, Sibyl Goldman, Executive Producer, Lifetimetv.com, Lifetime Television, started with “rights, rights, rights” but quickly segued into concern over the user experience. “Just because we can do everything should we do everything?” she asked. “It’s pacing ourselves รข

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