Audio and Video Chris McConnell Department of Radio-TV-Film November 30, 2006

Overview Structured vs. Unstructured Data The Big Challenge Problems with Audio Some Audio Solutions Problems with Video Some Video Solutions Conclusion

Structured vs. Unstructured Data Data management folks often talk about two kinds of data in the enterprise. Structured data has a format that is enforced through software. Unstructured data is not easily understood by computers.

Structured Data Structured data is contained in a way that makes it easy for computers to index and search The short answer is that structured data is in a database. Things like XML files lie in a sort of gray area between structured and unstructured.

Unstructured Data Unstructured data is just about anything else that doesn’t have a predictable structure. Text documents ( , HTML, Word0 Images Audio Video

Unfortunately, it gets more complicated It’s useful to break out this category in a few different ways. Text vs. “bitmap” data Text can be read by crawlers, discovery packages, etc. Good IA should make text easier to understand for automated tools.

Bitmap Data Bitmap data represents images, audio, or video as a series of numbers that represent each slice of a file. Darn near impossible for computers to extract meaning from the content itself. Many vector-based data types like Illustrator, Flash, MIDI, and maybe PDF suffer from a similar problem.

Metadata Some bitmap data formats like mp3 offer the ability to add metadata that provides more context or structure for the content. However, video files provide operational meta data, but, if there’s space for metadata about the content, it’s rarely used, making video an even greater IA challenge.

Some Audio Problems Even if mp3s have metadata that reveal title, artist, and other information, this information is rarely used on the Web. Web browsers do not display this information. Web pages rarely provide context in an useful way.

Case Study: Slumber Party Pitchfork record review site allows users to click through directly to mp3s on record label sites.click through directly to mp3s on record label sites When mp3 is playing, users have little idea what they’re listening to. The record label has an even worse IA situation…even worse IA

More Audio Problems To keep users from downloading mp3s, many labels and mainstream publications use Flash or Javascript players. These players are often oft-the-shelf solutions, which do not display IDv3 tags. Example: XXLXXL

Some Solutions Use embedding to make an mp3 playable within a page, with appropriate labels. An mp3 download link can be provided for downloading or users with older browsers. Working with Flash, add context to the Flash file. Example: Warners Bros. Flaming Lips site.Warners Bros. Flaming Lips site However, it is difficult to provide a URI for embedded content.

Embedding mp3s This allows you to create contextual text that describes the file. In addition, it creates a URI for a contextual page for the song.

Problems with Video As with mp3s, many video files play in a browser window with little additional context. Example.Example Video is often difficult to describe or label, especially if it’s so-called “viral video”

Medium-Specific Video Problems Time-based media are difficult to scan or “scrub” for particular content. Search engines cannot index video content, unless transcripts are provided on an HTML page. Users may not have the patience to get to the good stuff.

Tagging Solutions Tagging allows users to create descriptive labels for video. Example: YouTube YouTube YouTube’s tagging system still does not allow users to identify interesting content inside the video. “Deep Tagging” allows users to mark and label points in the video. Example: MotionBox MotionBox

References Weglarz, Geoffrey. “Two Worlds of Data – Unstructured and Structured,” DM Review September 2004.Weglarz, Geoffrey. “Two Worlds of Data – Unstructured and Structured,” DM Review September 2004 “Add Voice to your Site: The html EMBED Tag” Access from voices.com/resources/addaud.htmlhttp:// voices.com/resources/addaud.html “Deep Tagging and the Embeddable Motionbox Player” Motionbox Blog. September 13, 2006.“Deep Tagging and the Embeddable Motionbox Player” Motionbox Blog. September 13, 2006.