VRA 2010 MDID Users Group Presentation

MDID Users Group
VRA Conference 2010
Atlanta, GA

Vision and Guiding Principles
Allow students and faculty to manage, discover, and aggregate digital media for intuitive and flexible delivery and presentation
Embrace Web 2.0 and open access

Content Discovery
Starts on front page
Displays selection of images accessible to user

Explore Interface
Keyword and facet driven
Facets are based on Dublin Core
Shows all records accessible to user
Unauthenticated (anonymous) users see publicly accessible content

Sidebar: Role of Dublin Core
MDID “knows” meaning of some Dublin Core fields
Title
Identifier
Relations
As many fields as possible should be mapped (directly or indirectly) to a Dublin Core field

Facets
By default facets are broken up by words
Phrases are possible
Controlled vocabulary fields
Examples: Creator, Period

Sidebar: Search Engine
MDID uses Solr for all searching and facet creation
Solr is an Open Source tool built on Lucene, which MDID2 uses
Search behavior can be customized directly in Solr

External Content
All searches also run against external sources
MDID shared collections
Flickr
ARTstor

Multimedia Support
Thumbnails are automatically generated
Images
Videos (still frame five seconds in)
Audio (30 second waveform sample)

Sidebar: Supported Multimedia Formats
MDID backend supports FFmpeg compatible formats; commonly available client side delivery tools may only support a subset
MDID uses FFmpeg to identify files and to extract information
Determine bandwidth and pixel dimensions
Extract video frames
Extract audio samples to create waveform

MediaViewer
Replaces MDID2’s ImageViewer
Complete rewrite with modern technologies
Three modes:
MediaViewer: Web (development complete)
MediaViewer: Desktop (almost complete)
MediaViewer: Package (under way)
Compatible with both MDID2 and MDID3

MediaViewer: Web
Runs in any modern browser on both Windows and Mac OS
Requires Flash player version 10.0 or higher
Runs in full screen mode with limited keyboard interaction
Currently integrated with MDID2 demo sitehttp://mdid.org/demo/

MediaViewer: Web
The MediaViewer along with installation instructions will be published on new support site
A short video tutorial and PDF documentation are also available on the MDID support site
MDID3 will feature the new MediaViewer out of the box

MediaViewer: Desktop
Built on Adobe AIR technology using same code as web version
Requires a live Internet connection
Easy web-based installation
Will be released with MDID3
Will be backward compatible with MDID2

Accessibility
Content discovery and management is possible without
a mouse
JavaScript
Flash
Certain viewers depend on JavaScript or Flash, e.g. MediaViewer

Embrace Web 2.0 and open access
Encourage content sharing between individuals, institutions, and the public
Leverage collective intelligence through comments, ratings and tagging
Engage students by allowing them to add, create, share, and manage content

Social Networking Features
Stable URLs (permalinks) to all pages
Tagging for records and presentations
Comments

User Involvement
Optionally all authenticated users can use MDID to manage their content
Upload metadata and files
Customize metadata on all records
Create presentations
By default these actions are invisible to all other users
File uploads are optionally limited by quotas

Management Tools
Built into web application
Metadata import
CSV
VRA Core 4
Job management
Long running tasks are executed asynchronously
Job status is displayed in browser
Administrators can monitor and control all jobs

Content Organization
Metadata records and media files are organized separately
Records are stored in Collections
Media files are stored in Storage Areas

Collections can contain other collections
Photography
Landscapes
JMU Photographs

The same collection can belong to multiple collections
Photography
JMU Artifacts
Founding Documents
Landscapes
JMU Photographs
JMU Photographs

Records and associated media
Multiple files of different types can be associated with a single record
Media
File: john-doe.mp3
Type: audio/mpeg
Record
Title: Interview with John Doe
Date: May 5, 2004
Media
File: john-doe.pdf
Type: application/pdf

Hierarchical Records
If multiple files of the same type exist, each should have its own record
Records can belong to at most one parent record and have no, one, or multiple child records
Wilson Hall
Front view
Detail view

Viewers
Viewers are tools that display a single record or a whole presentation on the web
Viewers support a variety of presentation types:
MediaViewer for slideshows
Player for video or audio playlists
Flash card generator
Slideshow handout generator
More viewers will be added to MDID over time

Viewers
MDID determines which viewers fully or partially support an object or a presentation
Mixing media types in a presentation is possible but may limit the number of viewers that are available
When multiple files are associated with a single record in a presentation, viewers intelligently choose the appropriate file where possible

Records can belong to multiple collections
JMU Photographs
Architecture
Wilson Hall
Wilson Hall

Storage Areas
Each Storage Area in MDID defines a physical storage area to hold media files
Collection files can be spread across multiple storage areas rather than restricted to one physical directory
Storage areas can hold files that belong to different collections

Storage Areas
Storage areas can add functionality
Automatically manage ZIP archives
Produce streaming media links
Physically organize files in subdirectories

Permissions
Only three permissions
Read
Write
Manage
Can be set for users or user groups on
Collections
Storage Areas
Presentations

Organizing collections to control access
Goal: some records in a collection are available to the public, while others are not
Solution 1: Create two collections and add them to a parent collection
Photographs
Public
Private

Organizing collections to control access
Goal: some records in a collection are available to the public, while others are not
Solution 2: Create one private collections and add it to a public parent collection
Photographs
Private

Organizing Storage Areas to control access
Goal: Only low quality video should be publicly available
Solution: Store videos in different storage areas
Low quality video storage
Record
High quality video storage

Customization
Interface template is completely CSS based
All colors are configured in one area
Two master colors define basic color scheme
Logos can be switched out
HTML can be modified easily

PowerPoint
Export MDID presentations as PPTX files
Users choose from different themes
Additional themes can easily be added
Import PPT and PPTX files into MDID
Converts all slides to images
Slide quality not as good as an image export directly from PowerPoint
Requires OpenOffice on server

Continue to promote adoption of MDID beyond JMU
Build MDID 3 using Open Source software
Share MDID 3 through an Open Source license

Server Architecture
MDID can be installed on any major operating system
Windows
Linux
MacOS

Server Component Overview

Server Architecture
Components can reside on one or multiple servers running any major operating system
Components can be duplicated on multiple servers for redundancy or to support more load

Migrating from MDID2
Document any customizations
Custom user authentication
Clean up collection fields
Map as many fields to Dublin Core as possible
Migration tool will copy users, groups, collections, records, etc.
Due to differences in data structures, migration results need to be reviewed before going live

MDID as a platform for building multimedia apps
Developers can build custom multimedia applications on top of MDID
Showcases for special collections
Specialized interfaces for compound multimedia objects
Simplified interfaces with unneeded functionality removed

JMUtube
Allows faculty to manage and deliver video, audio and Adobe Presenter files
Simple drag-and-drop playlist builder
Integrated with JMU’s classroom recording system and Camtasia Relay

Shenandoah Valley Oral History Project
Records have audio and text transcripts attached
Custom interface presents scrolling text synchronized to playing audio

New MDID help site
Centralized documentation for all MDID installations
Context sensitive links embedded in MDID
Supports social networking features
Comments and tagging
Request an account and contribute documentation
Integrated FAQ where questions are asked and answered
Community-oriented: Success will depend on community participation

Project Team
Andreas Knab
Kevin Hegg
Grover Saunders
Tina Updike
Sarah Cheverton
Lead Software Developer, CIT
Assistant Director, CIT
Web Media Developer, CIT
Visual Resources Specialist, SAAH
Director, CIT

MDID blog and wiki at http://mdid.org/
MDID users list at http://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/mdidusers-l.html
MDID2 project on SourceForge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mdid
MDID3 project on Google Code at http://code.google.com/p/rooibos
Email: mdid@jmu.edu
Support

Authors:
Kevin Hegg (heggkj@jmu.edu)
Andreas Knab (knab2ar@jmu.edu)
Christina Updike Visual Resources Specialist (updikecb@jmu.edu)
Further Information:
Visit http://mdid.org/
Email mdid@jmu.edu
Product and company names mentioned in this presentation may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Information

Additional MDID Events at VRA
Tomorrow, Friday, March 19Ask the Experts Forum – Atlanta H3:30 pm
VRA Digital Matchmaking Group – Atlanta EFG5:00 pm

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VRA 2010 MDID Users Group Presentation

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VRA 2010 MDID Users Group Presentation — Presentation Transcript