Today I heard from David Riecks, one of the industry’s leading experts on metadata issues. He informed me that he is working to figure out how social media sites are handling photographic metadata. (Stripping out all, some or none.) Clearly this is a critical issue. To learn more, check out Riecks’s “Photometadata.org” blog post of December 3 on the topic:
“Do Social Media Websites Preserve Photo Metadata?”
Hearing from Riecks motivated me to check out at Photometadata.org, which was not up and running the last time I wrote extensively on metadata topics. I strongly suggest you take a quick look at this important resource site and note how it can help in your specific metadata learning curve.
Photometadata.org is a comprehensive, valuable online learning resource for both quick reference and deeper background learning and in includes how-to tutorials in PDF and video formats. Essential links are listed.
Back in May 2008, in this blog, I reported on some metadata fundamentals in my post, “The Big, Scary Metadata Crisis (And How To Address It).” I referenced an in-depth article that I wrote on the topic for AfterCapture: “Basic Metadata: Don’t Process Without It.”
The post and the article (written with great support from Riecks) are still valuable, but Photometadata.org is simply much more robust in terms of content — a resource I could not recommend at the time of writing.
“It’s time we all got meta-smart,” reads text on Photometadata.org, which sponsored by the Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) as part of their SAA Photo Metadata Project, which is supported by the Library of Congress.
I agree that we all need to get meta-smart — and keep getting smart about metadata. I imagine that you are already doing your best to add basic metadata to all your files. (That would be: your name, your contact information and the copyright status of your image.) But even if you are, as Riecks’s investigation into social media issues proves, metadata is a moving target. To help keep moving with this critical target, be sure to check out Photometadata.org.