vra 2010, mdid users group
DESCRIPTION
MDID.ORGTRANSCRIPT
MDID Users Group
VRA Conference 2010Atlanta, 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
Vision and Guiding Principles• 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
JMU Photographs
Landscapes
The same collection can belong to multiple collections
Photography JMU Artifacts
Founding Documents
JMU Photographs
JMU Photographs
Landscapes
Records and associated media• Multiple files of different types can be
associated with a single record
RecordTitle: Interview with John DoeDate: May 5, 2004
MediaFile: john-doe.mp3Type: audio/mpeg
MediaFile: john-doe.pdfType: 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
Front view Detail view
Wilson Hall
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 HallWilson 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
• Private
• Public
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
High quality video storage
Record
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
Vision and Guiding Principles• 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
Application
Djangousing Python
Apach
e
usi
ng
mod
_pyth
on
Mic
roso
ft IIS
usi
ng
PyIS
APIe
Search
Solr
Jetty or other Java
server
Database
Post
gre
SQ
L
MySQ
L
Mic
roso
ft
SQ
L Serv
er
Cach
ing
(opti
onal)
Mem
cach
ed
Job E
ng
ine
(opti
onal)
Gearm
an
File
C
onvers
ion
(opti
onal)
Op
enO
ffice
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
Q&A
Project Team
• Andreas Knab• Kevin Hegg• Grover
Saunders• Tina Updike• Sarah
Cheverton
Lead Software Developer, CIT
Assistant Director, CITWeb Media Developer, CITVisual Resources Specialist,
SAAHDirector, 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: [email protected]
Support
• Authors:– Kevin Hegg ([email protected])– Andreas Knab ([email protected])– Christina Updike Visual Resources
Specialist ([email protected])
• Further Information:– Visit http://mdid.org/– Email [email protected]
o 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 19
Ask the Experts Forum – Atlanta H3:30 pm
VRA Digital Matchmaking Group – Atlanta EFG5:00 pm