Good Work From Your Trade Orgs
In 2007, two professional photography trade associations, The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and The Stock Artists Alliance (SAA), applied for and received matching fund awards from the Library of Congress as part of the Library’s National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). Now that is a mouth full of an acronym, but this is a very cool thing. Two of our pro orgs took the initiative and acquired funding to do mind numbing research and work to make our business lives better. I don’t want to do the work, but I am more than happy to benefit from the results. And, I believe we all will.
ASMP’s “Digital Photography Best Practice and Workflow” project is to create guidelines with the goal of determining and developing refined production workflows, archiving methods, and recommended best workflow practices for digital photography based on image usage and capture methods. ASMP is nearing the end of the research and writing portion of this project. By the end of this year, these workflows will be available online and a nationwide educational tour will be launched. Richard Anderson is the project manager for ASMP.
SAA’s “Photo Metadata Project” is to promote the use of standardized photo metadata to photographers and user communities. After extensive research, SAA has recently launched their online resources for this project at www.photometadata.org. And, tomorrow evening, the first free seminar is being held in Dallas, followed by Thursday evening in San Antonio. Check this calendar to see the complete seminar schedule. I know thinking about metadata may not blow your skirt up, but this issue deserves the attention of any artist. The proper management and tracking of our work is critical in this age of digital distribution. Add in the likelihood of future changes to copyright law and proper metadata becomes critical. David Riecks is the project leader for SAA.
So, I offer a round of applause to the hard working folks behind these projects and challenge each of you to take advantage of the work they are doing on your behalf.