Monday, March 25, 2013

Case Study No. 0868: Phil Shapiro

Oh Metadata!
3:00
I shot this music video in the public library where I work in Takoma Park, Maryland. The melody is the old spiritual, "Oh, Happy Day." Thanks are owed to the Benson Family of Bethesda, Maryland, who joined me on the vocals and Scott Stead who did a great job on the video edit. http://www.scottstead.com

This video was shot using the iSight video camera on my MacBook.

http://www.twitter.com/ philshapiro

For more playful videos on YouTube, see

http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=l4QsZfN44iE

For some of my thoughts on metadata, see

http://tinyurl.com/ 3x2kf2

For some of my thoughts about public libraries, see
http://tinyurl.com/ 92buqz

For some of my other thoughts about public libraries, see
http://www.his.com/ pshapiro/ communitycontent.html

http://www.twitter.com/ philshapiro
Tags: metadata public library music video takoma park oh happy day spiritual bensons scott stead livetype
Added: 3 years ago
From: pshapiro
Views: 10,828

Oh, Metadata!
by Phil Shapiro
and The Bensons Family
(of Bethesda, Maryland)

Musical Director (and bongos)
John Benson

Vocal Director
Paula Benson

Vocal Backup
Bernie, Maria, and Lisa

Video Production
www dot scottstead dot com

Contact Info
pshapiro [at] his dot com
www dot twitter dot com slash philshapiro

---

From pubcom.com:

My friend Phil Shapiro's latest video is a hoot and a half.

Phil just released his latest YouTube video, "Oh Metadata!" with music by the Benson Family.

Phil is a good colleague of mine and a well-known digital media guru who currently works at my town's local library in Takoma Park, MD, a suburb of metropolitan Washington, DC.

Phil himself is a hoot and a half, but you'll figure that out when you see his video.

After an intern at my studio saw the video he commented, "That's fantastic. But what IS metadata?"

Here's the answer, as well as my guidelines on how to use metadata to improve your chances of finding your documents...and of having search engines find them, too.

What IS metadata?

Metadata is data about data.

I know that sounds like a smartass answer, but it's really true. It's data that is embedded into a file that describes the rest of the data in that file.

Usually the person who is viewing the file doesn't see the metadata, unless the document's properties are shown.

But search engines like Yahoo, Google, and Bing read metadata and use it to help catalog your file in their databases and retrieve the file when someone searches for a topic listed in your metadata and file.

So having metadata in your file is a good tactic for search engine optimization (SEO).

Metadata is also used by the search utility on your computer. If you searched for "blue widgets," the search utility will check the metadata of your files to see if "blue widgets" was included as a keyword, in the subject, or in the title of a document.

So metadata can help you find your long-lost files on your computer and also on your organization's file server, too.

If you use Adobe's Bridge software to view and manage your photos and other digital media, metadata helps Bridge organize your files.

And that's what Phil Shapiro's video is all about. Phil works at our local library so he's always looking for something! Metadata is his friend. *grin*

As the video says, "Metadata, you help me find what I need to know."

---

From mail-archive.com:

i was visiting a family i know this afternoon and asked, "hey, do you want to help me record a new song?" they said, "sure, let's go for it."

the youth in this family wrote the lyrics of the song with me. then we all recorded this in apple's garageband software -- bundled for free with new macs. the bongo drums were later added by a middle school student in this family.

it was a fun constructivist learning project. i had no idea where this song was going when we started, but it seemed to be heading in a fun direction.

i've posted the song temporarily on the web at

http://www. writersforliteracy.org/ ohmetadata.mp3

this song is being distributed under a creative commons license - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0.
(i.e. use it for any nonprofit purposes you like.)

i'll be uploading it to the internet archive (archive.org) for its more permanent home. (and maybe submitting it to the itunes music store via cdbaby.com)

- phil

lyrics and chords appended below for those who might be interested.

i can't wait until one of the youth in the family gets asked by a teacher, "does anyone know what metadata is?"

they could honestly answer: "well, i'm one of the persons who composed and sang the song 'oh metadata.'"

Oh, Metadata

Oh metadata, oh metadata,
Oh metadata, oh metadata,
You help me find, you help me find,
You help find, you help me find,
What I need to know.

When I had lost,
My precious files,
You gave then back to me.

Oh metadata, oh metadata,
Oh metadata, oh metadata,
You help me find, you help me find,
You help me find, you help me find,
What I need to know.

My files were lost,
Oh they were lost,
But now they're found,
Now they're found.

Oh metadata, oh metadata,
Oh metadata, oh metadata,
You help me find, you help me find,
You help me find, you help me find,
What I need to know.

I don't know what,
What I'd do,
If I did not,
Did not have you.

Oh metadata, oh metadata,
Oh metadata, oh metadata,
You help me find, you help me find,
You help me find, you help me find,
What I need to know.

Oh metadata, oh metadata,
You help find,
You help find,
You help me find,
You help me find,
You help find,
You help find,
What I need to know.

By Phil Shapiro and The Front Porch Singers

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