Features

The Metamedia Archive framework provides a flexible learning environment that can meet the needs of small to large humanities curricula. The following features of the web-based application are currently under development:

Digital Repository
Metamedia provides access to the digital archives of several classes and groups through one interface. Customization for Metamedia communities and collections allows for flexibility in determining policies and workflow.

A wide variety of digital formats and content types can be archived, including texts, images, audio and video. Each item is tagged and organized through bibliographic data stored in an open souce format.

Annotation
Each item or user-defined groups of items in the archives can be annotated. In order to encourage collaborative learning, these annotations can be viewed and responded to by other users.

Search and Retrieval
The Metamedia submission process allows for the description of each item using a qualified version of the Dublin Core metadata schema. These descriptions are entered into a relational database, which is used by the search engine to retrieve items.

Access Control
Metamedia allows contributors to limit access to items in Metamedia - at the collection and the individual item level.

Personal and Group Collections
Metamedia users will be able to save media items from the archive, as well as upload their own work into personal and group collections.

Multimedia Essay
Using online composition tools built into the Metamedia frameowrk, users will be able to create multimedia essays comprised of material from the archive as well as their own work. The essays can be saved back into the framework and tagged and searched.