Strategy

What are online dating services, the Department of Defense and the finance industry doing better than Hollywood? Data.

They’re more organized when it comes to data utilization, and making better use of available information to meet their goals, according to media and entertainment experts, speaking Nov. 5 at the inaugural Smart Content Summit.

It’s something content companies have been slow to catch onto: cataloging, organizing and sharing data, from day one of production through the digital distribution window. And the real competitive advantage as a content creator or distributor depends — in a big way — on how clean, organized and comprehensive the associated data is.

Part of the problem is technology, according to Matt Turner, chief technology officer of media and publishing for MarkLogic. Current metadata-gathering offerings don’t allow for broader, smarter applications of all the potential information available for content. “The metadata problem sitting in front of us is that something is missing, the lack of flexibility,” he said. “People are working with technology sets that think about metadata in terms of Excel spreadsheets, rows and columns.

“Metadata is impacting everything … and it’s heavy on the production side,” he added. “There’s so much value there, so much metadata there, and it is just stripped out, fully lost.”

Divya Jain, data scientist and engineer for Box, said another problem with the production side of including metadata is that today’s software programs can’t discern the context of an asset, not in the same ways a person can.

“Smart content is something that can tell you more about itself,” she said. “If machines can understand context, it can allow you to make decisions faster. It’s not about you searching for it, it’s about the content discovering itself, saying ‘I’m here.’”

Ninad Raikar, director of strategic solution alliances for Riversand Technologies pointed out that studios and TV production houses have no set standards for how to cull metadata, calling the fragmentation of data “a jigsaw puzzle.”

“When we talk to customers about data, we realize that there is data in different departments that they aren’t even aware of,” he said. “If we don’t manage it in one place, you can’t really talk about data.

“Who’s managing the different information?” he said.

Josh Wiggins, SVP of global sales and business development for T3 Media, said a top-down approach is needed to force data changes within media and entertainment companies. “The industry needs to catch up … don’t be afraid of it,” he said.

“We don’t know what’s coming,” said Guy Finley, executive director of the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance. “That’s why the more smarts you put into your content, the more likely you are to be future proof, and not just on a monetization level, but also on the efficiency side.”