Variations on Video: The Avalon Media System

Session Type: Research/Project Update

Session Description:
IMLS has funded a three-year multi-institutional development effort at Indiana University and Northwestern University, in collaboration with several other institutions, to develop an open source system that will enable libraries and archives to easily curate, distribute and provide online access to their video and audio collections, in support of teaching, learning and research. Initially known as Variations on Video, and recently renamed the Avalon Media System, the project expects to release version 1.0 of its system at the end of the 2012 calendar year.

Version 1.0 of Avalon is intended to support partner evaluation and pilot testing during Spring 2013. Features planned for the release include:

• Audio and video player support for Chrome, Firefox, Explorer, and Safari as well as on mobile devices (iOS and Android).
• Integration with a variety of authentication systems, along with management of group-based authorization.
• Support for manual or batch media and metadata ingest.
• Faceted discovery via Blacklight.
• System monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities for administrators.
• Creation, storage, and sharing of audio and video clips and playlists.

The open source system is developed in collaboration with other open source projects, including Opencast Matterhorn, the Hydra project, and Fedora. When available, the system, documentation, and source will all be freely downloadable online. The system is being developed using the Agile/Scrum methodology, so this session will showcase the results of the latest “sprint” along with a discussion of future directions.

Session Leaders:
Jon W. Dunn, Indiana University Libraries
Michael B. Klein, Northwestern University Library

Session Notes:
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Session Slides: