Temporal Metadata is a very interesting concept. Instead of associating metadata with an entire piece of content, we instead tag only portions of the content. In theory this allows for a richer information experience for the consumer.

I remember a few years ago that a research institute had used machine learning to identify and tag all of the characters from the original Star Trek episodes (I really wish I could find the link.) This information was then usable for viewing other episodes that that character appeared in, or for finding out more information about the actor.

It’s difficult to know if this kind of metadata will take off - the fact that this was a few years ago and nothing seems to have hit the mainstream since suggests not yet, but as we get faster and faster access to more and more pieces of data and information it is probably inevitable that this kind of thing is going to become increasingly useful.

As the article notes in the short term this kind of information is largely going to drive information on companion devices whilst we watch our favorite shows. I hope though that it doesn’t end there. It could be interesting to link tv episodes together in this way: how many of the sci-fi shows show recaps of pieces of previous episodes at the start of an episode - some scenes from which were from previous seasons. Wouldn’t it be more interesting and engaging if whilst you are watching an episode that this information was available on the companion device. Perhaps we could use links to important scenese which re-inforce or back up information presented in the current scene, perhaps there could be links to the complete relevant episode ready for playback, etc. etc.

The problem with all of this information is who is going to input it? and who will pay for it? Curated sources are only going to come from the movie studios and tv producers. I would imagine that these sources of information are much more likely to be advertising targetted or at least targetted at revenue increasing opportunities. As a balance to this there is likely to be fan curated information too - assuming the studios allow fans to provide it. This is much likely to be richer information - many more people are probably going to want to spend time adding value in this way. In this form it would probably diminish the role of services such as Wikipedia in this arena. Right now, there’s a lot of fans writing episode synopsis and descriptions there, but if they could tag the video in some way then I believe that they would move to that medium.

There are two problems that I see here though. The first is one of delivery, and the second is one of regionality.

Delivery of this information ideally would be in-band, either transmitted along with the source itself or delivered on the DVD/Blu-Ray that you bought in the shop. If this is the case though, how will you update it? Attached to this is the presentation issue. You need to be able to view this information on the companion device. This probably means that we are more likely to see Internet delivery mechanisms used, but then we run into the lock-in problem: to which types of device?

The second problem I have termed regionality. By this I mean that it is still fairly common for the same content to look different in different regions of the world, and also maybe across the same country. This may be as obvious as scenes being cut due to local laws, or perhaps even trimmed due to time constraints on the network. TV shows will potentially have different advertising points in different countries. These give you some interesting sync issues between the main playback device and the companion device. Depending on the capabilities of the companion device will determine how/if this sync can even be achieved.

There are of course many other issues that can be associated with this. Two other important ones are: homegenialty and cross-over.

A consumer is unlikely to want to have to have a plethora of systems for viewing this information on. S/He may watch a number of different shows and doesn’t want a different application for each one.

This brings me to the next point: cross-over. There are some show franchises which freqently reference each other. Stargate Atlantis often referred to events or characters that appeared in Stargate SG-1. That’s fine. They’re offered by the same production company, presumably they can share a common metadata application. But what about series like The Big Bang Theory? This show has many references to different sci-fi shows or eminent scientists. Would they be allowed to provide links or ties to these other shows if they are on competing networks?

In the short term I think only the studios are going to benefit from this kind of application. They will rake the money in. In the long term we, the consumers, need to work out how we want the information and what we want to do with it…