Digital Tools

FAIN: HD-50224-07

University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, MD 20742-5141)
Doug Reside (Project Director: April 2007 to December 2008)

Development of the Ajax XML Encoder (AXE), a web-based tool for tagging text, video, audio, and image files with XML metadata in a web-based environment.

The Ajax XML Encoder (AXE), developed at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH), will revolutionize the production of electronic editions and digital archives. AXE is a web-based tool for "tagging" text, video, audio, and image files with XML metadata, a process that is now a necessary but onerous first step in the production of digital material. With an intutitive, web-based interface, AXE will make this process more efficient and accurate. It will also facilitate collaboration in the digital humanities by permitting multiple scholars to work on the same document or archive at the same time from various locations, and will track all work so that variant versions can be collated and all versions can be archived. The open source AXE will provide a free and better alternative for tagging all kinds of digital content in a web-based and multi-medial digital environment.