Of the several things we're concentrating on here at IMVDb, data intake is one of the most difficult challenges. Around a year ago we started taking credits via a single web form, and since then we've had about 6,000 submissions. That's a good start, but there are some issues.
One of them is that although submitting a new video to IMVDb is simple, you still have to go to IMVDb.com to do it. Also, most videos already have video info and credits written out as text, so fitting that into a form is an extra step on top of that.
Although we are not getting rid of our submission form, we wanted to create a data submission method that is free-form, simple, and works on a technology that everyone is already using every day (email). Today we're rolling it out in a beta, and we're calling it IMVDb Pipeline.
How IMVDb Pipeline Works
If you currently manage the IMVDb profile for a production company, director, record label, producer, or video commissioner, you can request a special IMVDb Pipeline email address. You can use that email address to send data to IMVDb.
As you may be able to tell, the concept behind Pipeline is simple, but it's much more than just having credits emailed to us. Pipeline may use plain old email technology, but you're not sending an email to a person, you're sending one to imvdb.com itself, and we've set up a system that receives the email and places it in your submission queue for moderators to parse and add to the database.
Also, with IMVDb Pipeline there is no set format for data, so you can send anything. Have video credits in a big text list? Just email that to your Pipeline address. Have pictures from a shoot or extra technical information? Send that over too - it all goes into the IMVDb system and is treated as coming directly from the page you manage, allowing us to place a high degree of trust in the information source.
Plus, since we simply give you an email address, companies can share it internally to send information to IMVDb from multiple people. Several people in an organization can use a Pipeline email address and it'll all show up as coming from that organization.
How to Get IMVDb Pipeline
Want to help test Pipeine out? To get started, click on "Page Admin" on the IMVDb page you manage, and click on "Pipeline". You'll see a button that says Apply for a Pipeline Email Address. Click it, and you'll get an email when your page is Pipeline-ready.
(Please keep in mind that we are currently only granting Pipeline addresses for pages that are either a production company, a production company representative, director, producer, record label, record label representation, or video commissioner.)
Some of the techonology we've developed for Pipeline is going to be integrated into other parts of IMVDb, and we'll have info on that in the next few days. Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates.
