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About
The Timecode Indexing Module (TIM) is a browser-based tool that facilitates creating and enhancing timecode annotations within long-form audio/video files. TIM is optimized for establishing timecode entry points to identify and create access within oral history or other interview files. TIM users can define indexing data (by defining timecode, title, synopsis, and keyword fields via markdown language) and export a structured index in formats recognized by oral history content display systems like OHMS or Aviary.
The ability to work with transcripts (of whatever quality) and other imported texts means that no one workflow is presumed in TIM, rather an index can be based on various assets and take different forms. Researchers, librarians, oral historians, or anyone else working with audio or video have the freedom to choose how fine-grained they wish to index and annotate, including whether to display indexed work publicly or not.
Word-for-word transcripts were once the only way to work with recorded oral history content. Index techniques have emerged and offered a faster, simpler way to map out content by linking summary text directly to media timecodes in digital environments. An index is an asset for its creators or public users in many ways:
- Indexing at the timecode level offers a visual, browseable overview of long media files
- Indexing allows for improved access to specific themes across interviews / collections
- An index favors the use of practical, meaningful labeling rather than language that is strictly literal
- An index provides summarizing text, more readable than a transcript
- Indexing can make more interviews publically accessible with fewer resources compared to traditional transcript approaches
- Indexing is a high impact process for interview analysis in pedagogical applications
In TIM, index data can be sent to OHMS or Aviary as OHMS-formatted .xml files. Data can also be formulated as closed captioning or subtitle formats (.vtt files) or in generic formats (.txt and .csv) for a variety of uses. Active TIM projects can be saved in JSON format, which retains the location of the active media file, of any transcript active in the transcript area, and of the contents of the notes field and its markdown code.
All code used to create this application has been released as Free and Open Source Software under the MIT License. TIM is now available on GitHub (here), and it is open source and freely available. You can begin experimenting with it immediately through this link: c2dh.github.io/tim/#/new
Simple and limited: TIM is a web-based application for modern browsers, i.e., it functions entirely "client-side" with no database required or available for file storage. Files auto-saved in TIM are kept within the local computer, but in general, users need to manage TIM files individually by exporting and importing project JSON files.
The first phase of the TIM project was sponsored by an award from Andreas Fickers and the C2DH management team at the University of Luxembourg. Direct support was given by Lars Wieneke and C²DH’s Digital Research Infrastructure team.
Doug Lambert (bert@buffalo.edu) has been engaged with indexing methods for oral histories since the mid 2000’s with Randforce, and recently completed a post-doc at the University of Luxembourg, where he managed the TIM project.
Zack Ellis is founder of TheirStory.io, where they provide a set of tools, services, and support for conducting online interviews, from recording to archiving. With TIM, TheirStory will soon offer indexing at the timecode level for interview projects.
TIM was developed collaboratively with Hyperaudio, including Mark Boas the former co-founder and CTO of Trint.com and Laurian Gridinoc.