Metadata is data about data, or information known about the image in order to provide access to the image. It can be as simple as the subject of an e-mail, but as new technologies emerge and the media world continues to globalize it is getting more and more complex. Metadata is key to today's IT-centric television production environment and this is the first book approaching the subject end to end, from shooting the footage to archiving to consumer set top box.
I am the author of 15 nonfiction books, the most recent being "Time of the Rangers" (New York: Forge Books, 2009), the second of my two-volume history of the Texas Rangers. Also just out is "Historic Photos of Texas Oil," (Nashville: Turner Publishing), a coffeetable book containing some 200 vintage photos from the oil patch. My other books include a study of Texas disasters, three other books on the Texas Rangers, one true crime story, a biography, a memoir and three local histories, as well as numerous magazine articles, essays and introductions for other books. I have been an elected member of the Texas Institute of Letters since 1993.
My byline regularly appears in a number of national and statewide magazines and I have been an award-winning newspaper reporter for nearly 20 years, most of that time with the Austin American-Statesman.