We have many opportunities for professionals who wish to contribute to the IPTC and its work. The most comprehensive is to become a member. Membership is the backbone of the IPTC, and levels vary for both organisations and individuals. Members can join working groups focussing on specific topic areas and standards.
IPTC also hosts two member meetings each year, where its working parties discuss and develop their ideas to support information exchange and the rapid innovation of media and the news industry.
In addition to the IPTC’s member meetings held in Spring and Autumn each year, our Working Groups hold regular online meetings. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss developments and keep participants informed of developments in that subject area. Descriptions of our working groups, their objectives, leads and meeting times are given below.
This group focuses on ninjs, the IPTC's JSON-based standard for media content APIs, lightweight applications and mobile apps.
The News in JSON Working Group meets regularly to fine tune the standard and to devise support documents, implementation guides and to promote ninjs adoption in general.
Related standard: ninjs
Public discussion forum Members-only discussion forum Public GitHub repository for ninjs
Ian Young (PA Media / Alamy)
This group meets every other Monday afternoon (GMT timezone).
View full scheduleThis group maintains IPTC's set of controlled vocabularies, known collectively as IPTC NewsCodes, including our flagship news subject vocabulary, Media Topics.
The NewsCodes Working Group focuses on the maintenance of the IPTC Media Topics and other controlled vocabularies for content categorisation, working alongside other IPTC Working Groups where necessary. It also considers the creation of new vocabularies when required.
Related standards: NewsCodes, Media Topics
Public discussion forum Members-only discussion forum
Jennifer Parrucci (The New York Times)
This group has a conference call every other Wednesday afternoon (GMT timezone).
View full scheduleThis group maintains the global standards for describing and exchanging news and events data: NewsML-G2 and EventsML-G2.
It discusses and develops proposed changes to the standard, and provides supporting guidelines, documentation and examples to facilitate adoption. It is also responsible for promotion of the standard across providers, aggregators and consumers and liaises closely with the other IPTC Working Groups.
Related standard: NewsML-G2
Public discussion forum Members-only discussion forum
Dave Compton (Refinitiv, an LSEG business)
This group meets every Friday afternoon (GMT timezone).
View full scheduleThis group maintains the global standard for describing pictures.
Objectives:
The group discusses proposed changes to the standard, works on guidelines and other help for people and companies using the standard. The group also organises the annual Photo Metadata Conference. It is responsible for liaising with other organisations related to the photo business.
Related standard: IPTC Photo Metadata Standard
Public discussion forum Members-only discussion forum
David Riecks
Michael Steidl
This group meets every other Wednesday afternoon (GMT timezone).
View full scheduleThis group maintains RightsML, the rights expression language for the media industry.
It also collaborates with other organisations on related efforts, like ODRL.
Related standard: RightsML
Public discussion forum Members-only discussion forumThe group does not currently meet regularly, but rights topics are often discussed at the IPTC Spring and Autumn Member Meetings.
This group focuses on SportsML-G2 and related vocabularies.
The Sports Content Working Group discusses and develops proposed changes to the SportsML-G2 standard, and provides supporting guidelines, documentation and examples to facilitate adoption. The Working Group also provides a vibrant community for the exchange of best practices and to share experiences implementing the standard.
It is also responsible for promotion of the standard across providers, aggregators and consumers and liaises closely with the other IPTC Working Groups.
The group is currently focussed on creating an RDF vocabulary based on SportsML-G2.
Related standard: SportsML-G2
Public discussion forum Members-only discussion forum
Paul Kelly (Individual Member)
This group meets every Tuesday afternoon (GMT timezone).
View full scheduleThis group develops IPTC Video Metadata standards including the IPTC Video Metadata Hub.
After careful evaluation of existing video metadata standards, the Working Group created the Video Metadata Hub standard. Now its work is in maintaining, evolving and evangelising the standard to drive adoption across the industry.
Related standard: Video Metadata Hub
Public discussion forum Members-only discussion forumThe Standards Committee is IPTC’s body for formal approval of all standards and acts as steering group for the technical development of new standards and the ongoing review of all standards in use.
The Standards Committee is the forum at which new standards and updated versions are approved by IPTC Voting Members.
Read Paul’s inaugural speech as Chair of the IPTC Standards Committee
Paul Harman (Bloomberg LP)
The Standards Committee meets at our member meetings in the Spring and Autumn of each year.
The IPTC PR Committee oversees all aspects of IPTC’s public relations and marketing, including this website.
The PR Committee looks at ways that we can increase the profile of IPTC to the industry, driving membership and
The Committee also considers ways that we can increase the benefits of membership for existing members.
Members-only discussion forum
Linda Burman (Individual Member)
The PR Committee meets every Tuesday afternoon (GMT timezone).
View full schedule