JPG
Mountain habitat
Fieldwork SSD Connected
Archive recovery & knowledge continuity
Your work.
Still in reach.
When a catalog stops opening or a project leader moves on, the files are only part of what can be lost. Start with a scoped recovery project to preserve source information, capture expert context and put it to work in the systems your team chooses.
Project conversations now. Software in development and not yet available to use.
Room to rediscover.
06 assetsMOV
Coastal survey
Agency NAS Connected
RAW
Education collection
Archive 02 Offline
JPG
Forest restoration
Fieldwork SSD Connected
WAV
Field recording
Agency NAS Connected
TIFF
Dune monitoring
Archive 02 Offline
Illustrative collection · A concept, not a working product.
For teams with knowledge worth keeping
public agencies, research programs and conservation organizations
Two focused ways to start
Preserve the knowledge.
Recover the record.
Start with one expert, one collection or one specific handoff. Define the result and how your team will check it before committing to a larger project.
Expert knowledge continuity
Prepare for a retirement or transition by capturing the reasoning behind the work: why decisions changed, what failed and which exceptions matter.
Start with: a small set of real questions and decision cases, with the expert and their successors participating.
Proposed handoff: reviewed interviews, linked source records and practical cases that the next team can use and maintain.
Check the result: can successors answer agreed questions and explain their reasoning using the captured material?
Difficult archive recovery
Make sense of old catalogs, disconnected files, conflicting metadata and missing context before choosing the next system.
Start with: a representative sample of one collection and the information your team needs to preserve.
Proposed handoff: an inventory, reconciled records, documented exports and a clear account of unresolved gaps.
Check the result: can your team trace important values to their sources and verify what survived the handoff?
Each project begins with a feasibility review and an agreed scope, price and acceptance checks. Ongoing stewardship can be scoped separately when there is a recurring need.
The approach
Recover what survived.
Capture what was never written down.
The photos are on a shared drive. Their captions are in an old catalog. The reason a project changed direction is in one person's memory. When systems age or staff leave, the next team inherits files without the context to use them.
Work alongside your staff, students or existing data team. MediaWarden can take on a defined recovery or continuity task, with specialist review scoped where needed. Your team keeps the context, the decisions and the resulting handoff.
MediaWarden is developing a service-led approach to archive recovery and knowledge continuity. Project feasibility, access, deliverables and costs are established before any engagement is agreed. The software is in development and is not yet available to use.
Start with one useful outcome.
Scope · Recover · Hand overScope one useful outcome.
Identify the collection or transition, its owner and the decisions it needs to support. Define a representative sample, a clear deliverable and what is outside the project.
Recover the source context.
Assess catalog exports, file metadata and related records. Plan how to reconcile captions, credits, collections and restrictions, with original values retained and gaps made visible.
Capture the knowledge behind it.
Use consented interviews, real project examples and recorded walkthroughs to document why decisions were made, what changed and where the exceptions are. Include the people who will use the handoff.
Verify what the next team can use.
Check recovered information against its sources. Have contributors review captured explanations, then test realistic questions with successors. Keep uncertainty and disagreement visible.
Hand over something you can keep.
Define a portable handoff: source inventory, reconciled records, reviewed knowledge notes and documented exports. Agree a destination and a responsible owner. Ongoing support should solve a recurring need.
When experience moves on
A retirement should not erase years of learning.
A project leader knows which methods failed, why a protocol changed and what a new team will miss. A folder of reports rarely captures all of that.
A knowledge-continuity project can bring those explanations into the record through interviews and practical cases, reviewed by the contributor and connected to supporting material. Successors should be able to find the source, understand the limits and ask better questions.
Scope participation and access with the people and organization involved. Preserve each contributor's perspective, distinguish recorded knowledge from AI-generated suggestions, and appoint a steward to keep the collection current.
A useful result in your environment
Keep your systems.
Make the knowledge usable.
The proposed handoff can support an existing shared drive, document platform or archive system. Agree on data access, permitted processing, ownership and export formats before work begins.
AI can assist with extraction, transcription and organization. Source evidence, contributor review and clear acceptance checks remain part of the work.
Supported formats and integrations require a feasibility review. A searchable collection does not replace backups, and AI cannot reconstruct facts that were never recorded or reliably supplied.
Start with what you have
Moving on from iView MediaPro?
Learn where your metadata may be stored, what to preserve before exporting, and how to check whether a migration retained your catalog information.
Field notes for archive teams
Practical guidance for archives that have to keep working.
How to audit a public-agency photo archive
A four-pass inventory for files, metadata, systems and institutional knowledge.
Make the archive survive staff turnover
Turn personal memory, abbreviations and workarounds into shared operating knowledge.
The metadata preservation checklist
What to copy, export and verify before a catalog or DAM migration.
Shared drive or digital asset management?
A decision framework for knowing when folders are still enough, and when they are not.
A DAM buyer’s guide for public agencies
Evaluate migration evidence, portability, permissions and the real cost of ownership.
AI photo tagging needs a review system
Use automation for speed while keeping sources, uncertainty and accountability visible.
Build a photo archive you can move again
Design for standard metadata, documented exports and independence from any one vendor.
Camera-trap image management
Keep deployments, sequences, species review and sensitive locations connected.
A few useful answers
A clearer scope.
A useful handoff.
What a recovery or continuity project could involve, and what still needs to be validated.
What is MediaWarden?
MediaWarden is developing a service-led approach to archive recovery and knowledge continuity. The starting point is a scoped project to assess source material, recover useful context and define a verifiable handoff. The software is in development and is not yet available to use.
Who is MediaWarden being built for?
Public agencies, research programs and conservation organizations with valuable collections or expertise at risk during a system change or staff transition. Communications, records and archives teams are initial users, alongside project leaders and their successors.
Who usually starts this conversation at an agency?
Often a communications manager, archive owner, records officer or project leader who knows where information is becoming hard to find. For a staff transition, include the departing expert, their successors and the person who can authorize the work.
Can we start without uploading any photos?
Yes. The initial conversation can use a description of the problem, a file list or an approved catalog export. Any later sample review or processing needs an agreed access and data-handling plan. Please do not send sensitive material before that is established.
What would a scoped project deliver?
The deliverables depend on the sources and feasibility review. A proposed handoff might include an inventory, reconciled metadata, an exception report, reviewed interview notes or decision cases, and a documented export. Agree on the scope and acceptance checks before committing to the project.
Can you preserve a departing expert's knowledge?
A focused project can document selected experience through interviews, case walkthroughs and supporting records, with the contributor participating and reviewing the result. It cannot reproduce a person or preserve everything they know. The goal is a useful, source-backed handoff that successors can test and maintain.
Do we have to adopt a new platform or subscription?
The approach is designed around a useful handoff into the environment you choose. A standalone recovery project should have value on its own. Any ongoing support would be separately scoped around a recurring need, rather than required to keep access to the deliverables.
Can our staff or students do this work?
They may be able to. A well-scoped collection with clear records can be a good internal project. MediaWarden is intended for work where difficult sources, limited supervision time or a transition deadline make completion harder. We can define a complementary role alongside your staff, students, library or data team.
Does a project require sharing our data for other uses?
The recovery or continuity project has its own agreed purpose and data-handling plan. Any model training, research reuse or public storytelling needs a separately agreed scope and permission. Those uses are not a condition of starting a project.
Is MediaWarden an iView MediaPro alternative?
iView recovery is one possible project path. MediaWarden is exploring how to preserve information from iView MediaPro, Microsoft Expression Media and Phase One Media Pro through available exports and file metadata. Our importer has not been released or validated across catalog versions. MediaWarden is independent and is not affiliated with those products or their owners.
Can all of my iView metadata be preserved?
Preservation depends on what remains in the catalog, its exports, the original files and any sidecars. XML exports and embedded IPTC, EXIF or XMP metadata provide potential migration paths. Custom fields, catalog sets and conflicting values need individual verification. We cannot promise complete preservation before inspecting and reconciling a representative sample.
How would AI be used?
AI can assist with transcription, extraction, organization and retrieval. Generated suggestions should remain separate from original records and reviewed explanations. Answers need supporting sources, and missing evidence should be identified rather than filled in with a guess.
Is MediaWarden available, and what will it cost?
We are inviting conversations about potential archive-recovery and knowledge-continuity projects. Feasibility, scope, deliverables, timing and cost must be agreed before an engagement. The software is in development and is not yet available to use; no software launch date or public pricing has been announced.
Start with the problem you have today
What would be hardest to lose?
An old catalog. A project's history. The experience of someone moving on.
Choose a knowledge-continuity or archive-recovery conversation.
Tell us what is at risk and what a useful handoff would mean for your team.
A first conversation to explore scope and feasibility. Software remains in development.