In response to an ontology development effort that requested image metadata ideas, we mentioned the CenSeam Image Metadata Specification to the SemWeb mail list of the W3C (semantic-web@w3.org). The Creative Commons has proposed a markup specification for images using RDFa, and is interested in improving it. Several other interesting image metadata ontologies were also referenced during that discussion (pointers are below).

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the Biodiversity Informatics Standards (TDWG) organization solicit comments on a representation-neutral metadata schema for multimedia resources, including images, audio, video, collections, and multi-media enhanced species identification tools.  Emphasis is placed on the ability of resource providers to progressively refine the metadata services they offer.

A brief update on MBARi image metadata related activites:

MBARI has begun investigating the possible application of the CenSeam image metadata standard to MBARI images. While this is a very preliminary investigation, the exploration process already led to additional discoveries about metadata-friendly tools for images, and opened up consideration of other sources and applications of image metadata. These additional understandings will be captured as part of the CenSeam Image Metadata Project, to continue the community's progress on an image metadata standard.