media archiving system & B2B distribution platform

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1. What do you propose to do? [20 words]

Build a media archiving system for Africa 24 (A24) Media and revamp the existing B2B distribution platform for the organization. 

2. Is anyone doing something like this now and how is your project different? [30 words]

There is no product in the market that addresses the media archiving problem for the organizations. This is an organization specific model that could be scaled continentally.   

3. Describe the real world challenge that you are trying to solve for African media [50 words]

Camerapix/A24 Media has more than 4 million photographs and more 10,000 hours of video footage in its archive and continues to aggregate more. The media archive lacks a digital catalogue. In addition, A24 does not have an effective B2B distribution model to distribute and expose its content to other organizations.

4. How and why will your solution work? [100 words]

By building a digital cataloguing system and a B2B distribution platform for the organization, we will expose A24’s historical archive to other media organizations inside and outside of Africa. This will not only solve A24’s archiving problem, it will also boost other media organizations through rich content-availability. The archive, which continues to grow, is the largest collection of African images in existence. The media archiving system would be built using open source tools, so it could be replicated across other organizations. The distribution platform would be decentralized so other organizations can become part of a B2B network.

5. Who is working on it? [100 words]

Farah Chaudhry: Currently, pursuing MSJ – Media Strategy and Leadership at Northwestern University as a McCormick Scholar. Previously, Farah led the marketing team at Camerapix. In 2008 Farah helped found A24 Media. As the head of business development, Farah managed sales teams, produced award-winning documentaries and negotiated content sales globally for more than four years.

Ali Hashmi: Currently, pursuing MSJ in journalism at Northwestern University as a McCormick Scholar. Prior to that, Ali worked as a software architect and development manager for Bell Canada, where he led BI and data integration teams in Toronto, London-ON, Montreal and Bangalore for more than eight years. 

6. What part of the project have you already built? [100 words]

We have developed a prototype for B2B distribution model. 

7. How would you sustain the project after the funding expires? [50 words]

Once the project is finished and implemented for A24 Media, the archiving system and B2B distribution will be available for other media organizations and networks under open-source development  environment.

Requested amount from ANIC: $200,000
Expected amount of time required to complete project: 6-12 months
Total Project Cost: $200,000

Name: M. Ali Hashmi & Farah Chaudhry
Twitter: @alijaveria
Organization:
Country:Canada/Kenya