Chief Information Officer
IC Technical Specifications
Media Type Controlled Vocabulary
Overview
The Media Type Controlled Value Enumeration (CVE) Encoding Specification (CES) defines a controlled vocabulary for media types used by the Intelligence Community (IC). This CES provides tokens for both IC-defined media types and general media types defined by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Although the title refers to media types, the values in this specification are derived from Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Internet standard. The abbreviation MIME is a generally-known term for media types even though the use is not limited to email and MIME is no longer used by IANA; the IANA specification is now known as “Media Types.” This specification applies generally to media types; it is NOT limited to use for mail extensions.
This specification applies to the use of media types in information produced, stored, or shared within the IC. This CES may be useful outside the scope of intelligence, but potential adopters should independently assess the CES appropriateness for any particular purpose. This specification contains tagging structures for information resource metadata, mixed textual and media content found in the body of publications, source reference citations, classification and control markings, and knowledge assertions.
This specification is maintained by the IC Chief Information Officer via the Data Standards Coordination Activity (DSCA) and Common Metadata Standards Tiger Team (CMSTT).
Technical Specification Downloads
Latest Approved Public Release:
- CVE Encoding Specification for Media Type (V2020-OCT - Standalone Package)
- CVE Encoding Specification for Media Type (V2020-OCT - Convenience Package)
- CVE Encoding Specification for Media Type (V2020-OCT - Light Package)
Mission Requirements
This specification is designed to fulfill a number of requirements in support of the transformational efforts of the Intelligence Community. Many of these requirements are articulated in Intelligence Community Standard (ICS) 500-21, Tagging of Intelligence and Intelligence-Related Information (ICS 500-21), and Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 302, Document and Media Exploitation (ICD 302).
This specification supports common understanding and use of media types to enable overall information sharing strategies and policies of the IC as established in relevant law, policy, and directives. This CES defines a controlled vocabulary for media types used by the Intelligence Community (IC). This CES provides tokens for both IC-defined media types and general media types. IC Implementations shall conform to this specification and MUST adhere to all normative aspects of the specification.