# Introduction The Madison Digital Image Database is a freely distributed, open source web application originally developed at James Madison University and now supported mainly by vrcHost LLC. MDID is a digital media management system with sophisticated tools for discovering, aggregating, and presenting digital media in a wide variety of learning spaces.The project started in 1997 in response to increasing curriculum requirements within JMU's School of Art and Art History and evolved over time into a cross-disciplinary instructional application used at several hundred institutions in the United States and around the world. Version 3 of MDID is completely redesigned and re-coded from the ground up in order to meet emerging user expectations, such as support for audio and video, integration with Blackboard and other web sites, more flexible metadata structures, a richer and more robust discovery interface, granular access controls, PowerPoint compatibility, shorter development cycles, support for composite objects, and novel presentation mechanisms. It runs on most operating systems. MDID3 ships with a companion application, the MediaViewer. The MediaViewer is used primarily in mediated classrooms to display slideshows (groups of ordered images). It features intuitive zoom and pan controls, intelligent navigation, image caching, catalog data display, and support for dual monitors. It is freely available for download from the Internet under an open source license. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://www.mdid.org/readme.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.