Write to IPTC Core Data of Image Files?

[Sannyasin Brahmanathaswami]

I asked about this years ago...but the subject is back up here.

 We would like to engage volunteers to help classify and organize our image archives.  This comprises some 1/2 million images, not all of which are significant, but still present in the archives.

It is possible of course to build a data base and connect metadata in the SQL tables/columns to filenames etc. but what we really need to do is stay away from those kinds of external dependencies (been there, done that --> snake pit of non-portability) and write directly to the IPTC Core data of the images.

We can do this in Adobe Bridge, and I can also leverage SIPs on the Mac using shell scripts from LIvecode. But what I really need is a web based solution that will run on LInux/Ubuntu.  Any ideas? Marks Smith's old ID3 tags script, still works even today, and this was a native LC solution (no external)  has anyone got ideas for doing this for images/IPTC data?  once images are tagged with robust IPTC metadata, then we can do anything with them from there and it's all portable...

BR