Metadata Concept

Metadata is loosely defined as data about data. Though this definition is easy to remember, it is not very precise. The strength of this definition is in recognizing that metadata is data. As such, metadata can be stored and managed in a database, often called a registry or repository.

For any two individuals to talk they must have some language in common. When a message is encoded for either real-time receipt or for future retrieval there is much more context than the core message itself.

Every community has a common language of some sort which has evolved over a period of time adopting both terms-of-art and phrases. Metadata should provide contextual information about every item or field of data held, although most metadata repositories are little more than dictionaries of field names providing a long-form description of the purpose of each item of information held.

Metadata needs to assist in the aggregation and filtering of data to identify the most important elements in the sea of information.

Not all content is of equal value or adds real information. While standard data models have to treat all data equally, metadata solutions don’t have the same requirement. Metadata can focus on priority areas of interest.