Metadata management involves managing metadata about other

data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete Value_(semiotics), values that convey information, describing quantity, qualitative property, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of sy ...

, whereby this "other data" is generally referred to as content data. The term is used most often in relation to digital media, but older forms of metadata are catalogs, dictionaries, and taxonomies. For example, the

Dewey Decimal Classification The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. Section 4.1 ...

is a metadata management system developed in 1876 for libraries.

Metadata schema

Metadata management goes by the end-to-end process and governance framework for creating, controlling, enhancing, attributing, defining and managing a metadata schema, model or other structured aggregation system, either independently or within a repository and the associated supporting processes (often to enable the management of content). For web-based systems, URLs, images, video etc. may be referenced from a triples table of object, attribute and value.

Scope

With specific

knowledge domain Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distinc ...

s, the boundaries of the metadata for each must be managed, since a general

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exi ...

is not useful to experts in one field whose language is knowledge-domain specific.

Metadata Manager

In the process of developing a knowledge management solution, creating a metadata schema, and a system in which metadata is managed, a dedicated resource may be appointed to maintain adherence to metadata standards as defined by data owners as well as general best practice. This person is responsible for curation of the business and technical layers of the metadata schema, and commonly involved with strategy and implementation. A metadata manager is not required to master all aspects, or be involved with everything concerning the solution, but an understanding of as much of the process as possible to ensure a relevant schema is developed.

Metadata management over time

Managing the metadata in a knowledge management solution is an important step in a metadata strategy. It is part of the strategy to make sure that the metadata are complete, current and correct at any given time. Managing a metadata project is also about making sure that users of the system are aware of the possibilities allowed by a well-designed metadata system and how to maximize the benefits of metadata. Regularly monitoring the metadata to ensure that the schema remains relevant is advised.

Wikipedia metadata

Wikipedia is a project that actively manages metadata for its articles and files. For example, volunteer editors carefully curate new biographical articles based on the notability (''claim to fame''), name, birth, and/or death dates. Similarly, volunteer editors carefully curate new architectural articles based on name, municipality, or

geo coordinates The geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or ellipsoidal coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on the Earth as latitude and longitude. It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used of the various ...

. When new articles with a valid alternate spelling are added to Wikipedia that match up to existing articles based on metadata, these are then manually checked and if needed, tagged for merging. When new articles are added that are considered out of scope or otherwise unfit for Wikipedia, these are nominated for deletion.See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion To help keep track of metadata on Wikipedia, the new Wikimedia project

Wikidata Wikidata is a collaboratively edited multilingual knowledge graph hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. It is a common source of open data that Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, and anyone else, can use under the CC0 public domain license ...

was established in 2012. Click on the pictures to view more metadata about these images: File:Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia edited.jpg, This picture of the

Barcelona Cathedral The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia ( ca, Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia), also known as Barcelona Cathedral, is the Gothic cathedral and seat of the Archbishop of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The cathedral was constru ...

was uploaded to the English Wikipedia in 2003 to illustrate its Wikipedia article, and was transferred to

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is a media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projects in ...

in 2007 so it could be used in other language versions of Wikipedia. File:Article catedral pantalla estreta.png, This screenprint of the

Catalan Wikipedia The Catalan Wikipedia ( ca, Viquipèdia en català) is the Catalan language, Catalan-language edition of the Wikipedia Free content, free online encyclopedia. It was created on March 16, 2001, just a few minutes after the first non-English Wikip ...

page on the cathedral features several photos including this one. The screenprint was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons in 2007 soon after the photo was available there, but that article on the Catalan Wikipedia has since been expanded.

References