Chapter 6. Metadata Archetypes
KEY TAKEAWAYS
As a term, metadata has multiple meanings and can refer to different things.
All IT systems are metadata systems.
For semantic interoperability, metadata is necessary but not sufficient.
Of the five core metadata layers, referent metadata is the most valuable for semantic interoperability—but it is also the least developed.
The value of metadata in communication should be canonized by an expanded conception of the OSI communications stack (that includes metadata roles).
This chapter is a somewhat unconventional look at metadata. Many books on this subject offer deep insights in the specific uses of metadata for data warehouse implementations and even for XML management issues. In fact, a number of books on the subject of metadata specifically address the creation and management of meta-data repositories. Unlike these books, our focus in this concise chapter is to show how metadata exists at a number of architectural layers and to describe how meta-data at each of these layers contributes to the interpretation of data meaning—semantics.
WHAT IS METADATA?
It all seemed so simple in the beginning. Metadata was simply data about data. But then we started seeing the term pop up in so many disconnected places. Metadata was in the database, it was in the mainframe, in our cell phones, in a J2EE application, and also in the XML documents. Metadata is just about everywhere—at least in name.
The Ultimate Overloaded Term
When we use the term metadata, we ...
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