Fundamentals of Metadata Management

Part III. Metadata Repositories Should Be Connected in a Meta Grid

In this last part of the book, we explore the third—small!—wave of data decentralization: the meta grid.

I propose the meta grid because metadata is a “tribal” endeavor.

However flexible or beautifully architected they may be, metamodels in metadata repositories inherently depict the task at hand—they look downward into the IT landscape to identify the metadata needed for the desired capability. Metamodels are shaped for purposes, and rightly so. After all, no technology exists without a purpose.

However, an arabesque of intentions, spanning from the strictest controls to the most daring experiments, is expressed through these metamodels, which are domain and even capability specific. This leaves us with a monumental task of repetition: the endless repetition of mapping the same metadata to an infinite number of aspirations—at astronomical costs and with increasing confusion across the enterprise. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

And that is why we need to stop looking only downward. We need to consider the context of our metadata repositories—to look sideways, to what surrounds us. Metadata is holistic and multidimensional. The metadata you seek to define already exists somewhere else, expressed slightly differently, serving a different purpose. I urge you to take a good, deep look at that. Do not ignore it. Do not begin at the whiteboard, assuming you can start from scratch with your impeccably crafted standards ...