What the Heck Is Metadata?
Posted: December 13, 2012 Filed under: Metadata, What is... | Tags: Metadata 9 CommentsWhen people define metadata as “Data about data” I want to poke them in the eye. That definition doesn’t help anyone understand what metadata really is.
If you want to help your users understand what metadata is try this:
Show them a photo of my dog Stella…
Ask your users to describe the photo.
You’ll start hearing things like:
- Dog
- Black and White
- Little
- Cute
- Outside
- Autumn
- Boston Terrier
Your users just defined metadata for this picture.
So in a SharePoint Picture Library you could add the following columns:
|
Column Name |
Choices |
Column Notes |
|
Animal |
Cat |
|
|
Color |
Black White Orange Green Brown |
Use check boxes to allow multiple selections |
|
Location |
Indoors |
|
|
Season |
Winter |
So back to the original question, “What the heck is metadata?” Metadata is how you describe something.
Consider a contract. I might call it the Anderson Contract for a $350,000 house build. That’s 3 pieces of metadata right there; Anderson, $350,000, House Build.
Metadata is the description of an item.
Hey Tamara! 
I like it I usually start by taking a bread roll out of my pocket and ask the audience what it is called what’s it made of ,shape , style and lastly what do they call it on their area of England.
Sometimes getting people out of the “business” mindset can really help people understand concepts.
Good explanation. As people progress in their understanding of metadata, it might be helpful to distinguish between managed metadata and unmanaged metadata
Agreed! Managed Metadata is like a giant parent>child choice column. Sometimes I’m hesitant to use managed metadata due to some of the limitations.
Then you can extend it to explain how, if you were looking for that item, what words would you search for? The more metadata you have, the more “findable” your item is. Different people perceive different words as relevant. Be as all-encompassing as possible with your metadata (AKA tags) to get the most bang for your buck re: search results.
You are right on the mark. I love to do a little demo of finding the pictures in a folder structure versus finding the photos using filter and sorting on metadata.
How do you balance the amount of metadata you ask for with how much you are likely to get?
Reblogged this on Jeanne Mauriello's Portfolio.
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