MetaData 101 (Thread 1)

[Nomadum]

Figured I'd go ahead and open a thread about MetaData since I'm teaching myself about it to,

• Help create a discussion platform to help expand my knowledge and understanding
• Help other users who may have interest in it but can't find a solid source that breaks it down easy

I'll try and lace each thread with links (when needed) and within my signature I'll create a catalog of the threads so you can follow them if interested.

Main source of information being utilized to help me learn this is the following book

Title: Metadata
Author: Jeffrey Pomerantz
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Year: 2015
ISBN: 978-0-262-52851-1

If you have any questions, go ahead and post them and if I can't answer it, hopefully a more knowledgable user can aid You/Us.

= = =
Lesson 01: Introduction to the idea/concept of Metadata​

What's going to be covered in this thread

• What is MetaData?
• History of similar systems that MetaData relates to
• Quick run down on Representation
• Brief description of different types of MetaData

What is MetaData?
The easiest break down is that "MetaData" is Data about Data. lol sounds fishy but this is what it means, let's use this message forum as an example. your user profile which lists the following information...

• Join Date (relates how old your account is)
• Message (how many postings you've made/ how active you are)
• Dap Received (how popular your postings are)
• Rep (where you are geographically)
• Reputation (how popular or unpopular you are on the forum)

So all this information (join date, message count, etc.) is Data ABOUT You. and to a forum Administrator you represent an Object. so MetaData helps keep track of individual characters ABOUT objects.

History of Similar Systems that MetaData relates to
The first system to relate to MetaData is called the

"The Pinakes"
- Considered by historians to be the first library catalog
- Created by "Callimachus" (for the Library of Alexandria around 240 BC)
* the Pinakes contained information ABOUT the scrolls held in the Library, characteristics about the Objects(Scrolls) such as

- Genre
- Title
- Authors Name
- Biographical information about each Author
- Summar
- Total number of lines of a scroll​

- The Pinakes themselves were scrolls ABOUT scrolls​

The second systems to relate to MetaData is called the

"Library Catalogs"
- a.k.a. "Shelf List"
! Due to the invention of "The Book" (also known as Codex back then), this allowed for the creation of Library Catalogs/Shelf Lists.
- created in France around the time of the French Revolution
- This form of Data about Data keeping allowed for an atomization (Divide, Fragmenting) of information so that now you can better track and categorize data about objects
​

Quick run down on Representation
It must be understood that although MetaData represents Data ABOUT Data, it is NOT that particular data in question. to better illustrate this, take for example a Drivers License. A Drivers License REPRESENTS that the holder/owner of the license possess the appropriate knowledge and know-how to operate a vehicle. but the ID itself does NOT represent the knowledge in questions (if this makes sense).

another example to use to explain "Representation", Your name. let's say your name is "Joe".
YOU are NOT "Joe", "Joe" REPRESENTS YOU. more to the point, "Joe Slaw" is going to be very different from "Joe Hines". Your name is MetaData about You, but it is NOT you. "Joe Slaw" doesn't express the qualities or traits that's inherent in that person. so if I said "Go find Joe Slaw" all you have is a name, you don't know if "Joe Slaw" is tall or short, if he's skinny or fat, etc.

Brief description of different types of MetaData

• Descriptive MetaData = Provides a description of an object.
• Administrative MetaData = Provides a description about the origin & maintenance of an object.
• Structural MetaData = Provide information about how an object is organized.
• Preservation MetaData = Provides information necessary to support the process of preserving an object.
• Use MetaData = Provides information about how an object has been used.

= = =​

Hopefully I've explained this clearly, if you have questions ask them and I'll try my best to explain for you.​

​

 

[Nomadum]

The situation involving the "Snowden Leaks" of 2013 is mentioned in this book, so I figured once I've finished the thread series I'll tie it all in with what the leak's revealed about PRISM - the MetaData mining infrastructure ran by the NSA.

 

[Poh SIti Dawn]

interesting. it's basically, what analyzing date in it's entirety, rather than taking it for face value?

 

[无名的]

Wish we saw more of these threads that are actually Higher Learning

 

[Nomadum]

interesting. it's basically, what analyzing date in it's entirety, rather than taking it for face value?

It's a way to manage massive amounts of data. so utilizing the library example, let's say you are a librarian and you have 100 books.
You haven't taking the time to look at what books you have, so you just have 100 books in a pile in a corner.

I come in and say "Yo Killmanjaro, you got a book on MetaData?" you look at the pile and know you're not about to go digging through to check so you say "Im not sure"

to get an understanding of what Books(Data) you have, you'd create a means of keeping track of the books utilizing unique characteristics as to have 100 separate entries.

So now instead of bringing 100 individual books to me to check to see if it's the book I wanted, you just present a List of MetaData containing unique identification data of each of the 100 books. (Such as Book Title, Genre, Author, etc.)

(I hope I explained clearly breh, if I didn't then my fault and let me know which part I need to clarify)

 

[Hood Critic]

watching...

 

[CosbyMadeMeSellDrugs]

Interesting thread.. Waiting for more

 

[Nomadum]

Interesting thread.. Waiting for more

I'm currently in the process of trying to better my job employment as well as study for some certifications, but I plan to have thread 2 ready by the weekend end's.

Glad you all are interested in this.