Remembering the Future

Who assigns this metadata, and why do they do it? You have three choices: people who do it because they're paid to, people who do it because they want to, and automated processes.

. . .

While some metadata is free, such as the size of a file and the last time it was edited, creation of new metadata is never completely free. If you're not paying people outright, you must come up with and then implement some system that makes people want to do your metadata data entry without being paid.

. . .

if it doesn't make your life more fun, it better do something to make your life easier. Coming up with that incentive is the real silver bullet, if you want to avoid writing a check for human labor or automated systems to do this work for you.

Topics: metadata | meaning

Labels: meaning, Metadata

What's so clever is that by articulating the types as a separate structure from the data, and having instances inherit that structure when they are created, users don't think they are providing metadata -- they think they are just providing data.

Because anyone creating a new instance is prompted to fill out the data in a structured way, that it doesn't seem like an extra task, but rather that the software is being helpful.

. . .

The user is given an opportunity to create a very structured entry that doesn't feel like a chore but just the natural way to perform the task.

Topics: | RDF | Web2.0 | Metadata

Labels: Metadata, RDF, Web2.0

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Rich metadata, simple data tables, REST processes

Topics: Representation | Meaning | Metadata

Labels: meaning, Metadata, Representation