Metadata
I’m just back from an intense week in Redmond. A few days before going I gave another talk, this time to the British Computer Society’s Advanced Programming Group. During the talk I was asked what I meant by “metadata”. I realized that these days I use this term to mean data about any kind of information or computing resource; whereas a few years ago it just meant “data about data”. Having metadata available wherever it can be used is a central tenet of our Software Factory vision.
Here are some interesting links about metadata:
Comments
- Anonymous
February 23, 2005
"It's getting a little meta all the time" - adapted from a Beatles song
I want to chip in on Semantic Technology. Here we find information described by models (ontologies) that are "meta" in the sense that we not only have attributes about data (or information) but also ways of relating data, "connecting the dots (between data)" as some people say.
Metadata is often restricted to what can be said using standards like ISO 11179 or Dublin Core. With OWL models can provide more interesting connections. I can't imagine we will ever talk about "metarelationships" or "metaconstraints". It's in the realization of RDF, RDFS and OWL (where we find Description Logics at work) that we are now seeing a fuller realization of "meta".
Ralph Hodgson - Anonymous
February 24, 2005
Hi Ralph
I think an important difference between the modelling world, where I've mostly been working, and the semantic technology world, is that objects in the semantic world can dynamically acquire and discard metadata. In the modelling world, things are heavily influenced by OO programming technology (remember?!) and an object can't usually change its class.
-- Steve - Anonymous
February 27, 2005
XML MetaCrap, etc.. -
http://weblogs.asp.net/sbchatterjee/archive/2005/01/28/362531.aspx