You've probably heard the word "metadata," but what exactly is this mysterious information? Equally important how should it be handled? Failure to adequately capture and preserve metadata associated with electronic discovery materials has been considered spoliation of evidence and grounds for significant discovery sanctions. Conversely, a failure to erase metadata from outgoing law firm correspondence can inadvertently communicate a wealth of inappropriate information to recipients. This article reveals how metadata is created, its purpose, and situations where metadata can assume significant importance.

What is metadata?

People normally define an electronic document, spreadsheet, e-mail message or other digital data as the content they can see, the information intentionally added by the document's author. However, almost all computer programs automatically add additional information to a document, usually storing it at the beginning or end of the electronic file where the program can easily find it. This information is generically known as "metadata."

When a file is attached to an e-mail message or copied from one location to another, much of its associated metadata is also transferred with the file. Some metadata, however, is automatically updated to reflect the new location or other actions involving the file. As a result, computer files that appear identical when viewed or printed may have different metadata.

Data within your database is just that, data. It becomes information only when you can effectively extract and distribute in an understandable form. Using meta-data has come a long way; it allows for free-flowing information and is putting the ability to extract information into the hands of end-users.

When I first started my career in data processing, I began as a COBOL programmer. Back then, meta-data was strictly “data about data” and, in those days, we had to rely on s FDs, copy books, and a scarce set of documentation that comprised our meta-data. Such resources told us where data was located and what particular objects (tables) and columns meant.

Today, meta-data has grown into a complete subject area encompassing such terms as Knowledge Management, Corporate Data Dictionaries, and Enterprise Meta-Data Repositories. All of these classifications have the single goal to categorize the underlying information buried within databases so that end users can get to information faster. They do this by employing tools that allow end users to unlock the mysteries of what information is available and where it is located.

Imagine that you are cornered in the break room by the CEO or called into a sales meeting and asked to produce a report that describes demographic information for current customers. This task seems to be quick and easy, at least at face value. But, you quickly remember that you have distributed databases that control different product lines, and the way objects have been defined within those databases are quite different. To compound the issue, your CEO is starting to describe “customers” as anyone who has purchased products or services from you including potential customers that are not stored in a database yet but are in multiple spreadsheets maintained by your sales reps. No doubt, it is becoming obvious that these requirements will be changing and you begin to feel like you will be trying to hit a moving target.

Meta Tags are lines of HTML code embedded into web pages that are used by search engines to store information about your site. These "tags" contain keywords, descriptions, copyright information, site titles and more. They are among the numerous things that the search engines look for, when trying to evaluate a web site.

Global enterprises spend over $60 billion per year on integration and maintenance of enterprise applications and content management systems. At the same time, the volume of data and content these systems must distribute and manage is increasing at an exponential rate. The result is a brittle network of corporate systems and fractured content silos that stifle the ability of the organization to assimilate new processes and access and distribute key information assets.

These systems must have agreement on the meaning of enterprise terminologies and their interrelationships to exchange and distribute information. In the past, there was no way to centrally manage and maintain these terms and relationships on an enterprise-wide basis. Businesses are now realizing the importance of deploying new solutions to manage enterprise terminologies and interrelationships in a systematic fashion and ensure robust integration of complex business and content management systems.

At SchemaLogic, we refer to these terms and interrelationships as the “business semantics” of the enterprise. SchemaLogic Enterprise Suite provides a framework that enables companies to model the structures and relationships of the business semantics that define corporate knowledge and content. We facilitate dynamic changes to the business semantics model through a Web-based governance and collaboration process that enables participation across organizational, corporate and industry boundaries and facilitates the development of business semantics in a dynamic, constantly changing environment.

SchemaLogic Enterprise Suite allows organizations to deploy new business models by accelerating information access and delivery. SchemaLogic customers reduce operational costs through better information management, increased data quality and more agile, intelligent business decisions.

Data Advantage Group is a leading provider of best-in-class information asset management solutions designed specifically for the distributed real-time enterprise. Data Advantage Group’s MetaCenter Platform is the first practical solution to provide a clear and unambiguous definition and history of the data and standards organizations rely upon when running their businesses.

For over five years, Data Advantage Group has been consistently delivering value to its customers through the MetaCenter Platform. MetaCenter’s design is driven by the specific needs of Data Advantage Group’s customers for a real-time distributed meta data management solution. The goal from the onset was to create the first third generation solution to provide “End-to-End Meta data Management and Analytics” for the distributed enterprise.

MetaCenter
MetaCenter provides a single window into complex information systems, unlocking the contextual and relational information stored in business intelligence, database, data integration, data quality and data modeling applications. The MetaCenter Platform seamlessly integrates these components based on a suite of best practices for managing and creating knowledge bases. Business processes and corporate standards can be documented and seamlessly linked to the technical data underlying their execution. This empowers technical and business users to efficiently collaborate while analyzing and managing the knowledge represented in their corporate information systems. Organizations benefit through dramatic improvements in employee productivity, elimination of duplicative work, institutionalization of knowledge and standards, and a substantial reduction in operational risk.