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Data is the most precious asset in the 21st-century digital era. All kinds of data have a specific value in the digital space. Data can be in different forms, it can be numbers, names, colors, notes, and other information. It aims to provide adequate information about almost everything in the digital world.
Metadata is a concept that is related to the data system. The concept metadata can be defined as ‘the data about the data’. It provides adequate pieces of information or data about a particular data. Metadata makes the data management system organized and easier to understand. It can summarize the data and make it simpler for analytical purposes.
What is Metadata and how does it work?: Explained
We introduced the concept of metadata as the data about the other data, or data that describes another data. The concept is destined to summarize the basic components of data. It lessens the complexities of data management and filters the data system into a capsule format. Metadata doesn’t tell you what the content inside it but it provides the basic description of the totality of the data. That is why metadata is used to resolve issues regarding understanding a particular dataset.
Good metadata has a lot of advantages, it minimizes the unwanted resource lost by a user which means analyzing good metadata can reduce the unwanted wastage of time and effort of the particular individual. Another key feature of metadata is it is easily accessible and reusable. We do not need to go through the whole data system to recall adequate information if we have metadata of that particular dataset. We can easily reuse the data without having the complexities of data management and we can save a lot of time through it.
A detailed explanation of types of metadata and their examples will be effective and make it easier to understand the concept. Now take a look at the types of metadata and their examples.
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Types of metadata
Metadata can be classified into various types based on the data management system that users adopt, but mainly there are three types of metadata. Structural metadata, administrative metadata, and descriptive metadata are the three important types of metadata.
Structural Metadata
It describes the structure of a particular data or an object. It involves the basic components of data and how it relates to it.
Eg: we consider digital objects to understand their structural metadata. The structural metadata of digital objects includes data size, owner’s identity, data type, version number, deposited date, etc.
Administrative Metadata
Administrative metadata explains the management aspects and technical aspects of a particular dataset. It includes the basic details related to security, governance, and access controls.
Eg: consider the same digital objects mentioned above. Administrative metadata of digital objects includes technical data like rights management, copyright information, and license agreements. Apart from these, technical data on the creation and quality management, and preserving action information are also included in it.
Descriptive Metadata
Descriptive Metadata explains the content and context of the particular data. It mainly aims to identify the data resource. It describes the five ‘W’ s of data resources. Descriptive Metadata explains the what, where, when, and who of the data resource.
Eg: the author’s name, date of creation, title, keywords, etc of the same digital object mentioned above can be classified under the title of Descriptive Metadata.
These three types are the most important ones when we discuss the concept of metadata. After understanding the types of metadata, we are shifting our focus towards the uses of metadata.
Uses of Metadata
Metadata is used to present and convey the content on social sites and search engines. The conveyance of data through metadata will be simple and brief. This enables data discoverability faster and more effectively. Metadata enables users to search the data quickly and to find out the relevant data.
1. Database management
Database management is the ultimate use of metadata. It provides the general context and structure of the data and makes it easier to understand and analyze. Proper use of metadata can enable integrity and data governance effectively. Metadata helps the users sort out the details easily and filter the data based on the nature and requirement needs.
2. Website searches
Metadata is an important part of website building. Providing metadata will only result in the nourishment of the website. Meta title and meta description are two inevitable parts of website search. Meta titles include the webpage’s topic and what readers can expect from the page. The meta description is the briefly explained information about the contents of the page. These keywords included in the metadata are the sole responsible factor for the website’s categorization.
3. Consumer tracking provisions
Metadata is a widely used concept in digital consumer tracking. Online shopping websites, whether it is wholesale or retail, use metadata to track consumer preferences and activities. Online websites can draw a customer picture through their metadata. The use of metadata in online websites has become a necessary thing to determine customer preferences and companies can personalize their feed based on user’s metadata.
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The Bottom Line
The data management system is a complex one, it is the field that needs to be managed with the best possible applications and technologies. The concept of Metadata is designed to describe other data. The importance of metadata is increased because it helps us to understand, organize, and reuse the data appropriately.
The creation of metadata can be done both manually and automatically. Manually created metadata could be more accurate than automated ones. This article covered all the important aspects like the definition of metadata and its types along with its uses in the contemporary digital era.
