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Metadata Watch Report #1

[ contents | section 2 | section 3 ]

Section 1 - Introduction

The purpose of the SCHEMAS Metadata Watch (MD Watch) is to provide a quarterly overview of world-wide progress in the metadata field, which includes work on metadata sets, schemas, frameworks, registries, and the tools needed to create and use all of these things. The added value that the MD Watch provides consists of giving readers (a) the ability to get the information they need from one easy-to-use source, (b) expert opinion and (c) a multi-tiered format that allows readers to get information at three levels of granularity.

The three levels consist of the following:

  • Top level: An overview of key issues in the metadata field;
  • Middle level: Individual reports, by sector, of work in the metadata field; and
  • Bottom level: Reports of individual activities in the metadata field.

The middle level is comprised of the following sectors:

  • Academia
  • Audio-Visual
  • Cultural Heritage
  • Education and training
  • Geographic information
  • Industry
  • Publishing
  • Research, i.e. non-commercial laboratories, corporate research, and professional societies
  • Other, which includes, but is not limited to, environmental work, government (including military), health care, mail and delivery, and transport and logistics.

SCHEMAS examined but did not make full MD Watch activity reports for activities that simply announce that they use metadata. Rather, we focused on projects and services that make a point of publishing their schemas, participate in standards-making activities, or otherwise promote metadata, whether with software tools or with working groups. These projects could be of any type - commercial, not-for-profit, government, subsidised, military, or a combination of the above. SCHEMAS also tried to separate the hype from the reality, i.e. announcements of a particular activity or product that were not accompanied by a usable product, e.g. standard, registry, or tool, were not included in the individual MD Watch activity reports. However, they were recorded and will be monitored for inclusion in each succeeding quarterly MD Watch Report.

[ contents | section 2 | section 3 ]

Maintained by: UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN)
Last updated: 12 June 2001