SIGIA-L Mail Archives: understanding metadata , was Re: SIGIA-L
understanding metadata , was Re: SIGIA-L: future directions for IA
From: Peter Merholz (peterme_at_peterme.com)
Date: Tue Aug 28 2001 - 13:31:09 EDT
> * Understanding and using metadata
from BLoug:
>>>>
Understanding and using metadata: It was no accident that we Argonauts were
so obsessed by controlled vocabularies and thesauri. They're increasingly
necessary as a way to provide consistent and accurate representation of
knowledge domains to both humans who are browsing and automated tools that
augment searching. Many see IA as the structuring of information, but when
are we going to start focusing on unlocking the *meaning* contained within
those structures?
>>>>
I would agree that CVs, thesauri, taxonomies, and metadata will grow
increasingly important. It's becoming ever more clear to me that Argus was
simply ahead of it's time.
I'm wary of any attempts to unlock "meaning" from information structures.
"Meaning" is a slippery term, so maybe if you defined specifically what you
meant it would help. When I read what you wrote, I'm worried that you're
going to start trumpeting "The Semantic Web," the W3C's noble but
oh-so-misguided attempt at embedding "meaning" in the content on Web pages.
("Oh-so-misguided" because it's yet another example of pointy-headed
academic types trying to Do Good by imposing their values on a system that
really isn't interested in their values.)
--peter
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2
: Sun Nov 23 2003 - 22:54:48 EST
|