Metadata and its usage

 

What Is Metadata?

Metadata is information about data, including its properties, history, origin, versions, and other details. It is used to track, classify, and analyse data. Unlike the actual content of the data, metadata provides information about the data's meaning and helps ensure compliance with regulations and data governance. It includes details such as the data's origin, meaning, location, ownership, and creation. For example, metadata for a digital image includes details like size, resolution, creation time, and colour depth. Metadata is useful for organizing, labelling, sorting, and searching data. A metadata repository is a database that stores and manages metadata, ensuring proper identification and usage, such as a database for a collection of digital images.



Metadata management software

Metadata management software helps to evaluate, curate, capture, and store metadata. Ideally, organizations should automate data management to facilitate data tracking and accountability. The following are a few examples of this type of software:

1.        Alation Data Catalog by Alation: This offers an intuitive interface that is easy to use. It is valued for its Standard Query Language (SQL) query publication.

2.        SAP Power Designer by SAP: This data management solution is relatively stable. It is valued for its function, which allows the testing of models.

3.        Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog by Informatica: This solution is valued for its tool that captures metadata from various sources and has scan capabilities.

4.        SAP Information Steward by SAP: This solution is valued for its data insights.

5.        IBM Infosphere Information Governance Catalog by IBM: This solution is valued for enabling users to leverage Open IGC to create custom assets and data lineages.

 

Benefits of metadata management

·       Security: Centralized repositories can protect information through security keys, ensuring restricted access and enhanced data security.

·       Operational efficiency: Users can retrieve and analyse data from multiple sources in one place, improving productivity and management.

·       Cost and time savings: Centralized metadata reduce maintenance efforts, leading to more accurate data analysis and tracking, saving time and resources.

·       Collaborative insights: Centralized repositories allow multiple users to contribute their insights, fostering a supportive database environment.

 

6 Types of Metadata

1.      Structural metadata: Establishes relationships between objects and enhances data display and navigation.

2.      Descriptive metadata: Provides information for discovering and identifying data resources, including content and context.

3.      Preservation metadata: Documents the process of preserving physical and digital resources and includes rights management information.

4.      Administrative metadata: Supports resource management, including governance, access controls, security, and technical data.

5.      Provenance metadata: Tracks the origins, transformations, usage, and archival of data resources to understand their lifecycle.

6.      Definitional metadata: Provides a common vocabulary for understanding data meaning, including definitions, rules, and calculations.

 

Uses of Metadata

One may use various forms of metadata in various ways. Here are the top applications of metadata in an organization:

1.     Database management: Metadata in a database management system (DBMS) consists of a column name and a row number that is attached to the piece of data. The SQL standard offers a standardized method for accessing the metadata referred to as the schema; however, not all databases implement this method. Metadata makes it easy to organize, interpret, and request data.

1.     Metadata can be a directory in the database that allows users to easily sort and filter data by type and establish relationships between different data sets. A DBMS catalog is associated with data collection and contains information that defines database articles.

2.     Website searches: Websites are embedded with metadata that significantly affects their ranking and success. When building a webpage, it’s important to include metadata details such as a meta title and a meta description. A meta title briefly describes the page’s topic to give readers a preview of what to expect. A meta description gives further information about the page’s contents, though it is brief. A meta tag only appears on a page’s code and helps search engines categorize the page. Search engines read this metadata to determine keywords and use it to categorize the website.

3.     Social media: Metadata in social media allows users more control over how they want their content shared on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. When users optimize their content, they get more interactions from their posts than from posts without optimization. For instance, when users publish links on Facebook, it extracts metadata such as the title of the post, a brief description of the post and featured image, the URL of the post, and the name of the website. Users can leverage Open Graph on Facebook and Twitter Cards on Twitter to optimize and determine how their posts are displayed.

4.     Mark-up languages: Mark-up languages allow users to identify individual elements of a document, such as a paragraph or a header. They include a standard generalized mark-up language (SGML) or extensible mark-up language (XML). SGML allowed the sharing of documents that were readable by machines. XML consists of standardized rules for attaching information to text to make it readable by machines. It works by wrapping chunks of text such as words, sentences, or paragraphs in tags that describe what’s between them. Mark-up content allows users to search for keywords across many different documents.

5.     Consumer tracking applications: Retail and online shopping websites often use metadata to track consumer habits and movements. They collect any data they are legally allowed to, such as their consumer’s device type, locations, purchases, clicks, and times they access the sites. Using this information, they create a picture of their consumer’s preferences, associations, and habits and use it for marketing their products to them. This information can also segment consumers and send them targeted ads. Similarly, governments can use metadata from web pages and emails to monitor Web activity. This information can be used in mass surveillance.

6.     Information classification: Classification involves arranging information logically to find it when it’s needed. Putting this information into classes or categories is known as taxonomy, and the data associated with the items is metadata. Users can embed this information into the content or in an external content management system. Understanding metadata is vital in creating an effective content management system (CMS). Within taxonomies, controlled vocabularies can promote an understanding of the intended purpose. Metadata tags can help with resource discovery and improve resource organization. Properly classified information makes it easy for users to analyse and interact with the data.

 

CONCLUSION:

metadata plays a critical role in data management and analysis. It provides essential information about data properties, origin, and history, enabling effective tracking, classification, and analysis. With metadata, organizations can enhance data organization, ensure compliance with regulations, and improve operational efficiency. From a data analyst's perspective, metadata is a valuable asset that enables accurate and insightful analysis. By leveraging metadata effectively, organizations can unlock the full potential of their data and make informed decisions based on reliable information.

Reference: https://lnkd.in/gmGmfJ_g

ISME Student Doing internship with Hunnarvi Technologies Pvt Ltd under guidance of Nanobi data and analytics. Views are personal.

#MetadataManagement #DataOrganization #DataGovernance #DataAnalysis #DataInsights #InformationManagement #DatabaseManagement #ContentManagement #DataSecurity #OperationalEfficiency #DataCompliance #DataTracking #DataClassification #International School of Management Excellence #Nanobi Data and Analytics.


 

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