Chapter 24: Metadata

Chapter 24: Metadata

Overview

Metadata is often described as ?data about your data,? and that is not a bad way to sum up the concept in 25 words or less. It is not enough to simply give me a value for a data element in a database. I have to know what it means in context, the units of measurement, its constraints, and a dozen other things before I can use it. When I store this information in a formal system, I have metadata.

There is a Metadata Council, which is trying to set up standards for the interchange of metadata. IEEE is developing a data dictionary standard as the result of a request from the Council of Standards Organizations (CSO). Also, NCITS L8 is a committee devoted to this topic.

24.1 Data

ISO formally defines data as ?A representation of facts, concepts, or instructions in a formalized manner suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing by humans or by automatic means,? which matches the common usage fairly well. However, you need to break this concept into three categories of data: data assets, data engineering assets, and data management assets.

24.1.1 Data Assets

Data assets are not just the data elements, but also include the things needed to use them, such as business rules, files and databases, data warehouses, reports, computer screen displays, and so forth. Basically, this is anything having to do with using the data elements.

24.1.2 Data Engineering Assets

Data engineering assets are one level higher conceptually...

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