Metadata subcommittee discussion

[Patrick Durusau <patrick@durusau.net>]

Greetings!

Sorry I have been so silent on the list but I have been head down over 
an ISO draft for the last couple of months. ;-)

As some of the original members of the TC will recall from our first 
face to face, I have a deep and abiding interest in metadata issues.

Imagine an office application that has "smart" data to use as its input. 
Hmmm, a spreadsheet that does not convert Riken identification codes 
(used in genome research) irreversibly into floating point numbers. Or a 
graphics program that can signal the user of use restictions on a 
graphic and provide the necessary information (perhaps drawn from 
elsewhere) on who to contact to confirm the right to use. Or a writer 
program that can provide enhanced bibliographic information to the user 
or to enhance rendering.

Or consider what happens downstream to documents. Take the NIH for 
example. They index ALL published medical literature based on electronic 
files directly from the publishers. Publishers who are interested in 
quick and accurate indexing of their materials. Now imagine an ODF that 
could support accurate indexing of terms in a domain with conflicting 
usages with metadata. Who would be interested in seeing their users 
adopt ODF? Hmmm, let's see, Oh! The publishers! Duh! A low cost solution 
that would bring immediate payoffs to the publishers, which gives them 
an incentive to push users towards ODF. (No one else offers that, yet. 
How long that will be true is unknown.)

Enhancing search engines is an important use for metadata, but so is 
enhancing applications in traditional office settings. And yes, I am one 
of the fuzzy heads working on information integration, but I also 
realize that short term payoffs are important too. Metadata can provide 
both. And by extension, so should ODF.

Not only will I support a motion to form a metadata subcommittee but I 
would be willing to assist in drafting the charter or any other duties 
that come to hand.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Patrick

-- 
Patrick Durusau
Patrick@Durusau.net
Chair, V1 - Text Processing: Office and Publishing Systems Interface
Co-Editor, ISO 13250, Topic Maps -- Reference Model
Member, Text Encoding Initiative Board of Directors, 2003-2005

Topic Maps: Human, not artificial, intelligence at work!