For Context – Why Metadata Really Matters
March 26, 2015, 03:00PM ET
From the post:
For Context: Why Metadata Really Matters The creative geniuses behind Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy summed up the value of context with their brilliant machine-generated answer to the universe: 42! The dripping irony spoke of just how meaningless a number can be, absent its context. Today, with Big Data continuing to dominate the minds of enterprise architects and business analysts alike, the value of context is more important than ever. How can organizations keep their focus on the data that really matters? Metadata holds the key! Register for this episode of DM Radio to learn more! Host Eric Kavanagh will interview Roy Anjan of Deloitte, Dr. Robin Bloor of The Bloor Group, Dr. Geoffrey Malafsky of Phasic Systems Inc., and a special guest from Embarcadero.
May be something, may be nothing. No promises as I haven’t heard the podcast, yet.
It is interesting that context/metadata, etc. are making a comeback after being on the back burner for so many years.
My personal explanation is that data has gotten large enough that even the average IT person is encountering data they don’t understand more and more often. Which has lead many of them to conclude that as data gets bigger, so will their ignorance of strange data. No kidding.
The ignorance of others about your data is amusing, if not job protecting but your ignorance of strange data could be costly if not job threatening. As more data impinges on your borders the greater your need to understand it, even at the cost of losing some of the insular nature of your IT operations.
Company file clerks (Radar O’Reilly, who had a unique filing system for instance) or COBOL programmers with their spaghetti code, aren’t simply going to roll over and surrender secret knowledge it has taken them years to acquire. That’s what they call a “people problem.” (I have suggestions for incentives and disincentives for specific situations.)
Topic maps, being able to describe any subject, which includes subjects that are fields, terminology, processes, files, routines, anything you can imagine existing in IT, are a convenient way to capture “metadata” about IT and its processes. In part because they don’t have to burden your existing systems with changes or additions in order to make them more robust from a metadata perspective.
Think of it as “your present, metadata poor IT systems” versus “your present, metadata poor IT systems + topic maps.” That is topic maps don’t have to be a rip and replace technology (one way graph technology is promoted) but rather an addition to your present infrastructure that makes it more sustainable and robust. So all the political alliances and decisions that lead to your current IT structure can remain in place.
Something to think about as you wait for the podcast!
Enjoy!