Meta Data Services

About: Meta Data Services is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2564 publications have been published within this topic receiving 40102 citations.

User interfaces and related methods, systems, and computer program products for automatically associating data with a resource as metadata

Abstract: User interfaces and related methods, systems, and computer program products for automatically associating data with a resource as metadata are disclosed. According to one method, a visual representation of data to be associated with a resource as metadata is displayed. A visual representation of a resource is displayed. User input is monitored for the presence or occurrence of the association action for associating the resource representation with the data representation. In response to detecting the association action, the data is automatically associated with the resource as metadata. The metadata is independent of an association between the resource and a file system for storing the resource.

Analysis of quality metadata in the GEOSS Clearinghouse

Abstract: The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Clearinghouse is part of the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) that supports the discovery of the data made available by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) members and participant organizations in GEOSS. It also acts as a unified metadata catalogue that stores complete metadata records, not only about datasets but also for other kinds of components and services. By exploring these records, users often try to find the fit-for-use data. Quality indicators and provenance are included in the metadata and are potentially useful variables that allow users to make an informed decision avoiding to download and to assess the data themselves. However, no previous studies have been made on the completeness and correctness of the metadata records in the Clearinghouse. The objective of this paper is to analyze the data quality information distributed by the GEOSS Clearinghouse. The aim is to quantify its completeness and to provide clues on how the current status of the Clearinghouse could be improved and how useful quality aware tools could be. The methodology used in the current analysis consists in first harvesting of the Clearinghouse and then quantify the quality information found in 97203 metadata records, by using a semi-automatic approach. The results reveal that the inclusion of quality information on metadata records is not rare: 19.66% of the metadata records contain some quality element. However, this is not general enough and several aspects could be improved. For instance, 77.78% of quantitative measures lack measure units. When quality indicators are not sufficient, the lineage metadata information could be used to mitigate this situation by analysing the process steps and sources used to create a dataset. However, even though lineage is reported in 15.55% of the records, only 1.27% of the cases return a complete list of process steps with sources. This paper also provides indications on what is lacking in the current producer metadata model and, detected a gap in usage or user feedback metadata in GEOSS. Moreover, information extracted from GeoViQua interviews with users indicates that they value informal comments and user feedback on datasets as a complement of the more formal producer-oriented metadata description of the data. Although, many efforts within the scientific community and the Quality Assurance Framework for Earth Observation (QA4EO) group have been invested in describing how to parameterize data quality and uncertainty, we conclude that still extra work can be done to provide complete quality information in the metadata catalogues. In brief, since the GEOSS Clearinghouse references data from the most important agencies and research organizations, the results presented in this paper provide a perspective on how well quality is disseminated in the Earth observation community in general.

Towards a 21st Century Metadata Infrastructure Supporting the Creation, Preservation and Use of Trustworthy Records: Developing the InterPARES 2 Metadata Schema Registry

Abstract: This paper argues that an essential component of electronic recordkeeping needs to be an infrastructure to support the creation, preservation and accessibility over time of trustworthy, understandable metadata. This infrastructure can then also be used to provide specifications and an implementation environment for automated tools to assist archivists in the ongoing management of trustworthy records and metadata, and users in the identification, retrieval, and manipulation of those records and metadata. The paper discusses this need in the context of the development by the International research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES 2) Description Cross-Domain Group of a metadata schema registry. This registry is a prototype resource designed to assist archivists and records creators in multiple domains in developing and assessing their own and other communities’ metadata infrastructures. The paper concludes by identifying two contested issues that are surfaced and how they are being confronted by this work: one of these is a definitional issue that relates to how to delineate the concept of archival description in the face of competing notions of “metadata.” The other is the extent to which both the life cycle and continuum worldviews and associated activities can or should be supported, reconciled or even re-thought through the conceptual and analytical approach that is embedded in the metadata schema registry.