Let’s Talk Data

Data on Data — Metadata Explored

I think the first time I heard the term, metadata, I wasn’t quite sure what they were referring to. Was it a medical word (like metabolic) or related to language (metaphor)?

Metadata is “data about data” — in other words, it’s a form of data which is used to decribe other data. Information which helps people classify, define and organize their data so that they can use it more effectively.

So, for example, you could have a database of demographic estimates such as current year population, median age, counts of households by income ranges — and for each field you could list the source of the data, the vintage, whether it was derived from a calculation or a direct census question, etc. Data about data…