Notes from 49th International STC Conference
Nashville, Tennessee, May 5-8, 2002

What Every Technical Communicator Should Know About Metadata

Gwen Thomas
CIBER, Inc.

Thomas is the Business Intelligence practice leader for the Orlando operations of CIBER, Inc., and the past Corporate Knowledge Manager for PaySys International.

Session Description: Metadata – "data about data" – is used in content management systems, Web portals, XML, knowledge bases, and enterprise application integration efforts. This overview focused on the implications for technical communicators. It covered why technical communicators need to reposition themselves in today's market and how metadata management can help. Topics included definitions and uses of metadata, creating a metadata repository, and a personal plan to accompany the metadata value proposition.

Slides: Available at STC's Conference Web site

Note: The author published a paper in the Proceedings to this conference. For an electronic copy or a hard copy (depending on availability), contact Dan Voss.

• The climate for technical communicators
   
• Danger: the emphasis on new technologies
• Danger: the new emphasis on content
• Opportunity: unmanageable information
• A fact-based, data-driven improvement system
• To survive in an era of downsizing and cost efficiency, technical communicators need to be able to quantify and sell the business value of what they bring to the party. Ciber uses "value propositions," which are internal proposals tied to cost efficiency. An example would be to propose the use of meta tags on the Web site, estimate the cost of incorporating them, and estimate the increased number of hits relative to the competition that will result from making that investment (ROI).
• Metadata definitions
   
• Basic definition of metadata is "data about data".
• But it may have different meanings to:
   
• Web developers
• DBAs
• Librarians
• Data stewards
• System integrators
• Data warehousers
• Business managers
• Who currently manages metadata?
   
• DBAs
• System integrators
• Content managers, workflow managers, document managers
• Web administrators
• Librarians
• Technical communicators
• What does metadata offer to technical communicators?
   
• Expands the technical communicator's role
• Makes TC part of technology implementations, a member of the core project team rather than an "add-on"
• Makes it easier to track true ROI and value-added than with documentation
• TCs are better suited for the job than technology-based team members.
• Why should TCs manage metadata?
   
• TCs can employ single-sourcing strategies to provide this service at lower cost than other resources.
• TCs can build value propositions for the time spent.
• TCs move into a hub position.
• If TCs don't manage metadata, someone else will.
• Demonstration of metadata in action (applications):
   
• Web pages
• Online applications
• Document properties
• Search results
• Information retrieval and organization tools
• Types of metadata
   
• Metadata to assist in information retrieval and organization
• Metadaa to assist in content management and personalization
• Metadata to support processing data to information and knowledge
• Metadata about documents, files, or content units
• Metadata about systems
• Metadata about organizations
• Metadata to assist in information retrieval and organization
   
• Record or document identifiers: IDs, titles, lookup names
• Document and content properties: type, location, size, date created, author, template
• Search results standings. Search results analysis shows your commitment to business goals.
• Revision and change control: revision number, document ID, date completed, editor
• Keywords, categories, metatags, ALT text
• Navigation: indices, table of contents, cross references
• Value to company: Without metadata, content loses value.
• Value to you: Keep another function from "finishing" your work.
• Metadata to support processing data to information and knowledge
   
• Content types: usage types, file types, project information, ownership information. Cataloging available content elements (text, graphic, and multimedia modules) and the formats in which they are available is an extremely valuable service to the organization because it enables the technical and sales force to leverage them through rapid access, retrieval, and reuse for marketin--this is a use of metadata that can be sold as a value-added contribution by technical communicators.
• Workflow: content status, dates for task completion. Value to you: a way to be perceived as more vital to technology projects.
• Personalization systems: page-level categories and keywords. Value to company is suggestive selling. The key to personalization is some basic coding and rigorous word work (taxonomies); the IT Department has the former skill but not the latter. That's where technical communicators come in.
• Standards: controlled language lists, thesaurus, taxonomies, category types. Value to company is that consistency offers the opportunity to consolidate efforts and reduce redundant efforts.
• Metadata to support processing data to information and knowledge
   
• Business intelligence/decision support metadata: options for "slicing and dicing" data, available tools/reports
• Competitive intelligence metadata: benchmarking activities, data to be included in competitive analysis, processes for collecting and evaluating data.
• Value to company: improve bottom line
• Value to you: shows your commitment to business goals.
• Metadata about documents, files, or content units
   
• Descriptive metadata: XML, labels, file and record layouts, data descriptions. This is already your job: you are the expert!
• Database metadata: physical databases; tables, fields, primary keys, indexes; views; generations of existing data; processing, combination, and sorting of data. Learn databases: they're key to most metadata projects.
• Data modeling metadata (e.g., use data mapping to link the manufacturing database with the marketing database. Add value!)
• Data access and reporting metadata: what reports use this data, how to interpret the data, and what steps to follow to gain permission to use the data. This gives you a valuable opportunity to uncover future projects.
• Data movement metadata
• Data stewardship for metadata: owner, creator, editor, approver, review cycles.
• Data quality metadata
• Metadata repositories
   
• Some companies create and populate enterprise metadata repositories.
• However, even one person can make a difference.
• Maintaining a repository can demonstrate your value beyond content creation.
• Your plan
   
1. Collect data in a shareable medium and format. Take your notes and put them in a lowest common denominator package such as an Excel spreadsheet.
2. Include metadata collection tasks in your project plan, and let others know you're doing it. Be prepared with your elevator speeches. Formalize your value proposition.
3. Store select embedded metadata outside of the container, also.
4. Determine what other metadata is being collected.
5. Determine who else could benefit from your metadata.
6. Share.
7. Calculate savings. Ask for "credit" for your contribution. Share.
• Resources
   
• "Questions Metadata Can Answer", by Robert Seiner
• "What Every CIO Needs to Know About Metadata"
• "The Data Administration Newsletter (TDAN)"
• "Dublin Core Metadata Initiative"
• "Metadata Projects, Resources, Workshops"