Metadata
Reeks: The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series
Jeffrey Pomerantz
- Everything
- we
- need
- to
- know
- about
- metadata,
- the
- usually
- invisible
- infrastructure
- for
- information
- with
- which
- we
- interact
- every
- day.When
- “metadata”
- became
- breaking
- news,
- appearing
- in
- stories
- about
- surveillance
- by
- the
- National
- Security
- Agency,
- many
- members
- of
- the
- public
- encountered
- this
- once-obscure
- term
- from
- information
- science
- for
- the
- first
- time.
- Should
- people
- be
- reassured
- that
- the
- NSA
- was
- “only”
- collecting
- metadata
- about
- phone
- calls—information
- about
- the
- caller,
- the
- recipient,
- the
- time,
- the
- duration,
- the
- location—and
- not
- recordings
- of
- the
- conversations
- themselves?
- Or
- does
- phone
- call
- metadata
- reveal
- more
- than
- it
- seems?
- In
- this
- book,
- Jeffrey
- Pomerantz
- offers
- an
- accessible
- and
- concise
- introduction
- to
- metadata.In
- the
- era
- of
- ubiquitous
- computing,
- metadata
- has
- become
- infrastructural,
- like
- the
- electrical
- grid
- or
- the
- highway
- system.
- We
- interact
- with
- it
- or
- generate
- it
- every
- day.
- It
- is
- not,
- Pomerantz
- tell
- us,
- just
- “data
- about
- data.”
- It
- is
- a
- means
- by
- which
- the
- complexity
- of
- an
- object
- is
- represented
- in
- a
- simpler
- form.
- For
- example,
- the
- title,
- the
- author,
- and
- the
- cover
- art
- are
- metadata
- about
- a
- book.
- When
- metadata
- does
- its
- job
- well,
- it
- fades
- into
- the
- background;
- everyone
- (except
- perhaps
- the
- NSA)
- takes
- it
- for
- granted.Pomerantz
- explains
- what
- metadata
- is,
- and
- why
- it
- exists.
- He
- distinguishes
- among
- different
- types
- of
- metadata—descriptive,
- administrative,
- structural,
- preservation,
- and
- use—and
- examines
- different
- users
- and
- uses
- of
- each
- type.
- He
- discusses
- the
- technologies
- that
- make
- modern
- metadata
- possible,
- and
- he
- speculates
- about
- metadata's
- future.
- By
- the
- end
- of
- the
- book,
- readers
- will
- see
- metadata
- everywhere.
- Because,
- Pomerantz
- warns
- us,
- it's
- metadata's
- world,
- and
- we
- are
- just
- living
- in it.
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