Firstly what is metadata? Metadata can be defined as "data about data" There is an International Standard defining Metadata Registries - ISO11179, and in it part 1 defines a datum, designation and value as follows: Datum: Designation whose concept is a value. Designation: Designation whose concept is a value. Value: Designation whose concept is a value. Metadata is defined as follows: Metadata: Descriptive data about an object In essence this metadata will tell us how the data is stored, what it's context is, what it is related to, and ideally how and where we can use it. It doesn't actually tell us what the data is, for instance the metadata may well tell us that a company database holds information about it's employees in a particular format in a) a MySQL database and b) an HR department spreasheet, and that the database included the employee's home phone number. It doesn't tell us who's data is in act
Why do you need a Metadata Registry? A Metadata Registry provide the ability to : - Administer and manage diverse data-sets by centrally controlling the content and versioning of data-sets.
- Ensure data consistency between different platforms and systems
- Ensure data interoperability between systems
- Compare & analyse different data-sets from different legacy projects
- Automatically ensure data consistency in new applications and projects
The Metadata Registry built into the Model Catalogue will provide all these features, and make them available through REST interfaces to other Model Catalogue components as well as external systems.
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