Paper Info
Title
On The Origin Of Metadata
Abstract
Metadata has been around and has evolved for centuries, albeit not recognized as such. Medieval manuscripts typically had illuminations at the start of each chapter, being both a kind of signature for the author writing the script and a pictorial chapter anchor for the illiterates at the time. Nowadays, there is so much fragmented information on the Internet that users sometimes fail to distinguish the real facts from some bended truth, let alone being able to interconnect different facts. Here, the metadata can both act as noise-reductors for detailed recommendations to the end-users, as it can be the catalyst to interconnect related information. Over time, metadata thus not only has had different modes of information, but furthermore, metadata's relation of information to meaning, i.e., "semantics", evolved. Darwin's evolutionary propositions, from "species have an unlimited reproductive capacity", over "natural selection", to "the cooperation of mutations leads to adaptation to the environment" show remarkable parallels to both metadata's different modes of information and to its relation of information to meaning over time. In this paper, we will show that the evolution of the use of (meta) data can be mapped to Darwin's nine evolutionary propositions. As mankind and its behavior are products of an evolutionary process, the evolutionary process of metadata with its different modes of information is on the verge of a new-semantic-era.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.3390/info3040790
INFORMATION
Keywords
Field
DocType
metadata, evolution, information, semantics, Darwin
Metadata,World Wide Web,Parallels,Computer science,Natural selection,Artificial intelligence,Machine learning,Semantics,The Internet
Journal
Volume
Issue
Citations 
3
4
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
9
7
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Erik Mannens167199.58
Ruben Verborgh2630105.49
Seth van Hooland3518.71
Laurence Hauttekeete452.15
tom evens5428.33
Sam Coppens617916.77
Rik Van de Walle72040238.28