Brent,

Having read the responses to your original question it would appear there 
is differing uses of the term "meta data" between records management and 
IT.

If you are dealing with IT people it might pay to also understand their 
usage of the term meta data so that you can explain the similarities and 
the diferences.

In IT terms meta data is data that defines, maps or describes other data. 
 
Meta data is usually transparent to the end user; as an example a digital 
camera will embed time and exposure details in a JPG file but these will 
not be displayed with the photo. 

In a relational database, meta data is a subset of the database schema 
which is also in most cases hidden from the end user.

Wikipedia defines meda data as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_data

Perhaps somebody from the records management area should contribute to the 
Wikipedia page.

Gerard

On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:52:10 -0400, Brent Reid <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I have a fun situation to deal with.
>
>
>
>A new client is going to go to the users and ask them what Meta Data 
fields
>they want on their profile form for a Electronic Document Management 
System.
>Normally, I sit in a room with several representatives from the various
>departments and have a discussion with them to determine what meta data 
best
>represents their documents.
>
>
>
>Since I won't have a chance to speak with them one on one, and the person
>talking with them is an IT person - not a Records Manager, I'm looking 
for a
>way to explain meta data to a layperson so that they can give the best
>feedback possible.
>
>
>
>Document Type is standard and pretty easy, so is Division, in this case, 
but
>I like to add a minimum of three more fields in order to offer the users
>enough choices to be able to find their documents.
>
>
>
>How would you explain meta data so that engineers, HR people, etc., can
>define what fields they want to use ?
>
>
>
>TIA
>
>
>
>Brent
>
>
>
>_____________________________________________
>
>Alexandri
>
>Document and Records Management Specialists
>
>(512) 657-3291
>
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
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