We all know (thanks, if nothing else, to the NSA), that metadata is all around us, hard at work behind the scenes making data and content more valuable, accessible, useful. In fact, the term has made it so far into the popular lexicon and consciousness that it is now used in news stories unaccompanied by a definition. And its proliferation has been accompanied by a sense of urgency. Folks keep talking about metadata's tremendous importance: It's "the new black," even "the new data"! In this DoJo session, we'll establish a shared definition and understanding of what metadata is and then consider specifically what's in it for "us." How is metadata being used in the technical content arena, and how is this impacting our career paths and opportunities? What do we need to know?

1. Metadata:
Queen to King Content?
Toni Mantych
ADP, LLC
1

2. Disclaimer
This presentation reflects my own research and
opinions, not those of my employer, ADP, LLC.
7/11/2016TC Dojo Open Session: Metadata (Toni Mantych) 2

3. The Plan
• The ascendance of metadata
• Some definitions and examples
• Impacts on tech comm
• Questions/discussion
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4. Metadata’s ascendance
(ascension?)
In our age of social media, networked
knowledge, and the Internet of Things,
metadata’s uses—and thus its power and its
importance—continue to expand rapidly.
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5. Not so long ago…
At the STC Summit in May 2014 and at Information
Development World in October 2014, I was asking
my audiences if they knew what metadata was.
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6. Metadata was already in the news
…though it was mentioned in quotation marks…or
it was discussed without being named.
67/11/2016TC Dojo Open Session: Metadata (Toni Mantych)

7. But today, it’s everywhere
…and it is often discussed with the assumption that even
non-technical audiences already know what it is. 7

8. If “Content is King”
…Metadata is (at least) Queen
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9. Queen, not Queen Consort!
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“In the modern era of ubiquitous computing, metadata has become infrastructural,
like the electric grid or the highway system.”
David Weinberger, author of Too Big to Know and other key books about knowledge in
our time, was keynote speaker at DITA NA / CM Strategies, April 2016.
Jeffrey Pomerantz, in Metadata (MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, 2015)
“Metadata makes the world go ‘round. You might not know it, but it does.”
Amber Swope, 23 October 2014, DITA Summit at Information Development World

10. Defining metadata and
related terms
“Data about data.” Got that. But what does that
really mean?
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11. Metadata makes computers smart
7/11/2016TC Dojo Open Session: Metadata (Toni Mantych) 11
Cobblestone had the best traditional music.
It is located in Smithfield, near the Jameson distillery.

12. (Most) Computers can’t read
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Cobblestone had the best traditional music.
It is located in Smithfield, near the Jameson distillery.

13. Metadata provides context
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Review
Location
Rating
Sometimes metadata is visible and useful to humans. But, like the highway
or the electric grid, it is always “hard at work” behind the scenes any time
we create, store, or retrieve content and data using computers.

14. Some examples of metadata

15. Some examples of metadata
15

16. Some other names for metadata
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• Tags
• Attributes
• Properties
• Conditions
• Labels

17. How metadata is created
• Automatically, by “system”
– Author, created on, last modified, number of
views, length, revision number
• By users, according to categories and values
defined in a schema, taxonomy, ontology, or
controlled vocabulary
– audience=expert, genre
• By users, as they see fit (i.e., they make up
the tags, values, etc.)
– #becausechocolate, #GoGauchos
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18. Types of metadata (a partial, simplified list)
• Descriptive
– Explicitly added and, um, describes the content
– Main purpose is to help users find and retrieve content
– TC examples: product, audience, and release content applies to; difficulty
of a procedure
• Administrative
– Some automatically created, some explicitly created
– Used to managed the content/data, often within a workflow
– TC examples: Source, owner, reviewer, draft status, creation date,
expiration date, approver
• Structural
– Defines how information is to be organized, assembled, or presented
– Can define relationships among content objects/information chunks
– TC examples: semantic element tags (e.g., <title>, <step>, <chapter>),
“online only”
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19. But what's it good for?
Lots of things--many of which fall under the general
umbrella of helping people find relevant information
quickly and easily. But metadata can also help with
process improvement, user research, and more!
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20. Metadata is essential to…
• Improving the findability and retrievability of
content (whether a machine or a human being is
“looking” for it)
– Provides UI navigation categories/labels
– Enables context-and-user-sensitive search results
– Powers “intelligent content” and “dynamic publishing”
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“There’s no such thing as information overload; there is only filter failure.”
Approximate quotation of David Weinberger, DITA NA/CM Strategies 2016
“The solution to the information overload problem is to create more
information: metadata.”
Actual quotation from David Weinberger, Too Big to Know (2011)

21. Metadata can also be used to…
• Enable reuse
– Descriptive metadata makes it easier for authors to
find relevant content
– Structural metadata provides the predictable
framework necessary for component-level reuse
– Conditional metadata allows content to be reused
even when it needs to be slightly different in
different contexts
• Improve content development workflows and
support robust content management
– Administrative metadata allows tracking of content
through editorial publishing workflows
• Learn about clients and improve client
experience
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22. TC Impacts
So, how will this change tech comm and what I do
on a daily basis?
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23. New roles & new tasks for old roles
• Information architects and metadata/taxonomy
specialists will need to define metadata
requirements, categories & values, and policies.
• Content creators will need to understand defined
metadata structures and policies and tag content
appropriately as they create it.
• Content engineers or publishing & search specialists
will need to build (or buy), configure, and manage
metadata-driven delivery systems.
• Content curators, UX researchers, and client support
personnel will be able to study user-generated tags to
learn about clients and to improve the defined
taxonomies used to power search and delivery.
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24. Influences/Resources
• Books
– Heather Hedden, The Accidental Taxonomist (2010)
– Patrick Lambe, Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies,
Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness (2007)
– Jeffrey Pomerantz, Metadata (MIT Press Essential
Knowledge series, 2015)
– Darin L. Stewart, Building Enterprise Taxonomies (2011)
– David Weinberger, Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge
Now That the Facts Aren’t Facts, Experts Are Everywhere,
and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room (2011)
– Rick Yagodich, Author Experience: Bridging the Gap between
People and Technology in Content Management (2014)
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25. Influences/Resources - continued
• Conference/Presentation Decks
– Joe Gelb, “Introduction to DITA 1.2 Classification and
Subject Schemes: Building a Knowledge Model for Your
Content” (2012): http://ow.ly/x2mdR
– Joe Gelb, “Using Taxonomy for Customer-Centric Dynamic
Publishing” (2014): http://ow.ly/x2m2m
– Rebecca Schneider, “Creating a Metadata Strategy” (2014):
http://ow.ly/x2lZd
• Training
– “Taxonomy and Metadata Practitioner” online course
offered by AIIM (Association for Information and Image
Management): The Global Community of Information
Professionals (www.aiim.org)
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26. About me
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I do not practice any martial arts. But I do lead the
Information Architecture team for a department of
over 50 information developers at ADP. In that role,
I’ve led numerous content strategy and information
architecture initiatives, most recently a multi-year
migration to structured authoring with DITA and the
implementation of component content management.
I have also taught graduate courses in information
architecture, DITA, content strategy, usability, and
various tech comm tools and technologies at Portland
State University. This fall, I will begin teaching DITA in
the UCSC Extension Technical Writing Certificate
program. I’m also a certified Project Management
Professional (PMP), a certified AIIM Metadata and
Taxonomy Practitioner, and an avid fan of the US
Women’s National Soccer Team.

27. Questions?
Contact me at:
toni.mantych@adp.com