 Metadata
Descriptions and Registries
Judith Newton (judith.newton@nist.gov)
Overview: The recent increase of interest in knowledge management
and electronic commerce emphasizes the need for tools that assist
in controlling and documenting the semantic content of the data
exchanged among trading partners. A metadata registry assists
users in the sharing and exchanging of mutually agreed information.
Information quality is enhanced by documenting all aspects of data
elements and related metadata constructs in a web-enabled registry.
Registries allow aspects of data models, classification schemes,
terminology systems, naming conventions, and standardized definitions
to be easily accessed by users of information systems.
Industry Need Addressed: Transfer of information created
and accessed by differing software products is made difficult by
the underdeveloped export functions found in many products. Also,
most information management systems have metadata description methods
so customized to those products that translation of meaning is a
real problem. By using a product-independent registry to describe
metadata, and by basing those descriptions on a format defined in
an international standard, users can be assured that the meaning
of their information is consistent with that of their information-sharing
partners.
The growth of XML, a data description language for the Internet
without an intrinsic mechanism for insuring semantic conformance,
makes the use of metadata registries even more important.
NIST/ITL Approach: NIST/ITL is collaborating with several
federal government agencies and industry to solve this problem.
The prior expertise available at NIST assisted the EPA to develop
a metadata registry for use both internally and for their information
exchange partners (industry, state EPAs, and foreign equivalents).
Institutionalizing this approach in government and industry has
led to the participation of NIST in ANSI and ISO efforts to develop
standards addressing various aspects of metadata registries. ISO
11179, Metadata registries (MDR), several technical reports,
and ANS X3.285, Metamodel for the Management of Shareable Data,
have resulted. Judith Newton has assumed various technical and managerial
leadership roles in these efforts.
Both national and international committees have liaisons and cooperative
efforts with industry groups, consortia, and international organizations.
For instance, members of ANSI L8 are developing an XML tag set for
the Metamodel, as well as serving on the W3C XML Registry/Repository
working group. NIST is working with the EPA to study ways to best
use XML and 11179 together.
Impact: The popularity of the metadata registry concept
has led to the formation of a user group, the Metadata Registry
Implementers Coalition (MDRIC). The Coalition web address is: http://hmrha.hirs.osd.mil/mrc/.
Pressure from these and other potential users have had an impact
on vendors. Both Ontek and Oracle have developmental efforts underway
for commercial products based on the 11179 standard. Many implementations
have been built independently, yet in accordance with the standard.
Notable collaborations among subject area domains include the environmental
area, health data, air traffic control, and statistical data.
| 