e-Government Unit
Metadata policy, standards and implementation
Colette Coles, Cabinet Office
Ankara, Turkey
16-18 March 2005
What is metadata?
• Data about data
• Structured information about a resource
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Metadata is all around…
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Government and metadata
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Role as information and services provider
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• Government organisations• Government publications• Government services• Citizen expectations and needs
Why is metadata important?
• Information is the fuel for the new economy
• Information is a key asset for government – this has been under recognised and under exploited
• Getting to the right info – fast - holds the key to efficiency and effectiveness in government as well as serving the citizen
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In reality…..
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• Websites• Find-ability?
• Documents• Wrong kind of metadata?
“Dodgy dossier” syndrome
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• Hidden text in MS documents
• Bad quality metadata can be detrimental
• Need policy for information resources
Information and advice
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• G
• T
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eGovernment Metadata Standard to the rescue…
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The eGMS is…
• Dublin Core elements and refinements
• Additional elements for• Improved retrieval• Records management• Data security• Legal requirements; data protection, information
access, audit trails…
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eGMS drivers
• e-Government
• Electronic records management systems
• The UK Freedom of Information Act and Data Protection Act
• The continuing need to improve efficiency
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Applications
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• Websites & intranets
• Descriptive metadata to aid discovery
• Records management / Content Management Systems
• Administrative metadata to track and manage data
• Archives
• Preservation metadata to track resources over time
• Resource description – says what it is
• Resource discovery – enables users to find it
• Content management – enables publication controls
• Structure for containing information about resources
• Provide authentication and quality assurance
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What can metadata do?
Types of metadata
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• Content:Title, Description, Subject, Coverage, etc…
• Intellectual property:Contributor, Creator, Publisher, Rights
• Instantiation/version:Date, Format, Identifier, Language
Conclusion
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• Value of government information
• Managing information resources
• Meeting citizens needs
• Metadata standard as part of the solution
Thank you
Any questions?
Colette Coles, e-Goverment Unit
e-Government Unit