[BP - MET] - Metadata quality

Dear All,



In our last teleconference, I commented about the idea of metadata quality.
I know it may sound like something meta-meta but I will try to better
explain what I am thinking.



As we can see from the use cases we have collected, there are a lot of
different ways in which people are publishing data on the web. It seems
that we have a North in the linked data idea but many of the use cases in
our list are still collections of files published in data portals.



In these portals we have data and metadata. The 5 stars open data scale
makes, in some sense, people think that data that have 5 stars are better
described than data with, for example, 3 stars. I don’t think that this is
necessarily true. Some of these data portals have a kind of best practices
that ask users to publish metadata together with data, and suggest, or
require, metadata content. Some portals have a fixed set of fields that
must be provided by the user. They are mandatory. So, one dataset with 3
stars could have a metadata set that helps a developer in a better way than
another one with 5 stars. The 5 stars don’t guarantee the metadata quality.
The metadata quality scale is not the same as the 5 stars open data scale.
I am not proposing to have a metadata quality scale. But I think it exists.



In the Guidance on The Provision of Metadata
<http://www.w3.org/2013/dwbp/wiki/Guidance_on_the_Provision_of_Metadata>
page I listed a set of metadata types that is already being investigated by
diverse groups and could help to enhance the metadata quality of a dataset.
For each one of the metadata types we could give pointers to the groups
that are working in that specific topic and some examples using our use
cases. Some of these metadata types, related to data quality and data
usage, for example, are in the scope of our group. In my opinion, it is out
of the scope of our group to formally define each one of these metadata
types. Each one of them deserves an individual WG taking care of it. And
many already have these groups.



As I asked in the last teleconference, I would appreciate that DWBP WG
participants, which have information about initiatives working in each
metadata type, could put content and links in the wiki page, in a way that
other participants could study and put more detailed information about
these works, with comments and examples.



I think this could be a good guide for users, to help them to publish data,
to choose data publishing tools, data portals, and also helping the
developers of the data publishing tools to include ways of enhancing the
metadata quality of datasets.



As Bernadette pointed in her article, we have a set of different roles in
the Data on the Web ecosystem. People with different roles may benefit from
our guide, each one doing his part to enhance the overall ease and
efficiency of the ecosystem usage and the effects over society.



Thanks.



Best regards,

Laufer

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