Annotation of loncom/html/adm/help/tex/Metadata_Description.tex, revision 1.2
1.2 ! bowersj2 1: \label{Metadata_Description}
1.1 bowersj2 2:
3: \index{Metadata}\label{What Is Metadata?}\emph{Metadata} is \emph{data about data}. Metadata can often be thought
4: of as a label on some bit of information that can be useful to people or
5: computer programs trying to use the data. Without metadata, the person or
6: computer trying to use the original information would have to just guess
7: what the original data is about. For instance, if you create a problem and
8: neglect to say in the title or subject of the problem what it is about, then
9: a human who wants to use that problem would have to read the problem itself
10: to see what it was about, which is much more difficult than just reading
11: a title. A computer trying to do the same thing would just be out of luck;
12: it is too stupid to understand the problem statement at all.
13:
14: One example of metadata is the <title> of a web page, which usually shows
15: up in the title bar of the browser. That's information about the web page
16: itself, not actually part of the web page. People use the title information
17: when they bookmark a page, so they know what the page is. Search engines
18: use it as a clue about the content of the web page.
19:
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