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Problems with metadata

Iam scouring, planlessly at the moment, the web for information about RDF, FOAF, semantic web and so on since I am thinking about building a member directory for a mailing list I am a member of. In this document Cory Doctorow describes, with his usual sense of humour, why metadata is largely a dream never coming true.

Found this while reading about metada in a great Webmonkey article. Regardless of what Mr Doctorow thinks about metadata, I really want to weave FOAF or some other RDF standard into my member directory, if nothing else simply because it would make it more interesting to build.

Some sort of semantic web influence would make it a wee bit more interesting than the old "collect data through web form -> build SQL query -> store data and show result -> rinse, lather repeat ad nauseam" going through the motions of building a webapp.

I find it fascinating that everything Cory Doctorow writes is interesting and informative and at the same time very funny.

Philosophical fact:

Meta-utopia is a world of reliable metadata. When poisoning the well confers benefits to the poisoners, the meta-waters get awfully toxic in short order.

Fun fact:

Even when there's a positive benefit to creating good metadata, people steadfastly refuse to exercise care and diligence in their metadata creation. Take eBay: every seller there has a damned good reason for double-checking their listings for typos and misspellings. Try searching for "plam" on eBay. Right now, that turns up nine typoed listings for "Plam Pilots." Misspelled listings don't show up in correctly-spelled searches and hence garner fewer bids and lower sale-prices. You can almost always get a bargain on a Plam Pilot at eBay.

Fascinating fact:

...Nielsen Ratings privilege 30- and 60-minute TV shows (which is why MTV doesn't show videos any more -- Nielsen couldn't generate ratings for three-minute mini-programs, and so MTV couldn't demonstrate the value of advertising on its network)...

Cory Doctorow | Metacrap

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