Metadata Matters

In what is certain to be a seminal work on metadata, John Horodyski masterfully affirms the value of metadata while providing practical examples of its role in our personal and professional lives. He does more than tell us that metadata matters--he vividly illustrates why it matters. --Patricia C. Franks, PhD, CA, CRM, IGP, CIGO, FAI, President, NAGARA, Professor Emerita, San José State University, USA

If data is the language upon which our modern society will be built, then metadata will be its grammar, the construction of its meaning, the building for its content, and the ability to understand what data can be for us all. We are just starting to bring change into the management of the data that connects our experiences.

Metadata Matters explains how metadata is the foundation of digital strategy. If digital assets are to be discovered, they want to be found. The path to good metadata design begins with the realization that digital assets need to be identified, organized, and made available for discovery. This book explains how metadata will help ensure that an organization is building the right system for the right users at the right time. Metadata matters and is the best chance for a return on investment on digital assets and is also a line of defense against lost opportunities. It matters to the digital experience of users. It helps organizations ensure that users can identify, discover, and experience their brands in the ways organizations intend. It is a necessary defense, which this book shows how to build.

John Horodyski, MLIS, MAS, is a digital sleuth, author, pundit, librarian, archivist, strategist, and management consultant who loves many grand things. These include a great cup of coffee, the splendor of long breakfasts, the grandeur of long dinners, the luscious libations of champagne, a Negroni in summer, a Manhattan in winter, and vodka sodas with lime anytime (but not necessarily in that order), the subtle sublime sounds of minimalist piano and chillout, the principled positive power of metadata, the never-ending necessary life skill and joy of reading books, the physical and spiritual benefits of hiking in the mountains, and the beauty that can only be found anywhere in the Mediterranean, the island of Naxos, the Spanish Riviera, the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, the Big Island of Hawaii and Hapuna Beach, and the warm desert sun and midcentury extravagance of Palm Springs for good living for my future home.

John is a Managing Director with Salt Flats, with executive management strategy experience in information management, including digital asset management (DAM), metadata and taxonomy design, content strategy, analytics, governance, MarTech, and marketing operations. John is one of the world's leading experts on metadata and DAM and has provided strategic direction and consulting for a variety of Fortune 10, 50, 100, and 500 clients from Consumer Packaging Goods and Retail, to Media & Entertainment, the Pharmaceutical industry, and Insurance. John is also an Adjunct Faculty member at San José State University, where he teaches a graduate course in DAM. In addition to regular training and public speaking on digital media and metadata, John is a board member/metadata editor of the Journal of Digital Media Management and a monthly DAM contributor to CMS Wire.

John lives in Vancouver, Canada, for now.