Metadata is boring to talk about and often overlooked when it exists. However, when it is insufficient, its gaps are impossible to ignore. My own recent experiences trying to use open data for developing official statistics in Dublin have highlighted a variety of metadata deficiencies that come with a philosophy of openness. Even an infrastructure with the maturity of Ireland's for making open data available for download and through APIs can facilitate an opening of data without the same attention paid to what data represents, how it used, and patterns it can reveal.
I've received an Early Career Research seed grant from the Maynooth University Social Sciences Insitute (MUSSI) to ask the emundane questions about metadata to professionals who use and manage urban data professionally. I seek to assess:
1) are the frustrations that I have experienced with insifficient metadata shared among data professionals?
2) how are data deficiencies solved and what role does metadata play in the process?
3) are metadata standards doing what they intend to do for sharing and managing data?
4) is metadata adaptive to data changes - on a daily basis, historically, and considering new "smart" data formats?
5) how do larger institutional values and conventions influence the management of metadata?
To answer these questions, I am interview data users, managers, and creators in Philadelphia and Dublin. I am seeking to request interviews with individuals who interact regularly with data and metadata, either by designing it, editing it, or facilitating its usefulness within city government. Generally, these are individuals who are happy to talk about the benefits of metadata, and I agree with them. But we are also trying to identify where it can be improved, and it takes some creative consideration of what metadata is, who gets the msot value from it, and whether pushing it do more to address data problems is a reasonable expectation. Both in the roles that my interviewees occupy and thinking about the professional responsibilities that others have in the chain of data management.
The title of the project is (Meta)data for Decision. Anyone familiar with the history of Geographic Information Systems will recognize that this plays off of the famous Data for Decision informational video created by Roger Tomlinson and the Canada Land Inventory in 1967, describing the very first computer programs for managing spatial layers; what would eventually become the first GIS.
From Data to Decisions is also the name of this year's GIS Research UK (GISRUK) conference, where data-driven research was put on prime display at Newcastle University. Metadata was questioned at times, but answers were few. Does metadata facilitate research by enabling us to sift through what is an unprecedented amount of data available online? Do APIs and the data they provide access to need new forms of metadata for users?
I think it is a good time to consider whether current metadata management strategies are sufficient for today's urban applications. This project is one step toward answering questions that many of us have, but don't want to (because metadata can be so boring!). So I am seeking the passionate data professionals in Philadelphia and Dublin who will have extended conversations with me, help me brainstorm creative and necessary adaptations that metadata can make, and consider how to make data-driven decisions more effective.