Becca's Blogging Bananza!

Posted In: Weekly reflective blog

Weekly Reflective Blog 4

Rebecca Sloane

Here is the article I reference.

When I first realized that there was a topic covering metadata I was very scared. As I have mentioned before, and will continue to mention, I do not have any coding or computer tech experience beyond simply using already calibrated programs. The idea of metadata gives me the thought that I will have to learn how to be in complete control. In some respect, as I have learned, that may be true.

Metadata is data about data and with that comes having to be knowledgeable about what supports what in return. As a normal technological consumer, all that I would normally have to do is worry about the surface level configurements. I must say that after reading through Professor Pilsch’s lesson for this topic, I feel VERY relieved that I am not having to learn how to add metadata to every single post that was written or every single page that is built. At that point with all of the required work and effort that goes into it, I would more than likely be incompetent at producing such a thing.

Understanding how metadata is defined was actually the easiest section for me because when it was visually laid out, it made complete sense in my mind. There was no questioning the layout of it for me. This proved to be really helpful when it came to actually having to apply that work to my blog for this week’s hands on activity.

Discussing the other meta tags was also fine and understandable, though I feel that I could not apply that knowledge right now. Who’s to say the application is easier than expected? Not me!

Now, transforming metadata to apply towards search engines is where I am completely stuck. I have read over the information several times and am still not sure that I could apply that information in real life. I am not sure that the application of that section was necessary for this week, but I am sure that I would need more explanation on this. Looking over the open graph example makes sense and complicates things for me at the same time. I think that overall the information in the example box collectively is understandable and expresses the breakdown of the standard for Facebook. What I believe would possibly be more helpful is to show the metadata, and all of the coding that is included, embedded into the other data. In other words, we are seeing the zoomed in version instead of the whole picture of what is going on with the data.

I found the informational website that I have attached and was blown away with what was included. The main point I want to bring from that article is the fact that there is more to metadata than what is introduced in this course, or at least for this week. This informational website does include, however, the breakdown of different metadatas that are considered a standard for the National Information Standards Organization. Having the definitions for descriptive, structural, and administrative metadatas was an eye opener and actually expanded on the vocabulary already given to us nicely.