Metadata. We all know it's important. So why do we have to spend so much time cajoling authors to apply it to their content? Why is so much of our content poorly tagged? What impact is this really having on the value of our content?
This tutorial will start off with a fun, hands-on exercise that illustrates why metadata is so useful. This exercise will then kick off a discussion of why metadata is essentially a "tragedy of the commons" problem - although we all benefit from having a well-structured "information commons", most individuals have little incentive to maintain that commons.
Once we understand this dynamic, we can begin to manage it. The tuorial will conclude with a discussion of how we can manage our "information commons" more effectively. There are no magic answers here - each organisation needs to find it's own solution. But by sharing our thinking, we can begin to find answers for ourselves.
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