[Sigia-l] metadata redux

[Listera]

"Eric Scheid" wrote:

> human imposed meta data can actually be useful, and remain so, so long as it's
> not a system which is open for exploitative gaming.

Yes, as long as you can trust it. But by its own very nature it's open to
gaming. Metadata is like advertising. It's always reflective of the goals of
the advertiser. Obviously it can be informative about its payload, but you
can't a priori expect it to be so. That's why Page Rank, for example, brings
in a degree of independent evaluation. When trying to choose a movie do you
rely on the studio's blurbs or a mix of movie reviews and/or someone you
trust? That's why, from entertainment to medicine to politics, we have
developed independent channels of evaluation in order not to have to rely on
vendor-supplied (meta)data. And where disclosure of such information is
critical there's usually regulation.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba