Having problems understanding metadata? Well the simplest way to describe metadata would be metadata is data about another data. Meaning metadata is what we call today as niches. Information about something that can be much more specific in nature, In our modern day lives today metadata is used in everywhere you go and look. With everything from buying groceries to paying your bills metadata has got something to do with it. Now one good example would be buying groceries. When you buy groceries you would get aisles right? Inside huge groceries you would have aisles labelled to what their purpose is.

You may have the “can goods” section in which you would have everything in can in that section. Inside that section would be canned goods and everything that is inside a can. You would then see different types of can goods, from salmon to canned beans. That’s the simplest way to find metadata. Making sure that you would get everything that specifically and get to it that fast, with metadata you would be sure that you would be searching for those things that fast and that simple. Without metadata you would have a hard time looking for the things that you would want to look for.

Now when talking about paying your bills, in your bill you would see all the metadata you would need in order for you to pay your bill. First you would see your name, then your address, your account number and the amount of electricity you have used then on the bottom you would find your amount due that you need to pay in time. That information that are scattered along your bill would be the metadata about your profile. This is the electric company’s metadata about you, without all these data about you they would have a problem billing you the right bill every month. Now you know that even companies find it hard not to have metadata now right?

Now let’s try and talk about school. In school you will find all the information you would need about a single person. Especially if you go to the records section, there you can see different student profiles and the things that would go under it. For example you are in the records division of a certain college. You will find the students name, the student’s major, the student’s year in college and the tuition you are paying would be considered as metadata. Without this data the school cannot charge you for what you owe in going to their school. This is how everything works in the school and this is how important metadata is to them. So the next time you are asked about metadata talk about all these things so that the person asking you would know.