Metadata

[Jason Birch]

Hi all,

I am concerned that by just storing Metadata as an XML chunk against
resources, that it will be extremely difficult to manage on an
enterprise level.  I may just be getting worked up about something that
has already been considered but...

A good metadata system should store at least organisation and contact
information independently, taking advantage of a relational model and
making maintenance easier.  Meta information stored against data sets
should be composited on the fly into the required metadata standard.

As well, metadata should not be limited to the information stored
directly in MapGuide.  It should be possible to store metadata for
external resources, including those referred to in load procedures.  The
metadata for the resultant data would then reference the source they
were derived from.

Hmm.  On the flip side, there should at least be the ability to parse
and load XML metadata in standard formats, such as generated by ArcGIS.

Jason