Understanding Metadata: From Books to Digital Communications and Tattoos (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: It all starts with the question, what should I get for a tattoo? My name's Peter and this is Stacks and Facts. So you're probably like, Peter, I came here to learn about metadata, since that's what you put in the title, not tattoos. And I guess that's fair, so let's talk about metadata then. So when we think about metadata, the common definition that gets thrown around a lot, and that I personally find unfulfilling, is that metadata is data about data. Now, while that may be useful for someone who works with data on the regular, for most people, it doesn't really give that much meaning. Now, a better, and in my opinion, a much more gratifying definition is this. Metadata is a way for us to know something surrounding a piece of information, so that we have a better idea of what that information is when we go looking for it. Given that a library's primary task is helping others find the information they're looking for, it would make sense that librarians like metadata. Not only does it make their job easier, it makes their job possible. In my spooky Halloween video talking about how classification systems can kill vampires, I talked about how different collections have different ways of being organized, depending on the collection's purpose. The different categories that a book might fall into are prime examples of metadata. It tells you a thing about the book. A librarian then takes that information about the book and uses it to figure out what to do with the book, so that it can then be found and used later. So that's what we do with metadata, but what does it look like? Now, for a book, some obvious metadata would be the subjects it covers, as well as its author, title, and publisher, for example. But metadata can also include physical descriptors about the object that is a book. Its weight, physical dimensions, the materials it's made of, and these can be just as important when you're deciding how and where to store it. Or, as Colleen over at the University of Iowa's Special Collections highlights in her video, it can inform what needs to be done in order to restore or preserve an old book. You don't have to be a big fan of Shakespeare to appreciate the video, so go check it out. You'll see. Sorting and fixing books is a fairly benign use of metadata, but as various three-letter government agencies, and Google, and Facebook, and literally every tech company out there can attest, metadata can be used for other purposes. You can learn a lot about a person and their relationships or priorities, for example, simply from knowing who they're talking to, how often, and how you're talking to them. And you don't even necessarily need to know what they're talking about. Let's take my own messages, for example. Now, cue graphic. This grid represents a very abstract version of the texts on my phone. I've broken them into these four groups. There are the folks who I text and who text me back. These are probably people who I care about. We might talk regularly or not, but there's an exchange of information on a somewhat regular basis. There are the folks who I text and who don't text me back. These could be folks I need to get information to, but not necessarily information back from. Not so many in this case, and I wonder why that is. There are folks who text me and who I don't text back. These could be folks or services who need to send me information, but don't necessarily need a text response. Think authentication services or bill notifications. And finally, there are the folks who don't text me and who I don't text. This would arguably be the largest group of people. You're probably in it. But this could still be useful information if, say, you know that I have a close relationship with someone. Why don't we text? If you have access to my texting records, for example, because you make an app that I just can't live without, that has blanket permissions given to it when it's installed, as a requirement, let's call it BookFace Messenger, for example, then you suddenly know a lot about me. Given the matrix I just showed you, what are some conclusions that you might be able to come up with about me? Make me deeply uncomfortable and leave a comment below with your idea. This is something that we as individuals should think about. Who has access to what information about me, and what can they do with it? What privacy protections do I have and do those change if it's a government that's using the metadata versus a private company? To what ends are my data being collected? Is it more okay to use it for national security than it is to make a buck that I'll never see? What are the real costs of my free email account? Now, these two examples, books and digital communications, only scratch the surface of what makes metadata so powerful. And that's why I'm happy to announce, in an effort to make content more regularly, the start of a new series on Stacks and Facts called Meta Mondays. The plan is that on Mondays I'll release a short video talking about different metadata and how they impact you, and how you can in turn use them for your own purposes, hopefully noble. So, that's exciting. Yeah. Oh. Tattoos. Well, I wasn't lying when I told you that all of this started with me wondering what I should get for a tattoo. And I will answer that question. The first three episodes of Meta Monday will be about, in no particular order, an elaboration on book metadata, digital communications metadata and how we use it, and the metadata of my tattoo. So, if you're into seeing folks getting inked while talking really nerdy about information, go ahead and click the subscribe button. But until then, thanks for watching. And don't forget to ask questions. Bye.