(2003-10-24) Metadata Model

Was starting to read a David Weinberger bit when it hit me that Meta Data is an abstraction or Model of data.

• will reading Meta Data become a speedreading substitute for reading the full content?

  • certainly if you count abstracts/summaries/intros

  • reminds me of the bit about telling jokes by number, esp the mindfucking version where the punch line is "we've already heard that one"

  • we already do this: "oh, she's bitching about my socks again"

• we need a semantic analyzer to tell us how much "new information" is contained in the full content relative to that predicted by the metadata. "Oh, it's just Weinberger ranting about Bush again... oh wait this is a new one!"

• beware Model Theism...

Some random riffs: Information Theory... difference that makes a difference... as David says, when there's infinite data, then you only find things via Meta Data, so the Meta Data is the data in some sense...