Metadata: Dublin Core Metadata Initiative

Metadata is poorly used on the Internet and most intranets to describe objects (normally web pages). I have used and accessed metadata for numerous implementations and systems, and have come across elements that contained the name “DC” before an element like “title” or “description” and have never really thought about what it was for or what it stood for. While researching information about a recent article about DITA I found a reference to the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI). The DCMI is trying to provide better metadata standards for ALL resources that are interoperable. This means the “DC” actually stands for “Dublin Core” and means that the element conforms to the Dublin Core standard. For a complete Dublin Core Definition see the following example for the Dublin Core home page:

<?xml version=“1.0”?>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf=“http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#” xmlns:dc=“http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=“http://dublincore.org/”>
<dc:title>Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) Home Page</dc:title>
<dc:description>The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative is an open forum engaged in the development of interoperable online metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models. DCMI's activities include consensus-driven working groups, global conferences and workshops, standards liaison, and educational efforts to promote widespread acceptance of metadata standards and practices.</dc:description>
<dc:date>2004-10-05</dc:date>
<dc:format>text/html</dc:format>
<dc:language>en</dc:language>
<dc:contributor>Dublin Core Metadata Initiative</dc:contributor>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>

This example is an XML/RDF instantiation of the Dublin Core definition. As you can see Dublin Core defines the “Description”, “Date”, “Format”, etc. elements that describe the contents of the document. By using this worldwide accepted standard you can describe a document so that any search engine, Internet spider or content management system can use this metadata.

Defining metadata using Dublin Core is really only one part of the problem, the other problem is that the systems still do not “understand” the meaning of the data defined in the metadata. This understanding is where the concepts behind the semantic web can be applied, although the semantic web concept is still developing therefore is not quite ready for prime time use.

Links
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Website
DCMI Documentation