"The final session of the day was my favorite. What was it about? Metadata. I'm sure there are those who, like me, appreciate that metadata is important but feel that it's as exciting as watching paint dry. Hard to believe, I know, but this session was far from dull. I give credit to the speakers for getting down to what we, mostly users, though I noted at least one serious programmer and one GIS vendor in the room, need to know. Ron Matzner of FGDC made sense of the jumble of federal initiatives including GeoSpatial One-Stop, the National Map, NSDI, I-Teams and the role each plays in the over-arching goal of data sharing. And, in turn, he focused on the role of metadata in making each initiative successful. He pointed out that no one program is the "be all and end all," but rather that each contributes to moving things forward. He also emphasized, and I've not thought of data this way, that data is a capital asset for the country. Said another way, it has real value. He also explained that the 'bottom up' approach to data sharing-currently underway via I-Teams-came from suggestions from local governments themselves. The key benefit of I-Teams, he suggests, is that they bring instant credibility with folks in the budget department.

Dave LaShell gave a real world example of how to create and publish metadata in ArcGIS 8.2 and ArcIMS 4.0. The process seemed a bit complex to me, but the fact that the tools are there is significant. Bruce Wescott, SMMS Metadata Consultant and admitted metadata geek, finished up by highlighting the differences between FGDC standards for metadata and the newly adopted ISO standard. The FGDC format is designed for us humans to read; the ISO format is for applications, or said another way, for machines. The ISO standard, Wescott argues, is the future since, 'no one cares what it [metadata] is, they care how to use it.' These days the ultimate users are our software packages, not our eyes. Again focusing on the 'what we need to know,' Wescott went on to introduce ISO-MTX-a product built by Intergraph, in partnership with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), for upgrading 'legacy' spatial metadata to the newly adopted ISO format." [GIS Monitor]

The GIS community as a whole is starting to understand the importance of metadata. The blogging community needs to catch up.

I really wish we (SLS and the ISL) had time to work with Nina at the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission to collaborate on GIS metadata projects that would help make the Illinois Government Information service (IGI) a better product.

Side note: if you're at all interested in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or Global Positioning System (GPS), GIS Monitor is a great site to track. Another one that I'll have to try to get into my aggregator some day.