Metadata education suggestions and materials for:
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GIS implementation |
Learning Material | Preparatory topics | Complementary topics | Vocabulary
Conviction
Motivation
Skills
Knowledge
Implementation issues are not unique to GIS, but are faced by organizations seeking to use any information technology for the first time. Effective implementation is more than just having the right software to perform the needed tasks and appropriate skills training: it involves a whole philosophy of how to approach tasks.
One of the major questions that should be considered in GIS implementation is what changes will the use of GIS cause in the organization? This can encompass some or all of these factors:
The topic Why is metadata important? provides a background of the importance of metadata, benefits associated with it, and risks involved for lack of metadata. Metadata is valuable enough to the successful long-term use of GIS that it should be considered within the implementation of GIS into an organization. For instance, some of these questions should be considered during the planning process for implementing GIS:
Within large, multi-department organizations, GIS implementation typically involves increased data-sharing. For instance, a GIS department might be responsible for creating and updating spatial data, and other departments might be responsible for keeping related data up-to-date, such as customer addresses or transactions. Still other departments are dependent on receiving both up-to-date spatial data and attribute data from the different departments in order to accomplish their day-to-day tasks (such as permitting), or strategic-planning tasks (such a targeting new customers).
Where different departments depend on timely and accurate transfer of up-to-date information, metadata becomes critical for tracking changes made to the data and different data "versions". This log of sources, procedures, updates, and changes helps to maintain the data's integrity through personnel changes. This information is typically recorded in the Lineage and Process Steps section in standardized metadata documents such as the Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata.
Data is often used by people who were not involved in the process of creating or developing the data. One or more departments are responsible for creating/updating data; other departments have to use it. How can they know they are using it correctly? Data users typically will have different training and different experience than data producers. The gap between producers and users is becoming even greater with the advent of "easy-to-use" desktop GIS. Desktop GIS software has brought GIS out of the realm of the GIS specialist: from arcane to useable. However, a corresponding shift in data - from arcane to useable - is not possible without metadata to describe the data and ensure its correct interpretation. "Active metadata" may be a solution some organizations may consider to make metadata a more integral part of day-to-day procedures. Active metadata may be defined as metadata that is part of the dynamic process of creating, updating, and using data, versus "passive metadata", a document that resides separate from the data itself and from any update or analysis procedures using the data. For more information on active metadata, see Active Metadata: using metadata to drive applications for GIS data access and analysis by Tim Rourke, a paper presented at the 1998 ESRI User Conference.
Metadata, especially in active form that encourages data creators and users to reference and update metadata as a part of their GIS activities, is an important tool for keeping information available and accessible in a readily-interpretable format. It is one way to combat the trend identified by John Naisbitt: "We have for the first time an economy based on a key resource that is not only renewable, but self generating. Running out of it is not a problem, but drowning in it is... Uncontrolled and unorganized information is no longer a resource in an information society. Instead it becomes the enemy of the information worker." (John Naisbitt, Megatrends, 1982)
GIS implementation results in the use of new products (in the form of analysis results, digitally-produced maps, etc) within an organization. Metadata provides important documentation in the event that GIS products are ever questioned. For instance, suppose acreage calculations generated from GIS data are different from previous calculations arrived at by other means. Which acreage figures are more reliable? Metadata provides a means for determining the accuracy and precision of data used to generate figures in the GIS. Another instance to consider is if one GIS analyst leaves the position and another person takes his/her place. The new person has to redo an analysis previously done by the previous analyst, and comes up with different results. Which results are more reliable? Documentation of process steps within a metadata document provides a means of comparing the difference in procedures used to arrive at the results.
Included here is an excerpt from the University of Washington's geography course, GIS Workshop syllabus taught by Nicholas Chrisman:
In addition to the group project, each student in the class must produce a metadata description on an individual basis. The product covered will typically figure in the project: either an undocumented input or a result of the project. The metadata report should comply with FGDC metadata standards and be ready to be included in the appropriate clearinghouse (UW Library, WA State node, etc.).
The workshop situation offers an opportunity to share experience between students working on different projects. This interaction will be maximized by continual group discussion of goals, problems and solutions."
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