QR Code Metadata Explained
January 9, 2012
We’ve found insight into mobile metatags: what they are and what can be searched in “Top 14 Things Marketers Need to Know About QR Codes” at Search Engine Watch. First on writer Angie Schottmuller’s list is the difference between the familiar UPC barcode, a one-dimensional code that can only be scanned in one direction, and 2-D barcodes like the QR, which store data in both directions.
Other highlights of the list include the fact that 2D codes can store many different types of data, from text to contacts, since they can accommodate so much more of it. Also, if a QR code is too small or complex, phones with low-grade cameras will have trouble reading it. My favorite entry: tools to create and read 2D barcodes are free—the write up gives us sources. There are also management tools available at reasonable prices.
One important point that could get lost in the excitement of adopting a new technology is this: the content must be worth the customer’s effort to do any good. The article notes:
It’s work to scan a barcode, so users have higher expectations as to what content they will find. Reward the user with discounts, exclusive content, or useful tips relevant to the code’s context. Consider scenarios that leverage smartphone features (email, SMS, phone call, video, map, apps, etc.) to save the user time.
One more cool thing. Because these codes allow for a high error tolerance so that damaged codes can be scanned, designers can get artsy with the shapes and colors. Good for marketing in our hyperactive world.
Cynthia Murrell, January 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Everlasting Metadata?
January 4, 2012
Professional photographers are working to protect their rights in the digital world, as CNET reveals in “Should Metadata Be Permanent?” The groups supporting an initiative to require that metadata be permanently adhered to image, text, audio, and video files are understandably focused on protecting copyrights. However, there could be other repercussions to the move. Writer Alexandra Savvides points out:
Imagine a whistle-blowing case involving photographic evidence, where the metadata clearly reveals who took the photo. The manifesto also doesn’t seem to address issues of data tampering or manipulation. We’ve seen numerous cases where photo-encryption systems have been cracked, showing that an obviously manipulated image is an original file created by a camera in question. There is nothing to stop similar methodologies being developed that could change the metadata to imply that another person created an image.
It’s a thorny question. I sympathize with artists who must protect their work. On the other hand, there’s the law of unintended consequences. There is also the question of “language drift.” If metadata are not up to date, the searcher of the future might not be able to locate the information object because the search term does not match the metadata’s lingo.
Our question, though, is a little more pragmatic: what if the meta data needs to be changed? Hmm. Inconvenient, that.
Cynthia Murrell, January 4, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Predictions on Big Data Miss the Real Big Trend
December 18, 2011
Athena the goddess of wisdom does not spend much time in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky. I don’t think she’s ever visited. However, I know that she is not hanging out at some of the “real journalists’” haunts. I zipped through “Big Data in 2012: Five Predictions”. These are lists which are often assembled over a lunch time chat or a meeting with quite a few editorial issues on the agenda. At year’s end, the prediction lunch was a popular activity when I worked in New York City, which is different in mental zip from rural Kentucky.
The write up churns through some ideas that are evident when one skims blog posts or looks at the conference programs for “big data.” For example—are you sitting down?—the write up asserts: “Increased understanding of and demand for visualization.” There you go. I don’t know about you, but when I sit in on “intelligence” briefings in the government or business environment, I have been enjoying the sticky tarts of visualization for years. Nah, decades. Now visualization is a trend? Helpful, right?
Let me identify one trend which is, in my opinion, an actual big deal. Navigate to “The Maximal Information Coefficient.” You will see a link and a good summary of a statistical method which allows a person to process “big data” in order to determine if there are gems within. More important, the potential gems pop out of a list of correlations. Why is this important? Without MIC methods, the only way to “know” what may be useful within big data was to run the process. If you remember guys like Kolmogorov, the “we have to do it because it is already as small as it can be” issue is an annoying time consumer. To access the original paper, you will need to go to the AAAS and pay money.
The abstract for “Detecting Novel Associates in Large Data Sets by David N. Reshef1,2,3,*,†, Yakir A. Reshef, Hilary K. Finucane, Sharon R. Grossman, Gilean McVean, Peter Turnbaugh, Eric S. Lander, Michael Mitzenmacher, Pardis C. Sabet, Science, December 16, 2011 is:
Identifying interesting relationships between pairs of variables in large data sets is increasingly important. Here, we present a measure of dependence for two-variable relationships: the maximal information coefficient (MIC). MIC captures a wide range of associations both functional and not, and for functional relationships provides a score that roughly equals the coefficient of determination (R^2) of the data relative to the regression function. MIC belongs to a larger class of maximal information-based nonparametric exploration (MINE) statistics for identifying and classifying relationships. We apply MIC and MINE to data sets in global health, gene expression, major-league baseball, and the human gut microbiota and identify known and novel relationships.
Stating a very interesting although admittedly complex numerical recipe in a simple way is difficult, I think this paragraph from “The Maximal Information Coefficient” does a very good job:
The authors [Reshef et al] go on showing that that the MIC (which is based on “gridding” the correlation space at different resolutions, finding the grid partitioning with the largest mutual information at each resolution, normalizing the mutual information values, and choosing the maximum value among all considered resolutions as the MIC) fulfills this requirement, and works well when applied to several real world datasets. There is a MINE Website with more information and code on this algorithm, and a blog entry by Michael Mitzenmacher which might also link to more information on the paper in the future.
Another take on the MIC innovation appears in “Maximal Information Coefficient Teases Out Multiple Vast Data Sets”. Worth reading as well.
Forbes will definitely catch up with this trend in a few years. For now, methods such as MIC point the way to making “big data” a more practical part of decision making. Yep, a trend. Why? There’s a lot of talk about “big data” but most organizations lack the expertise and the computational know how to perform meaningful analyses. Similar methods are available from Digital Reasoning and the Google love child Recorded Future. Palantir is more into the make pictures world of analytics. For me, MIC and related methods are not just a trend; they are the harbinger of processes which make big data useful, not a public relations, marketing, or PowerPoint chunk of baloney. Honk.
Stephen E Arnold, December 18, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, a company located where high school graduates actually can do math.
Metadata Formally Recognized by Courts
August 7, 2011
Meta-Cognition, meaning to think about thinking, is a term psychologists love to throw around to discuss intelligence and the capacity to learn. Now, it seems the legal community is going to jump aboard the thinking-ship with their own term – metadata, to think about data, or more precisely, data thinking about data. The article, Technology: Recent Cases Help Evolve Guidelines for Producing Metadata: Keeping ESI Load Files in a Forensically Sound Manner that Preserves Metadata is Key, on Inside Counsel, examines the nature of metadata and tries to pin down a practical use for it.
The first part of the problem – what is metadata? – is universally agreed upon now days. Metadata is any non-visible data, such as author, word count, title (including changes), time/date stamps, etc…, connected to documents or other Electronically Stored Information (ESI). Lawyers can use this valuable information to nail down time lines, prove who monkeyed with a document, and which custodians did what to ESIs, in general.
As the legal community catches up with technology, more and more judges are ruling that metadata is not hearsay, but rather falls under the protection of ESI. Most recently, a judge set some practical guidelines for metadata:
“Judge Shira Scheindlin emphasized that metadata is an integral part of an electronic record. Although it is not legal precedent, her list is a reasonable set of guidelines for in-house counsel responding to ESI requests, as follows. Earlier this year, in National Day Laborer Organizing Network v. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, 2011 WL 381625 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 7, 2011) (opinion withdrawn upon agreement of the parties), Judge Shira Scheindlin emphasized that metadata is an integral part of an electronic record. Although it is not legal precedent, her list is a reasonable set of guidelines for in-house counsel responding to ESI requests, as follows. The metadata that should accompany the production of any text-based ESI includes: File Name…Custodian… Source Device…Source Path…Production Path…Modified Date…Modified Time…Time Offset Value…Identifier.”
Now that metadata is being recognized as a legitimate resource for information, indexing becomes even more vital than ever.
Catherine Lamsfuss, August 7, 2011
Sponsored by Quasar CA, your source for informed financial advisory services
Metadata Goes to Court
April 22, 2011
Ben Kerschberg at Forbes examines “Metadata, The Freedom of Information Act, and Government Hypocrisy.” At issue is whether government agencies, in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, must provide all the metadata attached to documents.
A recent federal court case, National Day Laborer Organizing Network v. United States Immigration and Customers Enforcement Agency in the U.S. District Court for the South District of New York, supports the case for providing all electronically stored information (ESI). However, there’s a caveat for agencies that don’t routinely store this data in their own files. Regarding which types of information must be included, the Court stated:
The answer depends, in part, on the type of electronic record at issue (i.e., text record, e-mail, or spreadsheet) and on how the agency maintains its records. Some agencies may maintain only a printed or imaged document as the final or official version of a record. Others retain all records in native formats, which preserves much of the metadata. Electronic records may have migrated from one system to another, maintaining some metadata but not all. The best way I can answer the question is that metadata maintained by the agency as a part of an electronic record is presumptively producible under FOIA, unless the agency demonstrates that such metadata is not “’readily producible.
My interest here lies in the specification of searchable material: If the government’s stored records are searchable PDFs, the released version can’t be converted into an unsearchable image. However, one can use a third party solution such as PDF OCR.
See the Forbes piece for more information and analysis.
Cynthia Murrell April 22, 2011
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Thought Equity and Sony Metadata
April 21, 2011
The Yahoo Finance article “Thought Equity Motion Powers Enterprise-Wide Metadata Management for Sony Pictures Entertainment” brings to light the collaboration between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Thought Equity Motion. According to the article”
The video platform and footage licensing company will help Sony Pictures get more out of their large entertainment library by utilizing the T3 Metadata Editor to help them better manage content and more importantly offer consumers better and more powerful options. Sony Pictures Entertainment states “The massive amount of visual data we work with in movies and TV shows must be textually searchable and mapped to a huge amount of other information — such as clearances, rights and restrictions, and music cue sheets. The more easily we can store and access that information, the smarter we can be in using it.”
By using the T3 Metadata tool Sony can do more localized searches such as by actor, dialogue and even location allowing them to do so much more with the information they have available. Yet another company has discovered the power of information.
We find it interesting that metadata is suddenly the “new kid on the block” for Sony. We have found real findability challenges on its Web site. The Sony eBook reader is also equipped with a search system that gave us a headache. We hope Sony does metadata thoroughly. Forget the new products Sony can produce, think of the hapless user trying to locate an item.
April Holmes, April 21, 2011
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Deciding On the Importance of Metadata: A Forgone Conclusion?
March 18, 2011
We were surprised to see “Judge Scheindlin Decides that the Metadata Is “Integral” in FOIA Case: Fmr. Judge Ron Hedges Weighs In“. Around the pond, as is the case within the industry, this is a point that was assumed settled some time ago. What took so long for these legal eagle guys to catch up?
The crux of the piece is a case involving the application of metadata of four separate Government agencies and how it relates to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). When these agencies were petitioned for documentation under the FOIA, they did not provide the corresponding metadata. Currently there is no precedent which covers metadata’s incorporation into the public record. Citing a class action suit involving the Department of Homeland Security in which unlawful search and seizure of property fostered a debate regarding metadata production, the judge made this statement:
“[b]y now, it is well accepted, if not indisputable, that metadata is generally considered to be an integral part of an electronic record.”
Of course, the government was not ready to concede. They went on to argue that the information must be requested and then reviewed before its release, a point that finds backing amongst other parties. To read the full debate, see the source article.
What can we take away from this? Very little in reality. Still no absolute rules are formed in regards to metadata, regardless of its inherent significance. The continuing conversion to digital information, coupled with our progress in efficient manipulation of data, seems to have outpaced the writing and applications of the governing laws. This issue is far from resolved, though the hope seems to be that it will serve as a foundation for future discussions.
Sarah Rogers, March 18, 2011
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Protected: SharePoint Set Audiences
February 17, 2011
Protected: Whose Metadata for Fast Search?
February 14, 2011
Forrester Tips on Metadata. Whoa, Nellie!
January 4, 2011
The growth of the Internet over the past couple of decades has created a massive amount of regulated and unregulated data that can be a headache for enterprises to sort through.
According to the ZDNet article “Metadata Virtualization and Orchestration Seen as Critical new Technology to Improve Enterprise Data Integration,” business leaders are now recognizing that managing and exploiting information is a core business competency that will increasingly determine their overall success. Therefore, they need to invest in technology and often third party solutions that will manage their data for them.
Noel Yuhanna, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, and Todd Brinegar, Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing at Stone Bond Technologies help readers better understand these issues in a panel discussion.
The article asserts:
This discussion then examines how metadata-driven data virtualization and improved orchestration can help provide the inclusion and scale to accomplish far better data management. Such access then leads to improved integration of all information into an approachable resource for actionable business activities.
Behind all of the unbelievable double talk and jargon, there is a good point to this article. However, one must winnow.
Jasmine Ashton, January 4, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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