Content or Metadata?

[Robin Cover]

WRT (especially):

> in stuff that is not metadata, ordering matters.  The converse is 
> true; if ordering matters, it's probably not metadata.

I don't think I agree, and it's not at all hard to find exceptions,
if I understand the question.  I think the distinction is indeed
POV (point of view), and in some cases, as simple as "view"
(projection).  Imagine an entire book, encoded character by
character, from beginning to end.  Which characters are "metadata"
but not "data"?  Any?  The book subunits (parts, chapters, sections,
subsections) have titles, which like the volume title, may be
regarded as "metadata" for the respective units, but they are
also "data."  For some purposes (an analytical bibliographer),
not only "order" is significant - so are many other matters of
spatial geometry with respect to the "characters" (and other
non-character properties); for other analysts (e.g.,
enumerative bibliography, descriptive cataloging), the "order" of
some character strings (in relation to others) is unimportant.

The distinction is rather like "content" (vs.) "not-content" --
fairly bogus, distracting, and confusing -- not to mention
problematic because it lies the base of some bad markup language
designs.

My 2 cents.

-robin

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On Thu, 2 Dec 1999, Tim Bray wrote:

> At 01:14 PM 12/2/99 -0500, David Megginson wrote:
> >The second example is an interesting choice.  After all, the full OED
> >would probably count as metadata to people who bother to make the
> >distinction: 
> 
> These are murky waters.  But there are a couple of things that are
> incontrovertably true:
> 
> 1. All metadata is data.  Given an aggregation of data items, each 
>    application can and will make its own decisions as to which is "data"
>    and which "meta".  Thus a common syntax for both, to the extent
>    possible, is a good thing.
> 2. Not all data is metadata.  Examples: this email message; Chopin's
>    Nocturnes; Tuxedo.gif.  
> 
> Operationally, my experience suggests that in stuff that is
> not metadata, ordering matters.  The converse is true; if ordering matters, 
> it's probably not metadata.   There are exceptions but you have to
> work pretty hard. -Tim
> 
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