Metadata

Metadata can be easily defined as data about data. A more refined definition is: "'Metadata is  structured  information  that  describes,  explains, locates,  or  otherwise  makes  it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource. Metadata is  often  called  data  about  data  or information about information.'"Metadata can be used on both physical and electronic resources. It can be entered manually or automatically by a program or device such as the camera on a phone. An example when using a digital camera the photo can have metadata that shows where and when the photo was take, what device was used to take it, the owner of the camera and much more. Metadata plays a key role in helping to parse data.

The syntax for metadata are the rules for how the data is structured into fields and elements. The structure can be very simple or very complex depending on the amount of markup or programming languages being used. The languages can range from plain text to HTML, XML and RDF.