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    Intelink Metadata: Past, Present and Future

    Page updated: Wednesday, 18-Mar-1998 14:40:29 EST

    Why Metadata?
    Metadata is simply a buzzword for labels which are put in information objects such as documents. Everyone understands why labels are important. The local grocery store has labels on most food products to save you time and confusion when shopping. After all, you don't want to have to ask which is the parsley and which is the basil if you don't know the difference. The types of flour in the bulk foods section would be hard to tell apart without labels. Security markings on paper documents are metadata labels for humans. Intelink metadata is simply a series of labels to help computers sort information for various reasons including security and retrieval.
    Current Intelink Metadata Standards
    At the 1997 Newport Intelink Conference, the Guidelines for Intelink Metadata were approved. The IMD established a Metadata Home Page to help coordinate metadata implementation. The standards have not changed since they were established in July 1997.
    Implementation Progress
    By March 1998, most Intelink producers were providing metadata for their products. Most producers jumped on the bandwagon quickly, others took some coaxing to begin participating in this interagency venture. Some producers have even gone beyond the Intelink-wide metadata to create local metadata extensions. Quality control issues still remain to be resolved. Format specifications in the standards documents are not always followed. All in all, however, the degree of metadata implementation has to be rated a solid success.
    Tools for Creating and Searching Metadata
    The main tool for using metadata on Intelink has been "Wer'zit?". Producers are required to register products with Wer'zit, which can read the META tags, which are the HTML tags used for metadata. The requirement to register metadata is an extra production step which has not been appreciated. The new beta Meta Search can read metadata from the crawlers for the other search engines. If this tool proves successful, it could eventually replace Wer'zit. However not all problems with the Meta Search Tool have been resolved. ISMC's original plan to use the search engines such as AltaVista to read Intelink metadata has proven impossible to implement. Some producers add the well-known META "keywords" tag with the same content as the Intelink "IL.keyword" tag to make sure AltaVista indexes the keywords. To help in the production process, various Metadata Creation Tools have been developed. The increased automation of metadata creation is one of the chief goals of the IMD.
    Local Metadata Extensions
    Some producers have found that metadata gives their customers such better access to their sites that they have begun adding extensions to the Intelink metadata for their own use. The NAIC InfoSource Directory is based on various metadata information which goes beyond the Intelink standards. Even before the 1997 standards, NAIC was adding extensive metadata to "information packets." For its implementation of the Netscape Catalog Server ONI has created many new metadata tags. Indexing of the metadata provides the various breakdowns of information which allow the navigation paths through ONI's site.
    Metadata for Subject Access
    Providing for topics subject access remains one of the goals of the metadata effort. This takes two main forms - subject classifications (aka taxonomies, ontologies, etc) and keywords. The Intelink Guidelines have from the beginning provided for use of Intelligence Functional Codes also known as IFC codes. Another subject breakdown on Intelink can be seen on the Iraq Knowledge Base. This represents the first time CIA has ever cooperated in a subject classification with other members of the community. Several organizations have expressed a requirement for a standardized keyword list. The IMD will be coordinating an effort to do this.
    XML - Metadata for Content Markup
    eXtensible Markup Language and its big brother SGML are seen by many as the future of markup languages on the World Wide Web. One of the most active Intelink organizations working in this area is JICPAC's Digital Production Office. The IMD is funding an effort to create an SGML-compliant database which will enable easier downgrading of information for use on Intelink-S. The ideas is to author information once, and distribute it automatically. This is made possible by labels (call them metadata, SGML tags, XML tags or whatever) which allows output from the system based on security classification level. Because NAIC and NGIC have also been active in the are of creating content tagging (XML or SGML) now is the time to bring these efforts together. The IMD will bring together all major players in this area to provide a unified information model which will form the basis for content tagging on Intelink.
    Plans for This Year
    Metadata and markup plans for this year center on a buildup to the Intelink 2000 Conference. The IMD will solicit participation in dealing with the issues raised above. This will be a true community effort in which the results of many efforts will come together and we will have a clear roadmap for the following year.
    Intelink 2000 Conference
    Markup, including HTML metadata and XML will be a prime topic at the Intelink 2000 Conference in San Antonio in August 1998. There will be a series of briefings, workshops and decision-making sessions that will involve producers from throughout the community. In particular we will decide on any new community-wide HTML META tags, and will develop a blueprint for XML implementation for the following year.
    Metadata for our Allies
    IMD has established a working relationship with the Intelink-C community. Intelink-C is adopting Intelink metadata as the basis for their metadata standards. In addition, IMD has been invited to brief the NATO allies on Intelink metadata, with the possibility that the NATO powers will also follow Intelink's lead on metadata. These developments make our work even more important as we have a chance to develop international standards which will help in exchanging information when it it appropriate.

    Mark Kelly, IMO/IMD

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