Blog Post 3: Metadata and Database Design

    Chapter four discusses metadata, markup, and data description. This is important when setting up and analyzing digital humanity websites and projects. Metadata is defined as a specialized expertise and a world of professional knowledge. There is special importance with research, data description, and organization. The book put this idea into great context by stating “Without metadata, information in files would be like books without covers or title pages on shelves without labels.” Pg. 52 This provides a great visual as to what metadata and classification do for the resources we use everyday. 

    Metadata relates to how data or materials are put together by relatedness. In my DH project, most of the materials have similar significance and are all related to one topic, so it can be hard to subdivide the materials into even more related groups. They did this by grouping materials by time stamps and what related to the events happening in that moment. This is seen through the description/organization of the data as well. For example, one time stamp on the timeline talks about one of the planes that was hi-jacked. The photos/materials corresponding with this description was of a group of students that were passengers on the flight  and then a seating chart of the plane with every passenger name including the terrorists. These materials were grouped together through close relatedness to the specific plane that was benign discussed. This is similar to classification, which is also mentioned in the chapter since the way the information is grouped or classified can have different outcomes for the product of the website. If all the plane seating charts were grouped together in one spot, it would not make sense with the timeline since each plane was on another schedule. So for my source, time was the biggest factor when classifying the data. 

    Chapter five describes the role of database design on the success of a DH project. One of the key takeaways I found from the reading was about dependent and independent relations within a database. When constructing a database, independent data should be grouped with independent data and vice versa for dependent materials. This chapter has a lot of great information about how to build a database and when you would use flat vs relational data collections. Though it does not directly apply to my DH project, it is still important to consider if your data is all related or separate. In cases where data is connected, you would use a relational spreadsheet, where the tables are structured together. This makes the database more efficient and smaller than it could be otherwise. The chapter ends by discussing ethical considerations with legacy data and repurposing it. I find this interesting because taking data that is not active and repurposing it for a greater audience to see seems to be a great thing in my opinion, but other people have different opinions. There seems to be a debate about this, but when I think of my DH project and how it is able to honor victims of a horrific terrorist attack, I find myself grateful it did not turn into legacy data. The whole point of the 911 Memorial Museum timeline is to spread awareness and details of the events that took place by showcasing images, video, audios, and more materials to give people a wider consensus of what really happened. If we did not have that, the event may end up lost in history one day, which would prevent the development of our national security and honor of our country's history in general. 

    I think this is all important to consider for future projects when we have to compile our own data. These allow us to properly format our digital resources and make them more digestible for viewers. There may be great amounts of data to deal with and compile together but the consensus of metadata and design make it easier and less intimidating to imagine creating these future products.