787 - Chapter 10. Common Warehouse Metadata <blockquote> <p><script> function OpenWin(url, w, h) { if(!w) w = 400; if(!h) h = 300; window. open (url, "_new", "width=" + w + ",height=" + h + ",menubar=no,toobar=no,scrollbars=yes", true); } function Print() { window.focus(); if(window.print) { window.print(); window.setTimeout('window.close();',5000); } } </script><span></span></p> <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr valign="top"></tr></table> <table width="100%" height="20" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1"><tr></tr></table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr valign="top"> <td align="center"><table width="95%"><tr><td align="left"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"> <tr><td valign="top" height="5"><img src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/images/pixel.gif" width="1" height="5" alt="" border="0"></td></tr> <tr> <td><b><font size="1" color ="#0000FF">Team-Fly<img border="0" src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/Fly-Logo.gif" width="81" height="25"></font></b></td> <td valign="top" align="right"> </td> </tr> </table> <hr size="1"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5"> <tr> <td valign="top" width="76" rowspan="4"><img src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/images/0130409510/0130409510_xs.jpg" width="76" height="95" border="0"></td> <td valign="top">Internet-Enabled Business Intelligence<br>By William A. Giovinazzo<br> </td> </tr> <tr><td>Table of Contents</td></tr> <tr><td></td></tr> <tr><td valign="bottom">Part 3. The Software of the Internet</td></tr> </table> <hr size ="1"> <br><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding ="0"><tr><td valign="top"> <h2>Chapter 10. Common Warehouse Metadata</h2> <blockquote> <p><span>"And only</span> one <span>for birthday presents , you know. There's glory for you!" "I don't know what you mean by</span> glory ," <span>Alice said.</span></p> <p><span>Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don'ttill I tell you. I meant </span> there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"</p> <p><span>"But glory doesn't mean</span> a nice knock-down argument," <span>Alice objected.</span></p> <p><span>"When</span> I <span>use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what</span> I <span>choose it to mean neither more nor less."</span></p> <p><span>"The question is," said Alice, "whether you</span> can <span>make words mean so many different things."</span></p> <p><span>"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be masterthat's all."</span></p> <p><span>Lewis Carroll</span><br><span>Alice in Wonderland</span></p> </blockquote> <p>Words and their meaningsconsider how important they are to communication. The discussion between Alice and Humpty Dumpty is an especially poignant scene in literature. What does a particular word mean? Humpty Dumpty apparently sees himself as the arbiter of which words have which meanings. Many people today are just like Humpty Dumpy: They select words based on what may sound pleasing regardless of the meaning. Many marketers and politicians use words that are pleasing to the ear: If the way in which their words are used doesn't quite fit their meaning, they don't worry about itmost people won't notice or at least won't challenge them on it.</p> <p>Words are powerful. Words are the handles by which we grasp concepts. When we think, we use words. When we wish to communicate a concept, we use words. I grasp a concept by its handle, the word that describes it. I communicate this same concept by handing the person to whom I am communicating that handle, that word. The words we choose and the meanings of those words, both the connotative and demonstrative meanings, are critically important. George Orwell, in the fabulous book <span>1984</span>,<sup>[1]</sup> demonstrated the power of words. He wrote of an entire ministry of the government dedicated to the reduction of words. Its objective was to reduce the vocabulary and eliminate words. Good, excellent, and great were reduced to good, double-good, and double-plus-good just as bad, terrible, and horrible were reduced to bad, double-bad, and double-plus-bad. As words were eliminated, concepts were eliminated. If no word for freedom or liberty existed, the concepts of freedom and liberty were hindered, for people had no way to communicate those concepts. In Orwell's world, the government controlled the minds of the massestheir thoughtsby controlling their speech.</p> <blockquote><p><sup>[1]</sup> Orwell, George, <span>1984</span>, New American Library Classics, Reissued 1990.</p></blockquote> <p>Words and their meanings are data and metadata. As you read this book, I am communicating data to you. The meaning of the words you are reading is the metadata. Unlike Humpty Dumpty, we have all agreed on the metadata. If we encounter a piece of data with which we are unfamiliar, such as esymplastic, we look it up in a dictionary. The dictionary is our central metadata repository. <span>The Professor and the Madman</span>,<sup>[2]</sup> by Simon Winchester, is an excellent case study on the compilation of this metadata.</p> <blockquote><p><sup>[2]</sup> Winchester, Simon, <span>The Professor and the Madman</span>, Harper Perennial, 1999.</p></blockquote> <p>While what we have discussed to this point is the usual use of metadata, typical discussions of metadata are in the context of technology. In this chapter, we discuss metadata in its typical context, how it is used in relation to technology, specifically IEBI. We begin this discussion with a definition of metadata and its importance in relation to IEBI. We then discuss the different types of metadata and its storage in the central metadata repository. We conclude with a review of the Common Warehouse Metadata Interchange (CWMI). CWMI is an eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based standard used for communicating metadata between systems. We discuss how this standard is implemented and how it can be used by IEBI systems.</p> </td></tr></table> <hr size="1"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"> <tr><td valign="top" height="5"><img src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/images/pixel.gif" width="1" height="5" alt="" border="0"></td></tr> <tr> <td><b><font size="1" color="#0000FF">Team-Fly<img border="0" src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/Fly-Logo.gif" width="81" height="25"></font></b></td> <td valign="top" align="right"> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td valign="top" align="right">Top</td></tr></table> </td></tr></table></td> <td align="center"> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="3" align="center" valign="bottom"> <br><table width="100%"><tr><td height="25" valign="middle" colspan="4" align="center"> </td></tr></table> </td></tr> </table> </blockquote>
