Metadata. Specifically the capture, auto-generation, visualization, and interaction of. Like for many others, it’s fair to say that my intellectual orbit has been firmly captured in its gravity for some time. I believe that I can say without much controversy, that at the current point in the information age, the control and processing of this n-order information has increasingly superceded the importance of the information itself (very pomo; but of course, the distinction between data and metadata itself becomes increasingly murky as one tries to pin down the referent).
I swung by the local Korean supermarket today and picked up a number of things I’ve never eaten before, many with labels that I can’t read. It occurred to me that might be an interesting project: to try to get through every single fit for human consumption item in a market. (Over the past year or so, I’ve been entirely too conservative, and also eaten out way too much. I’m trying to better take advantage of the bounty and variety that generations past couldn’t even fathom).
Another interesting project might be to document that said endeavor. Which of course, gets the wheels turning about the best way to enter, tag, organize, represent, and present this data. How flexibly and most easily allow these arbitrary pursuits to be dashed off? Obviously many individuals, groups, companies and research institutions are exploring different aspects and approaches to this.
Still, it’s sobering to think about how far we have to go in reducing the complexity of even the simplest tasks when you consider Jason’s description of his Movie Listing functionality, self-described as done fairly easily
, but requiring the installation and set up of 4 plugins combined together (ExtraFields, Compare, MTSQL, and MTIfEmpty for those counting at home).