Metadata is an amazing topic in the data warehouse world. Considering
that we donęt know exactly what it is, or where it is, we spend more
time talking about it, worrying about it, and feeling guilty we arenęt
doing anything about it than any other topic. Several years ago we
decided that metadata is any data about data. This wasnęt very helpful
because it didnęt paint a clear picture in our minds. This fuzzy view
gradually cleared up, and recently we have been talking more
confidently about the "back-room metadata" that guides the extraction,
cleaning, and loading processes, as well as the "front-room metadata"
that makes our query tools and report writers function smoothly |
