Metadata and semantics research: a case of an international conference paving toward a data-driven future

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the 11th international conference on Metadata and Semantics Research (MTSR-2017) which was held in Tallinn, Estonia from November 28th to December 1st, 2017. The paper contextualises this with existing literature and concludes by offering insight toward the future of metadata. MTSR-2017 brought metadata experts from various domains including libraries, museums, archives, higher education and agriculture. The conference provided an opportunity for participants to share their knowledge and novel approaches in the implementation of metadata and semantics technologies across diverse types of information environments and applications. In libraries, it is indicated that contemporary standards-based metadata approaches fail to describe the ever increasing size of digital resources as well as the changing technologies and dynamic user requirements. The paper shows the need to re-conceptualise existing metadata principles and technical formats with emerging Linked Open Data frameworks. This is where, the theory of metadata enriching and filtering (Alemu & Stevens, 2015) fits in. It emerges that the future of metadata, ontologies and semantics is enriched, linked, open and filtered. In addition, ontologies need to reflect the diversity of interpretations inherent in human beings and the existence of multi-lingual, cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary content – hence they should be designed, developed and maintained with diversity, scalability and interoperability in mind.