Metadata standards - Centre for Earth Observation
The Centre for Earth Observation (CEO), a joint initiative of the Commission's Joint Research Centre and the Environment and Climate specific RTD programme, is currently funding a study on metadata standards. The aim of the study is to: - Review current practices in metadata management practices; - Identify important metadata standards and initiatives; - Develop a "User guide" for metadata providers; - Develop a tool to aid the generation of resource descriptions; - Encourage the submission of resource descriptions to the CEO. In the framework of the study, a workshop was organized in October 1996 at the CEO, involving the project team, CEO staff and invited external experts. The workshop objectives were to agree on the resources to be represented, agree on the scope and content of these resources, and to agree standards for resource description. Following this work, a number of documents are now available: - Survey of current practices and standards for metadata management: . Volume A - Survey and analysis of practices in 20 European organizations; . Volume B - Reference document for major metadata standards and initiatives; major metadata attribute sets; - Draft Metadata Agreement: discussion document containing proposals for meta-information standards; - Minutes of the workshop held on 16 and 17 October 1996.