We live in an all-digital, all-information age. This can lead us to the misapprehension that we need to think less about how we structure and plan our data. We heave a sigh of relief that we can just pour everything into some digital solution, before carrying out a global search when we need it. This is an increasingly common – and passive – way of approaching your content infrastructure. And
structures could be used to create new value. The team that you thought was entirely technical may be sitting on a database of suppliers that is completely irrelevant to them, but is otherwise a gold mine for business development. Once your company is speaking the same language and on the same (spreadsheet) page, there is the bigger question of the Mad Max -style landscape of conflicting
there are a lot of companies happy to let you do that: “Pour everything into our buckets, let our AI take care of it and go get yourself a hot chocolate.” The most successful businesses take the opposite approach. Certain digital tools allow you to get more control of your data and assets, but only if you’ve considered your metadata structure first.
metadata structures in the industry at large. But, in the same way that a company needs to take control of its own data destiny, so does the industry itself. There are a host of trade organisations and conferences working steadily on these problems of conflicting metadata. It feels a bit like trying to get the whole world
THE PERSONWHO NAMES THINGS IS OFTEN THE PERSONWHO CONTROLS THEM
WHO IS YOUR MASTER? A top company will have a senior member of staff, able to think about the entire data structure of the business, yet this is not an IT position – it’s a creative and business development role. The person should be able to develop a clear metadata language, as well as a workflow, across the entire business. But, again, these structures need to be constructed to serve the creatives and growth of the company, integrating optimally with other opportunities and enterprises outside your own business. This company data specialist must collaborate with all departments in an organisation to understand their data needs, understand how those can be integrated and synergised with other parts of the company, plus what kinds of data
to agree on a common language or currency, with the same issues of personal freedom raised. But without any kind of common goals, and media companies (often owned by bigger companies that know nothing about the media industry) operating in their own self-interested silos, there is little general progress. As a result, the voice that gets heard is the loudest in the room. And we all know where that comes from. There may be some benefit to just doing what Netflix wants. It certainly relieves the industry of responsibility and worry. But the person who names things is often the person who controls them. Take control of your own metadata, and you’ll have control over your own business. There are empty fields out there, waiting to be filled.
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