Metadata Defined.   Information about information is called metadata. For example, an audio file contains audio information. That same file may also contain the name of the person that created the file, the album name, keywords, and so on. These are examples of metadata a file might contain. Further information may be obtained from this Apple publication entitled, "Creating Content for iPod and iTunes" (2007).

Metadata in Action.   For the iTunes.app environment, it is important to know that some metadata is embedded within the media file itself while other metadata is stored on the server because embbeded metadata moves with the file whereas other metadata does not. This screencast illustrates some of the data that the iTunes.app embeds within a media file. In contrast, the kind of metadata stored on the USG Podcasting Server is illustrated in this screencast.

Metadata is useful in several ways:

• The user interfaces for iTunes.app, the iPhone and iPods are built, in part, using available metadata.
• The power of search functions in the iTunes.app, iTunes Store and in iTunes U is directly related to the amount and quality of metadata.
• Content becomes more usable when metadata enables the identification of appropriate versions to match various learning modalities.

Meta-data in Podcasting and Mobile Learning:   In the same way that images enhance the efficacy of browsing via Cover Flow, meta-data amplifies the power of search. Meta-data does this by providing a significant amount of structured and relevant data for search facilities to 'hook' into.

Searching by file name

---