MetaSat
Metadata for Good
Daina Bouquin
- arXiv
- AAS Unified Astronomy Thesaurus
- Software Preservation Network
- Mozilla Foundation
I’m a librarian
Harvard University + Smithsonian Institution
MS Data Analytics
+
MS Library & Information Science
metadata for small satellites
Space Act Agreement in progress
Early adopters and collaborators
Funding MetaSat
Semantics
The relationships between signifiers
and what they stand for in reality.
How we understand what something means.
Lexicon
Vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge.
(contains the signifiers)
Mission
- an important, complex assignment.
- a strongly felt aim, ambition, or calling.
- a body of people who perform a service.
Sometimes all three
- an important assignment
- a strongly felt aim, ambition, or calling.
- a body of people who perform a service.
Mars Climate Orbiter undergoing acoustic testing. (1998). NASA.
September 7, 1999
This is the only image acquired by the Orbiter.
What does this image mean?
Who would I ask?
Will it ever mean something else?
NASA/JPL/MSSS
NASA/JPL/MSSS
This image doesn't mean anything on its own.
We need provenance (context).
We need to know the story about the MCO Mission.
We need to know where this image came from.
People need to be able to learn from it.
Metadata
Mechanisms for modeling relationships between the information gathered from provenancial sources.
Schema
Logical framework where
semantic metadata can be recorded.
Humphrey, S.D. Multiple Exposures of the Moon: Nine Exposures, daguerreotype, 1849.
Earliest image of the moon.
Was the only image of the moon.
Was a technological innovation that started a scientific revolution.
Now it's art.
Galileo's notes.
Was chicken scratch.
Now the birth of observational astronomy and the origin of scientific method.
Galilei, G. (1610). Osservazioni e calcoli relativi ai Pianeti Medicei.
Meaning is collective agreement about a specific thing at a specific time.
Semantic meaning is not static.
You cannot predict all of the nodes in a semantic network
Human readable
metadata is limited
Signifiers mean different things to different people.
We need to “cross walk”
different standards to translate meanings.
Absolute agreement is not possible or desirable.
Meaning needs to be
machine actionable
We need to prevent
mission failures
What is the mission?
Why is there a mission?
Who takes the mission on?
We need to be able to describe the components.
Data. Software. Hardware. People.
schema.space
Metadata is Not Neutral
Metadata reflects a community's
shared meaning and values.
Don't let other people define these things for you.
Help define the lexicon.
Your contribution matters.