Inclusive data: metadata and descriptive Language

Metadata (data about data) makes the digital world go round! It describes, categorises and labels our world, encapsulating a human and computational need to sort and define. Metadata to the describe the world, whether artefacts, social identity, classifications, etc., ascribes meaning that is reflective of the social and cultural values and norms of society, as well as the author. Crucially, information retrieval, whether human or computational, rely on classification systems which are operationalised, rationalised and presented as universal. These systems are designed to support interoperability but the norms (articulated in standards such as controlled vocabularies, naming conventions, etc.) which conceptualise the world are also the “norms” which construct otherness.