Not that I’m trying to figure out big stuff here or anything.  But metadata is big, it’s how we make connections.  It’s how we give things meaning.  Otherwise, everything is a series of level, equivalent parts.  Those parts can be found individually and segments can be spotted in the wild.  But putting whole things in context, connecting things together, defining things similarly – this is how we figure out what it means to be human, what it means to be compassionate, what it means to care.  Granted, this is also how we figure out how to hate and stereotype and kill.  But I do think things made from love will, in the end, make things better and make us better.  So I will always try to approach metadata with love and positive focus.  Call it my Metadata Manifesto.

I want to create ways of connecting ideas, creating new meaning.  It’s about providing new doors that can be opened, new opportunities that come from excitement instead of fear.  New challenges that are welcome instead of worrisome.

Our ability to understand comes from somewhere.  Our collective knowledge means something.  Making those connections probably won’t reveal the answer to the meaning of life or anything.  (Besides, don’t we already know that’s 42?)  However, the more we know and understand, the more meaningful life becomes.  We learn to empathize and know what it’s like to be in situations that we ourselves have not experienced.  We expand beyond our physical boundaries and make connections – we are metadata.