The term Metadata can be quite scary when it comes to
SharePoint. How might we set it up and
how do we use it for value add in our organization? The truth is, we come into contact with
Metadata everyday but don’t necessarily recognize it as such.
Most
people have purchased a can of soup.
Imagine for a moment, that the can of soup has no label on it. Now what?
Do you open all the cans in the grocery store to find out what is
inside? Do you pick up a can hoping it
will be tomato only to find out its bean with bacon instead? These are unlikely, so that’s why we have
labels. The labels contain the metadata
or “those properties that describe the contents in an easily recognizable way”.
In
fact, a soup can’s label is loaded with metadata that one could easily

categorize in different ways. There’s
the name brand that is typically grouped together along with the type of
soup. These could be two pieces of
easily identifiable metadata one could use:
“Name Brand” and “Type of Soup”.
One could also group by “most popular” or “used in cooking” or not, but
these aren’t as easily discoverable just from the label.
When
looking at the back of the label, one may see weights, ingredients, nutrition
value, cooking information or even recipes.
While one may or may not group these items together in the grocery
store, it may benefit some if they wanted to know all the soups that were “90
calories or less” within a list. While
that information may be presented to one person, another person may want to
know which soup has the least amount of sodium to meet their diet needs.

This
is where metadata can be of huge value.
If you set up a SharePoint list with all of these elements, you can
quickly and easily sort and filter out the information that is already there to
find an answer to your question.
From this small list, one can easily ask questions and get answers pretty quickly. However, think about this list being representative of all the items in the soup isle of the grocery store. The list would be too hard to look at all at once and get answers to questions. However, with a few little sorts and filters, anyone could get information for their questions.

What is the lowest calorie soup? Simply filter the results to show smallest
first and your answer is “Hearty Vegetable”

Now if only one could find a SharePoint list in the grocery
store to help in selecting items that quick!