Meta noise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Meta noise refers to inaccurate or irrelevant metadata. Particularly prevalent in systems with a schema not based on a controlled vocabulary, i.e. Poor metadata defined by users in a folksonomy, resulting in a long tail of metadata.
Examples:
- incorrectly spelled tag (wihte instead of white)
- tags which are unrelated (dog on a content object featuring only a cat)
- On systems open to large user groups, tags which are understood by a minority of users.
[edit] Hidden benefit
Although the existence of meta noise may initially appear to detract from the value of metadata generally, meta noise allows less popular tags to be defined and used by a minority of users without damaging the validity or cohesion of what the majority of users would consider to be the most relevant or accurate metadata, thus actually increasing access to content.
