Rating: 
Summary: Meta words on meta paper for meta consultants
Review: Dissapointing axpensive book. But that's in line with my expectation of consultants.
The title is misleading: XML, Portals etc... are not explored at all in the context of metadata and how this would lead to information delivery - on demand, and how.
The 5 trademark questions are abused in trying to analyze everything i.e if the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem is a nail.
The comparison of information to knowledge and the value of metadata in that context is to say the least a muddled explanation.
Bottom line : of no practical value.
Rating:
Summary: Give it a miss
Review: Dreadfully verbose, and wanders all over the place. An excellent example of a book (and author) that is a hostage to, and victim of, fashion. Normal people call documentation just that; they don't invent a ridiculous word to merely justify yet-another-book.
Rating:
Summary: [Overall, a poor book]
Review: I bought this book as a newcomer to the metadata field with the idea of understanding what metadata was, and how it relates to the latest hype -- "Business Intelligence" or "Obtaining information on demand". After struggling through the verbose content, I am no better off now than when I turned the first page of the book. In general, the first few pages of each chapter can be interesting reading, but beyond that, Ms. Tannenbaum takes you through a web of definitions, rules, terminology and repetitive drawings/tables that adds little value to the reader. For a book that is supposed to introduce concepts of metadata, the language sometimes is hopelessly complicated, worthless and intimidating. I quote from page 180, "In meta-meta land, all tool's metadata are described by meta-metadata". And in the introduction to metamodels (page 134), she says, helpfully, that, "Metamodels are models of metadata and they always represent a particular perspective. In fact, there are so many perspectives to metadata that metamodels always overlap". I have no idea what the author means! This book could have been compressed to about a fifth of its size. Each chapter and concept could have been illustrated with a real world example (as in the extensive case study on page 70). Overall, a poor book...
Rating: 
Summary: THE metadata solution!
Review: I've always been amazed at how much the level of detail varies in technical books. Some books seem to be quite popular even though they don't tell us much...others tell us plenty but don't seem to be popular. This book, Metadata Solutions tries to tell us as much as it can about the world of metadata. Sometimes this may turn people off, but it kept me interested. I think my absolute favorite part was Part V, the section that started with an example of a "A Typical Metadata Disaster" (chapter 21) and then showed various ways of solving it...starting with a centralized metadata repository,then an "integrated architecture", then an "information directory", metadata interexchange (XML), a standalone metadata store (an Access db in this example), and an Enterprise Portal. I don't know of any other book that takes the time to illustrate many types of solutions, with many types of products, all for the same problem. I didn't give the book 5 stars because there were some sections which I think were theory (like defining information, knowledge, and data). I suppose some readers may like this stuff, but I didn't....but I truly recommend this one anyway.
Rating:
Summary: THE metadata solution!
Review: I've always been amazed at how much the level of detail varies in technical books. Some books seem to be quite popular even though they don't tell us much...others tell us plenty but don't seem to be popular. This book, Metadata Solutions tries to tell us as much as it can about the world of metadata. Sometimes this may turn people off, but it kept me interested. I think my absolute favorite part was Part V, the section that started with an example of a "A Typical Metadata Disaster" (chapter 21) and then showed various ways of solving it...starting with a centralized metadata repository,then an "integrated architecture", then an "information directory", metadata interexchange (XML), a standalone metadata store (an Access db in this example), and an Enterprise Portal. I don't know of any other book that takes the time to illustrate many types of solutions, with many types of products, all for the same problem. I didn't give the book 5 stars because there were some sections which I think were theory (like defining information, knowledge, and data). I suppose some readers may like this stuff, but I didn't....but I truly recommend this one anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent work Adrienne Tannenbaum..................
Review: I've read other books on metadata and repositories, but Metadata
Solutions is the best in that it has actual examples of metadata
solutions, including code. Real case studies from named Fortune 50 Corporations also show that it is not a book on pure theory it illustrates pragmatic approaches that are real, and can be accmplished with short term timeframes. Overall quite practical. The company names are actually mentioned. Everybody
that has a need for exchanging and sharing data across divisions within an enterprise from disparate data sources whether supporting business end-users or I/T systems end-users and/or any interest in metadata should read this - it covers everything from planning and design through implementation. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Review: If you need to get something done check this book out. not just about metadata but also about where it is and how to use it. A good spot to check possible architectures or product designs and it has lots of actual cases
Rating:
Summary: THe facts about fixing metadata problems
Review: It's about time that I found this book. I am responsible for dealing with a metadata mess in my agency and nothing out there seemed to get me clear on what the real problems are. This book not only explained what should have been done but also how to fix things. Highly recommended for those that need to do something
Rating:
Summary: Metadata Solutions Point Blank!
Review: Metadata books are finally starting to appear. I have read all of them because I am actively involved in the maintenance of a poorly developed metadata repository. I had a feeling that it was purchased prematurely and now after reading this book I am 100% convinced. The title of this book accurately conveys its contents. Many of us forget why metadata is around - it is around to get us to and detail the information that we need to do our jobs. Do we care about metamodels? Only if we need to know about them in order to set up a place to get "information on demand". Ms. Tannenbaum takes this approach, which is perhaps why the book is not everything to everyone. In order to build or buy a metadata solution, a full set of metadata requirements need to exist. These requirements are not what you find documented in the average data warehouse reporting tool - they are much more. Metadata Solutions explains what else needs to be considered, and takes you through the way to get them, organize them, and use them. She shows how each type of requirement matches the resulting metadata solution - which is good because it will let you know clearly what will suffer if you do not spend the time figuring out what needs to be done and how. This book is for the person that is implementing a metadata solution. It is also for the person that needs to decide why the metadata solution that exists in his/her organization isn't what it could be. It represents a new way of thinking for some of us, but it is worth reading because it shows us what we all could have done better.
Rating: 
Summary: Metadata Solutions
Review: Metadata Solution Review: As a practicing Data and Metadata Architect, I have noted with interest Ms Tannenbaum attempt to offer solutions to a very difficult problem namely first of articulating what metadata is and then managing it to make it useful in full understanding of the data/information/knowledge chain within an organization. The book traces historical roots of the issue by introducing the data/ information systems developments in organization and respective development of complexity. She then introduces the world of metadata. The treatment of identification of what metadata is, various meta-metadata models is indeed in-depth but makes very dense reading (only data bigots will love these sections). Her treatment of solution is also covers a range of possibilities and various case histories at the end of book only go on to illustrate that metadata problems and solution are varied and complex. The book suffers from two omissions. One, is that the definition of the metadata is leaves out a significant area namely that of the business metadata i.e. metadata that would adds further information/understanding to organized data e.g. reports. Examples of Business metadata are industry reports, internal documents and communication which form a major portion of the current metadata universe but receive scant attention. The second omission is examples of what constitutes good metadata vs. mediocre (bad) metadata. Writing good definition is no trivial task. "Receipt_Date - Date when the goods are received" is typical of the definitions in any organization dictionary and yet these definitions are less than useless as they lead you believe that the data(s) are defined when in fact they are not. Take for instance an oil tanker disembarking it's cargo which may take over two days - what is the Receipt_Date? Overall the book tries perhaps to cover too large an arena and fails to offer depth that would make it more useful.
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