Search and personalization depend heavily on quality metadata. The idea is not to capture every scrap of metadata imaginable. Rather, the focus should be on the metadata which can be leveraged to help meet business goals and provides a quality content experience.
Metadata Schema: Metadata represents aspects of concepts or things. A metadata schema lists the fields and associated data for each piece of metadata to be captured. It is often used together with a taxonomy to create tagging capabilities within a content management system.
Typical format: Microsoft Excel
Example: Metadata Schema (Digital Asset Management Systems)
Domain Model: A domain model is a visual display of information entities and typically identifies relationships between the entities and their attributes. It should not be considered a site map or web navigation system. They are often used as an input to define functional areas needed in the future state user experience design and taxonomy.
Typical formats: Microsoft Visio, XMind, Mindjet MindManager (printed to .pdf)
Example: High Level Domain Model
Example: Metadata Tag Clusters
Tagging Strategy: These documents used to communicate the overall tagging approach, but also the specific tag needs for particular metadata fields. A tagging strategy can provide the basis for specific tagging guidelines or instructions for staff responsible for tagging content.
Typical formats: Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Word
Example: High-Level Tagging Overview
Example: Tagging Strategy
Photo: Fruit in Window. Bucksport, ME.