Surveillance is omnipresent. Unbeknownst to us, we are simultaneously observing, analyzing, and implementing hundreds, thousands of aggregated data/information. Essentially, we are acting as surveillance cameras, through our eyes and ears; we decipher information pertinent to ours likes, needs, and wants on a daily basis. We have heard the controversy surrounding our government agencies with this regard. There is no need to regurgitate. However, it is important to note that surveillance is both good and bad. Aggregation of information, metadata, is beneficial to scholars and other professionals for analysis and what to do with this a wealth of information.
Last week, UCLA received an $11 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health to create a specialized group (center) that “would study biomedical data analysis,” says Amanda Schallert, Daily Bruin senior staff member. The grant serves as a crucial aid for standardizing complex biomedical data. It will employ researchers who garner data from other researchers in order to provide comprehensive and easy to understand information needed in this focused field. To be frank, it all sounds incredibly complex to me just from reading ‘biomedical data’ (Schallert). Nonetheless, UCLA is incredibly appreciative of this generous gift and aims to execute its agenda in the forthcoming years.
I would like to back track a bit to an article I read about data, Metadata. At first, the title sounded intriguing, Understanding Metadata. Sure, I’d like to understand metadata. The conventional definition suits it right: data about data. The article defined metadata clearly, and differently, along with other terms I had not been acquainted with: Interoperability, Dublin Core, The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), and the list goes on. These are all sub-terms under the umbrella of what constitutes metadata as a field of study. I quickly saw my eyes glaring over and losing focus when terms upon terms rolled up on my screen. What I noticed was that I was unable to process and digest this information. I did not posses the tools necessary to absorb the information due to a lack of brain wiring/coding if you will. Then, I made the connection. The grant I mentioned earlier, the group focused on collecting biomedical data, is precisely what I lacked. It will create the tools and equipment necessary to understand information.
‘Ah ha.’ That was the moment I connected the dots. Naturally, it all made sense afterwards once I translated that experience to my life.
Daily Bruin:
Understanding Metadata:
http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf