In the June 02, 2003 issue of New Thinking Gerry McGovern declares “Metadata is essential web writing skill”. In take-no-prisoners prose, he says

Metadata gives your content context. Content that does not have effective metadata is not web content. It is sloppy, next-to-useless print content that has been unprofessionally published on the Web. If you don’t have time to publish professional metadata for your content, you shouldn’t be allowed to publish anything on a website.

Phew! Strongly put, but very true. And that may be one powerful benefit of writing weblogs: nearly every weblog program allows you to create relevant, accessible metadata. Check back at the New Thinking newsletter website next week for a follow-up tutorial on how to create good metadata. While you’re there browse back through 7 years(!) of Gerry’s writing about writing for this medium.
[via Catalogablog]