It might be useful to have different layers of metadata. Simple metadata being a small set of standards that everyone applies to information resources; for example, name, date, title, version, six keywords (not from any controlled list). Date should be in this format - Friday 2nd May 2008. Why? Because everytime I see 2008-05-02  I am CONFUSED. And there is a momentary (sometimes even slightly longer) gap while my brain tries to figure out what the actual date is. This might seem totally trivial, but these type of delays in search and retrieval add up.

It’s also useful to know what day something happened. For example, if I see the word ‘Sunday’ on a date I can presume that it’s almost certainly something to do with my own interests rather than to do with work.

Complex metadata is something else altogether; but my tea is ready so it will have to wait.