Metadata
At one end of the continuum, objects will contain the minimum metadata needed by
the object's creators and users. This will often be a mix of simple descriptive
metadata (filename, creator) and discipline-specific technical metadata. The drivers
for minimal metadata are the combination of significant numbers of objects (see
below), insufficient time to provide extensive metadata for each object, automatic
generation/capture of the objects, and no business case for providing more
comprehensive metadata. At the other end of the continuum, objects will contain
much richer metadata. This might include provenance metadata (indicating what
operations have been performed on the object), more detailed descriptive metadata
and preservation metadata to facilitate curation.