Metadata: Where We Are Now, and Where We Should Be Going

The purpose of this paper is to review the current state of the art in metadata developments, critically analyse both opportunities and limitations, and suggest new directions for future work in this field. The perspective is primarily European and particularly focused on the geographic domain, although wider issues are discussed where relevant. The main thrust of the paper is that aside from the opportunities provided by technological developments in the ICT field, there are major societal, economic, and legislative drivers pushing for greater transparency of, and access to, information particularly in the public sector. These drivers include legislation on Freedom of Information, Reuse of Public Sector Information (PSI), and more specifically to the environmental and geographic sector, legislation on access to environmental information, and the new directive setting up an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe (INSPIRE).