Definition for Master Data Management (MDM) and Meta-data (metadata)

These definitions are my own personal consolidation, interpretation and understanding of all the definitions that I researched and found (see Bibliographies below). These definitions are hence copyrighted and you may use them as long as you give me, and this site - the appropriate credit for compiling them. You agree to do this also to protect the credit of the original authors of these definitions.

Master Data Management (MDM) is a set of disciplines, processes, tools, and solutions used to ensure consistency, completeness, control and accuracy of Master Data. MDM impacts the creation, capturing, storage, synchronization and maintenance of the organization’s Master Data for all stakeholders across the organization. The Master Data is defined as the cure business and reference data (structured or unstructured) and may include items such as: products, customers, vendors, data warehouse information, and content repositories. MDM spans across different applications, systems and databases, business processes, functional areas, geographies and channels.

Bibliography:
1. Fisher T., (MDM)—creating a single, unified view of an organization, cio.com, 30 April 2007
2. Druker D., Rich R., Master Data Management, ibmdatabasemag.com, July/2005.
3. Wikipedia, MDM, Last accessed 19 May 2009.
4. evancarmichael.com, The Importance of Master Data Management, Last accessed 19 May 2009.
5. Powell Media LLC. (2006). Master Data Management: Creating a single view of the business, 2006.
6. http://www.mdmsource.com/master-data-management-defined.html, May 2009:
a. Jim Whyte, Dow Chemical
b. Gartner
c. Colin White, BI Research
d. Dan Power, Hub Solution Designs
e. Steve Delien, Accenture
7. Smith A.M. (Ph.D), Enterprise Information Overview, ewsolutions.com, November 2008.

Meta-Data is a structured definition or description of data. It describes information such as content, quality, condition that characterizes a set of measurements or records. It may include individual datum, content item, or a collection of data including multiple content items and hierarchical levels. A database schema is a good example of metadata which describes for each data-field - its size, name, type, etc. Metadata may also describe the environment of the data which may include: how recent the data is; where it originates from, what the data is used for etc.

Bibliography:

1. Dictionary.com, Metadata, Last accessed May 2009.
2. The university of Queensland, An Introduction to Metadata, http://www.library.uq.edu.au/ iad/ctmeta4.html, 29 July 2003.
3. Wekepedia.org, Metadata, Last accessed May 2009.
4. Health informatics in New Zeland, Metadata Repositories in Health Care, http://www.hinz.org.nz/journal-pdf/995, Last accessed May 2009.
5. Climate Variability And Predictability, CLIVAR Data Policy, http://www.clivar.org/data/
data_policy.php, Last accessed May 2009.
6. Smith A.M. (Ph.D), Enterprise Information Overview, ewsolutions.com, November 2008.