Metadata warriors

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"Metadata, you see, is really a love note – it might be to yourself, but in fact it’s a love note to the person after you, or the machine after you, where you’ve saved someone that amount of time to find something by telling them what this thing is. Lives have been absorbed getting metadata, and so there’s an entire field of computer study about this idea, and making your machines do the hard work for you. Google’s got some interest in this, I heard. If you could completely generate Metadata, life would be pretty awesome. But you can’t. Not really. Not completely.

"So, it basically comes down to me asking you, if the idea interests you, to sign up to be a metadata warrior, someone who will work with me to describe these items. I’ll help you find something personally interesting – some people really dig reading old computer manuals, others care about arcade stuff, and I’m sure there’s even more in what I’m adding to keep your attention up. I’m not asking you to do everything – even if you add a handful of stuff, that’s more than was there a week previous – and that’s helping."

Welcome, Metadata Warriors!

This page is a central assignment and offer spot to do metadata entries for a number of interesting sets of items uploaded to archive.org. By taking possession of what interests you and adding descriptions, you can help make the world a better place, and begin the process of having these items become immortal. It's meaningful, and it's fun!

The basic approach is:

  • Choose one of the below projects
  • Edit this page to indicate you wish you do the work
  • Create a textfile with the URL of the items, and your description
  • Add as much or as little detail as you're comfortable doing - certainly the table of contents would be good, as well as any other information about the date, publisher, etc.
  • Send this finished textfile to metadata@textfiles.com
  • Your textfile will be integrated into the descriptions, and you will receive credit.

Current Assignments

Please place your name next to any sets that interest you. (Doing a portion of a range and then finishing there is OK.)

Many more are coming.. check back often!