{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T04:35:38Z","timestamp":1760243738696,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2012,12,7]],"date-time":"2012-12-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1354838400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Metadata has been around and has evolved for centuries, albeit not recognized as such. Medieval manuscripts typically had illuminations at the start of each chapter, being both a kind of signature for the author writing the script and a pictorial chapter anchor for the illiterates at the time. Nowadays, there is so much fragmented information on the Internet that users sometimes fail to distinguish the real facts from some bended truth, let alone being able to interconnect different facts. Here, the metadata can both act as noise-reductors for detailed recommendations to the end-users, as it can be the catalyst to interconnect related information. Over time, metadata thus not only has had different modes of information, but furthermore, metadata\u2019s relation of information to meaning, i.e., \u201csemantics\u201d, evolved. Darwin\u2019s evolutionary propositions, from \u201cspecies have an unlimited reproductive capacity\u201d, over \u201cnatural selection\u201d, to \u201cthe cooperation of mutations leads to adaptation to the environment\u201d show remarkable parallels to both metadata\u2019s different modes of information and to its relation of information to meaning over time. In this paper, we will show that the evolution of the use of (meta)data can be mapped to Darwin\u2019s nine evolutionary propositions. As mankind and its behavior are products of an evolutionary process, the evolutionary process of metadata with its different modes of information is on the verge of a new-semantic-era.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/info3040790","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2012,12,7]],"date-time":"2012-12-07T11:07:28Z","timestamp":1354878448000},"page":"790-808","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["On the Origin of Metadata"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"3","author":[{"given":"Erik","family":"Mannens","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"ELIS-Multimedia Lab, Ghent University-iMinds, Ghent 9000, Belgium"}]},{"given":"Ruben","family":"Verborgh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"ELIS-Multimedia Lab, Ghent University-iMinds, Ghent 9000, Belgium"}]},{"given":"Seth","family":"Van Hooland","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Information & Communication Department, Universit\u00e9 Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels 1050, Belgium"}]},{"given":"Laurence","family":"Hauttekeete","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"MICT, Ghent University-iMinds, Ghent 9000, Belgium"}]},{"given":"Tom","family":"Evens","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"MICT, Ghent University-iMinds, Ghent 9000, Belgium"}]},{"given":"Sam","family":"Coppens","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"ELIS-Multimedia Lab, Ghent University-iMinds, Ghent 9000, Belgium"}]},{"given":"Rik","family":"Van de Walle","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"ELIS-Multimedia Lab, Ghent University-iMinds, Ghent 9000, Belgium"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2012,12,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"34","DOI":"10.1038\/scientificamerican0501-34","article-title":"The semantic web","volume":"284","author":"Hendler","year":"2001","journal-title":"Sci. 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