Managed Metadata – What is it? & Why is it important?

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We all know that metadata is data about data. If we have a newsletter, then the author, media type, and publishing date are all metadata that relates to the newsletter. When working with metadata in SharePoint, we utilize Site Columns and Content Types to manage metadata in document libraries, lists, and other types of content. We would create a Site Column for author, media type, and publishing date. We would then wrap those up into a Content Type called newsletter. The newsletter Content Type could then be applied to document libraries that store newsletters and users would then be able to enter an author, media type, and publishing date when adding a newsletter to the system. Everyone knows why metadata is important: it enables better organization and search ability of your content.
In SharePoint 2007, Site Columns and Content Types were scoped to the Site Collection. Because most implementations have many Site Collections that make up your enterprise site (think – Intranet + Internet + Extranet = enterprise), that means Site Columns and Content Types are not shared across the 3 Site Collections. In SharePoint 2007, this became a huge hurdle requiring a lot of management and synchronization or a 3rd party tool (read $$$$).
With the release of SharePoint 2010, the single most exciting new addition for me was the Managed Metadata Service Application. I was really excited about the power of this relatively small addition to the framework. The Managed Metadata Service makes it possible to now share Content Types across not only Site Collections, but also Web Applications. This is a huge improvement over SharePoint 2007 functionality. Also by utilizing the Managed Metadata Service, you get to use Managed Metadata.
Managed Metadata is a new concept in SharePoint 2010 that utilizes what is called the Term Store. The Term Store is a central repository that stores your information taxonomy in a hierarchical view. The Term Store allows administrators to add/update/delete Term Sets, Term Groups, and Terms. A Term is a word or a phrase that can be associated with an item in SharePoint Server 2010. A Term Set is a collection of related Terms. You can specify that a SharePoint Server 2010 column must contain a Term from a specific Term Set. Managed Metadata is a way of referring to the fact that Terms and Term Sets can be created and managed independently from columns.
Managed Metadata is also a huge new addition. This means that we can store and manage our enterprise taxonomy in a centralized location that can be consumed across our enterprise implementation. We no longer have to worry about spelling mistakes or users using short-hand notation for a common term. If we have a list of options for a specific column, we can now control those options and more importantly push down changes globally, which really saves a ton of administration time.
Finally, the real power of the Managed Metadata concept is how it’s applied throughout other functions in SharePoint, namely: tagging and a new feature called Metadata Navigation. When you tag content in SharePoint it allows that content to be easily found, shared, and presented to users in different ways. Utilizing the centralized management of the Term Store, this is now requires much less effort and brings loads of value in standardization of terms. Metadata Navigation is allows lists and document libraries to be filtered by Managed Metadata Terms. This feature has rendered the old norm of folder structures almost obsolete. Think of why you would normally create a sub folder within a folder – most of us use that feature to categorize content so that we can find it easier later. In the past putting 10,000 documents in 1 folder was unmanageable because you would spend all day scrolling to find the 1 document you were looking for. Metadata Navigation allows you to now filter those 10,000 documents by its metadata to narrow your view in the document library to a more reasonable number. By eliminating folders in document libraries, you eliminate user’s clicks as they no longer have to navigate up and down through the folders to find the document they need.
These features just scratch the surface of what the Managed Metadata Service can do, so stay tuned for future posts on the topic. Enjoy!