Jeffery Pomerantz, “Metadata” (MIT, 2015)

What is the “stuff” that fuels the information society in which we live? In his new book, Metadata (MIT 2015), information scientist Jeffrey Pomerantz asserts that metadata powers our digital society. After defining metadata-data that has the potential to provide information about an object-Pomerantz considers the various kind of metadata. This raw material provides descriptions about individuals and most every other thing in the world. This data allows people, places, and things to be found. According to Pomerantz, metadata has become infrastructural as it plays such a pivotal role about in all of the things we do, yet, it is invisible. This invisible foundational material is created and collected all the time, and has vast implications for governments, corporations, and individuals.