The Meta-Data Professional Organization held its first “official” meeting at the DebTech Meta-Data Conference in Long Branch, NJ on June 15, 2005. The meeting was attended by meta-data professionals from several leading companies throughout North America and discussed the basic goals and objectives of the MPO. During the meeting, attendees were asked for comments, ideas, and feedback. To see a copy of the MPO presentation provided at the meeting, visit http://www.metadataprofessional.org

The next MPO informational meeting will be held at the 17th Information Quality Conference in Houston, Texas on September 22, 2005 at 7:45am. Sponsored and organized by the International Association for Information and Data Quality (IAIDQ), it is the premiere conference for learning about the latest trends and techniques in improving data quality. For more information, visit http://www.infoimpact.com

The first MPO "international meeting" will be held at the the Information Quality, Data Management, and Meta-Data Europe Conference 2005 in London, UK on November 9, 2005 at 5:15 PM. For more information about the conference visit http://www.irmuk.co.uk/dm2005/

An informative article about the MPO was recently published in the July, 2005 edition of The Data Administration Newsletter (TDAN). The article described some of the goals, benefits, and objectives of joining the MPO. You can read the full article by visiting
http://www.tdan.com/special034.htm

As with the start-up of any new organization, there is a significant amount of planning and organization that must precede the offering of value-added services to its customers, members and stakeholders. However, we have received such an immense response from many of you desiring to join the MPO and participate in the discussion groups and other networking events, we’ve had to accelerate our plans to roll out on-line services.

To this end, the MPO has set up an initial website and online discussion group, in which members may discuss current topics, trends, and issues within the meta-data management community. This will enable you to connect with others who may have similar experiences, or find someone who has “already gone down that path” and can “show you the ropes.”

You can browse the discussion group postings (for free) at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpo_discuss

To post messages to the discussion groups, you must be a member in good standing with the MPO.

Please note that this is just "Phase 1" of the MPO on-line service offerings. We will provide more details on future offerings in upcoming editions of the MPO newsletter.

What are some of the key meta-data topics that you would like to see discussed in this newsletter, or on the MPO website? Here is a list of suggestions that we have received so far:

• need for better meta-data cost justification and ROI
• support for regulatory compliance, such as HIPAA and SOX
• "meta-data on a shoe-string” (limited budget) experiences
• better ways of supporting technical users (development, operations, etc.)
• cataloguing Business Definitions / helping the business through better access to metadata
• re-vitalizing interest in meta-data tools / preventing “shelf-ware”
• supporting specific meta-data standards (such as CWM, Dublin Core, RDF, XMI, etc.)
• understanding the various types, strengths, and weaknesses of meta-data vendor solutions

Does this list sound familiar? Are there pressing issues you are facing which aren’t in the list above? Let us know what they are and how you believe the MPO can help! Post your issues on the discussion group or e-mail us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text38227 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Here is a list of meta-data industry conferences and events that offer discounts to MPO members.

• August 22-26 (Minneapolis)
• Oct 17-21 (Washington DC) ~ Wilshire Conferences presents “Conceptual Data Modeling: The Entity Relationship Model “ featuring William G. Smith (www.wilshireconferences.com) ~
(MPO discount = $100, register by phone at 310-477-4475 x101)

• September 12 - 13, 2005 – (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) ~ Data Governance & Data Stewardship Seminar featuring Robert Seiner (www.kikconsulting.com) ~ (ask for MPO discount)

• September 13 -15, 2005 (Woodbridge, NJ) ~ DebTech International presents “Dimensional Modeling Seminar" featuring Tom Haughey ~ (www.debtechint.com) (ask for MPO registration discount of $200)

• September 19-23, 2005 (Houston, TX) ~ Information Impact presents the 17th Information Quality Conference ~ (www.infoimpact.com) ~ (ask for MPO registration discount of 7.5%)

• September 20, 2005 (New York, NY) ~ New York DAMA presents the Data Architecture, Compliance, and Meta-Data Forum ~ (www.dama-ny.com) ~
(MPO members are eligible for DAMA rate of $140)

• October 21, 2005 (New York, NY) ~ DM Forum presents Meta-Data Symposium 2005 ~ (www.dmforum.org) ~
(ask for MPO registration discount)

• November 7-10, 2005 (London, UK) ~ IRM UK presents the Information Quality, Data Management, and Meta-Data Europe Conference 2005 ~ (www.irmuk.co.uk/dm2005) ~
(ask for MPO registration discount of 10%)

Do you have a meta-data industry seminar, conference, or workshop that you would like to see posted in the MPO newsletter? Would you like to offer MPO members a discount to attend your conference or event? If YES, please send details to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text38227 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

MPO has negotiated the following vendor discounts:

• Axis Software Designs (www.axisboulder.com) ~
  ask for MPO discount when registering for public classes
• Gavilan Research Associates (www.gavilanresearch.com) ~ $75 discount on ANY meta-data research report or training workshop (enter code mpo75 when ordering)
• Morgan Kaufman Publications (www.mkp.com) ~
  20% discount on books (enter code 82918 when ordering)