Treating metadata as annotations: separating the content mark-up from the content

The use of digital learning resources creates an increasing need for semantic metadata, describing the whole resource, as well as parts of resources. Traditionally, schemas such as Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) have been used to add semantic markup for parts of resources. This is not sufficient for use in a ”metadata ecology”, where metadata is distributed, coherent to different Application Profiles, and added by different actors. A new methodology, where metadata is “pointed in” as annotations, using XPointers, and RDF is proposed. A suggestion for how such infrastructure can be implemented, using existing open standards for metadata, and for the web is presented. We argue that such methodology and infrastructure is necessary to realize the decentralized metadata infrastructure needed for a “metadata ecology".