Metadata
What is Metadata or meta data?
Metadata is information about other data. The best example is the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC). The DDC is a card catalog system on books in a library.
Each book has a Dewey number. That number represents a Category or Class. From there each class is broken down into a subclass.
If you need a book on Metadata, you would look in the 600-699 section.
Another example is you bank with Woodforest National Bank in Hamilton, Ohio, but need to get cash out from a 5/3 National Bank ATM in West Chester, Ohio. You put your card in and get cash out. You will see some Metadata on the printed receipt. Such as Loc:443 Trans:1H8029378 AMT:403.50
This would translate to “location 443” and the transaction number is 1H8029378 and the amount is $403.50 ($400 cash and $3.50 fee).
There is more metadata in the back end stored on a server, but the receipt has enough information to track the transaction.
At the end of the day, the each bank will automatically ACH funds to or from an intermediary, such as the Federal Reserve.
Each bank will store metadata about the transaction and include this metadata inside of an EDI transaction.
What is EDI? Electronic Data Interchange is the process of taking data from one data store to another data store. EDI data is transfered via a VAN.
A VAN, Value Added Network such as IBM Sterling or GSX OpenText, would then transfer EDI data to and from recipients. Sort of like an email box. Each EDI transaction usually has a qualifier to verify the transaction.