Diablog

I'll simply argue that if you aim to build a storage architecture with real flexibility, maintaining a distinction between data and metadata runs directly counter to your goal. Below I'll outline some reasons why.

But first, consider the natural world. If you talk to a regular person — meaning someone who’s not a computer scientist, a librarian, an archivist etc. — and ask them if they know what metadata is, you'll probably draw a blank. Why is that? It's because the distinction between data and metadata is entirely artificial. It does not exist in the real world, and it's clear that regular people can get by just fine without it. FluidDB draws its inspiration from the way we work with information in the natural world, and maintains no such distinction.

It's interesting to speculate on the origins of the metadata vs data distinction. I'd love to know its full history. I suspect that it arose from early architectural constraints, from the relative design and programming ease of maintaining a set of constant-size chunks of information about files apart from the dynamic and variable-size memory required by the contents of files. I suspect it probably also has to do with architectural limitations and the slowness of early machines.

FluidDB