At last! A Conceptual Enterprise Model for the Information Industry!
Data Model Patterns: A Metadata Map, by David C. Hay, President of Essential Strategies, Inc., presents a data model for a metadata repository that is both comprehensive and comprehensible.
Beginning with the following definition of metadata...

Metadata are the data that describe the structure and workings of an organization's use of information, and which describe the systems it uses to manage that information.

...Dave Hay then procedes to describe--comprehensively--a meta-model not only for data, but also for the activities, locations, people and organizations, timing, and motivation that constitute the other dimensions of a enterprise and its systems. Organized around his version of John Zachman's enterprise architecture framework, the model encompasses those dimensions for the business owner's, the architect's, and the designer's perspectives on metadata.
In addition to being comprehensive, Dave Hay's presentation is meticulously crafted to introduce the reader to the model a little bit at a time. All terms used are known to the readers, so it is simply a matter of building the model carefully to make sure that it is understood.

A very ambitious undertaking, masterfully described. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first published version of the detailed models implied by the Zachman Framework. David Hay builds the models one step at a time, describing in each increment why the new entities were added, and how they related to the rest of the model. At least as important he sprinkles in lessons learned from his vast experience modeling in various other industries.

--Dave McComb, President, Semantic Arts, and author of Semantics in Business Systems

Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Boston, MA
Morgan Kaufman Bookstore
Buy it on Amazon.com by clicking here.

ISBN: 1-55860-910-5
$59.95 U.S.