191 Managing metadata well is the key to making a repository of open geographic data really useful and re-usable. Creating metadata can be a dull chore. Part of the problem is over-focus on production, rather than consumption; on standards, rather than on usage. The Open Geodata Committee at OSGeo has been working on a "simplest useful thing" approach to geographic metadata. This talk discusses ways in which metadata creation can be made easier (by automatic extraction from standards based formats), more fun (through 'conversational' irc and email interfaces rather than filling in forms) and more useful (via GeoRSS syndication and machine-assisted web-based search). FOSS4G2006 - Free And Open Source Software for Geoinformatics Session 9 : Open Geodata and data sharing Jo Walsh jo@frot.org Jo Walsh jo@frot.org <MaKaC.conference.ContributionType object at 0xb49ad52c>