Metadata format

Poll

How do you usually store dataset metadata? [118 votes total]
in a header line (25)	21%
in a relational DB (46)	39%
in a commercial data mining tool format (18)	15%
in PMML (2)	2%
c45 .names files (11)	9%
other (16)	14%

Serge A. Terekhoff, Feb 20th 2002, Long-lived metadata
My opinion is that metadata should be stored as close as possible to the data, and both should be stored in long-lived format (plain ASCII text - the only survival since early 60-s).

High importance data should be printed on paper.
Robin, Feb 20th 2002, Data mining metadata is a good practice
Maintaining a well documented set of data mining metadata ensures each member of the team is using the same assumptions about each variable or element of the input data source, not to mention having clear documentation of the mining techniques employed so that the analysis can be repeated verified and calibrated over time.
Carl, Feb 20th 2002, Metadata - Who has time?
Who has time for metadata?