The e-GIF

e-GIF stands for e-government interoperability framework. The main focus of e-GIF is in adopting Internet and World Wide Web standards for all government systems. The aim is to reduce the costs and risk of operating information technology systems while keeping the public sector in step with wider Internet development.

The e-GIF includes the e-Government Metadata Standard (e-GMS), which lays down the elements, refinements and encoding schemes to be used by government officers when creating metadata for their information resources or when designing search systems for information systems. The e-GMS is intended to ensure maximum consistency of metadata across public sector organisations.

What is metadata?

The most common definition of metadata is 'data about data'. This, however, is a simplification; metadata is a summary of the form and content of a resource. For example, a library catalogue contains metadata relating to books: their titles, authors, publishers etc.