What is Metadata and why is it as important as the data itself?

You may have heard the term before, and may have asked yourself either "what is metadata" or "why is it as important as data?" This article will be an attempt to clear up those two subjects. As this can often be quite dense, let's jump right in! In short, metadata are important. I like to answer this "what is metadata" question as such: metadata are a shorthand representation of the data to which they refer.