In the classic Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare asked “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Well today I ask, “What’s in a date? That yonder file that sayeth it was last modified today mayeth not have been modified since last year.”
What am I talking about? Metadata. Specifically file dates and times. Is metadata important in discovery? Does it actually tell us anything about the file or document? I will let you be the judge and jury.
But first, what is metadata?
