Metadata Synthesis is the methods and techniques related to extracting metadata from large data sets that have no metadata or are metadata-poor.

The potential uses of Metadata Synthesis are very broad, spanning both academic and commercial applications. Proton Cannon is focused on text-oriented Metadata Synthesis applications for the enterprise.

You may be a candidate for Metadata Synthesis Services, if: 1) You have a proprietary data asset that's not yet making money for you on the Web, or 2) You are interested in creating a unique data asset by enriching the metadata of a public domain data set.

Metadata Synthesis works by analyzing text content and looking for hidden taxonomies, organizational schemes and descriptions.

Metadata Synthesis can dramatically increase the value of your data assets by rendering them more accessible (via search and navigation) to your users and richer in the eyes of the search engines.

The client deliverable from a Metadata Synthesis project is usually a turnkey Web site, but multiple alternative output formats are available.

A very simple example of Metadata Synthesis in action is this Nursing Home Directory. This site was created using public domain government data, from which a number of different metadata types were synthesized to provide for site navigation, for the categorization of the data into useful taxonomies, and for the display of locative information using Google Maps.