meta service definition

“ Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Meta Data Services is an enabling technology for defining and populating information models. It is used by software engineering and development tools to share information about engineered artifacts. Engineered artifacts include software components, manufactured components, databases, documents, maps, and Web pages in short, anything about which you might want to share information that has a complex structure”

source : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=81C641E6-38DD-4C28-A123-7B984300E2F0&displaylang=en

Meta Data Services is an object-oriented repository technology that can be integrated with enterprise information systems or with applications that process metadata.

A number of Microsoft technologies use Meta Data Services as a native store for object definitions or as a platform for deploying metadata. One of the ways in which Microsoft SQL Server 2000 uses Meta Data Services is to store versioned DTS Packages. In Microsoft Visual Studio Meta Data Services supports the exchange of model data with other development tools.

Users can use Meta Data Services for their own purposes: as a component of an integrated information system, as a native store for custom applications that process metadata, or as a storage and management service for sharing reusable models. Users can also extend Meta Data Services to provide support for new tools for resale or customize it to satisfy internal tool requirements.

source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_Data_Services