Spatial Metadata: Why is it so hard?

Why can't my GIS data be as easy to organize/provide metadata for as my music collection?

I want a clean, detailed interface to explore my files. I want an indexed library for fast searches and simple playlist dataset/layer package/group/namespace creation. I want to change the owner, license, one-line description of files the same way I might change them in a Music folder in Windows Explorer, not by diving into some ugly wizard.

ESRI shouldn't throw out ArcCatalog, they should make it the iTunes of geospatial information. Move it from the smaller segmented market of GIS professionals to the mass market. Clean up the UI, throw up a "store" that connects with ArcGIS Online and the Resource Centers. Refashion the toolbox into components available for purchase from an in-application repository and open that repository to 3rd party developers (with a trusted [reviewed] and untrusted section).

Have it read every damn spatial format possible. Embed Webkit so you can jump to Bing, Google MyMaps, OpenStreetMap, WeoGeo, and everything else out there of geospatial interest. Metadata is largely a solved problem with my music in Foobar (music player). Why? Because of freedb, a license-free database of song metadata. There isn't any reason why we couldn't do something similar for spatial data.

Ideas are cheap and this is a lot of hard work, but it is something I'd like to see. There is a lot of moving parts to spatial data - a lot of sources, metadata, and datastores. It would be nice if we could abstract away all the stuff you currently have no interest in. The fact your spatial data is in PostGIS, or AGS, or in the cloud somewhere is unimportant when all you want to do is supply the key information of when it was collected and why.

Twitter

I've broken down and starting using Twitter, largely to eliminate the habit of finding a link on the internet and using work email to send it to my private email. Also so I can follow people smart people who rarely actually make blog updates. My account name is Bwreilly. At one point I will probably collect the links I wander into and repeat them up here as it is an embarrassingly easy way to make a post and also because the links themselves are often of interest and it would be a shame to deny them to people who disdain Twitter.