Today, there is a lot of data available for both the individual as well as different types of organizations. To make the data more manageable there is a need to classify and categorize it, which is accomplished by using metadata. The usage area of the latter is very broad even within the subset, computerized metadata, which is this reports main topic. The report is a compilation of a literature study and describes, among other things important standards for publishing, indexing and communication of metadata such as Dublin Core (DC), Web Services Description Language (WSDL), SOAP, Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI) and Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS). In addition, the report describes the influencing factors for the development of a metadata model and the tools that exist for e.g. automated creation of metadata as well as the latters shortcomings. Suggestions for future projects and work in the area and tips on issues to be studied, regarding how the generality of metadata models may be retained without sacrificing the descriptive and informative parts, are given. Finally, also discussed are some security aspects such as what metadata reveals about the data and how metadata can be abused.