Starting with a tin can and a tried and tested supermarket analogy Mark Merifield covers some basic principles of information management and explores the value that's held in metadata. Building on ideas being worked on by government's Metadata and Vocabularies Working Group he examines how, with some simple controls and standards, that metadata could go on to open up our understanding, use and re-use of government's information across time and (cyber)space, solving digital transfer and opening up new ways to access our records along the way.A specialist in the management of digital information, Mark worked with the team that developed the understanding and application of the principles of Digital Continuity. He has been particularly focused on making sure the future can become the past.