Enhanced metadata collection and output

A system comprising:

• at least one hardware processor;
• a database storing a plurality of content objects and a knowledge structure;
• and
• one or more software modules that, when executed by the at least one hardware processor,
• update the knowledge structure over time, and
• in response to a request from a requesting system over at least one network, for each content object in a user interface of the requesting system,
• receive retrieve the content object from the database,
• automatically traverse a plurality of hierarchically-arranged nodes within a current version of the knowledge structure in the database by looping through a subgraph of the plurality of hierarchically-arranged nodes that corresponds to the content object, until a leaf node of the plurality of hierarchically-arranged nodes is reached, to identify metadata to be associated with the content object,
• select both a metadata structure and a markup format for the content object based on at least a subset of the plurality of hierarchically-arranged nodes that were traversed, wherein the metadata structure incorporates the identified metadata,
• wrap the content object with the metadata structure in the markup format, and
• output the wrapped content object to the requesting system over the at least one network.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• receive a content object;
• determine first metadata to be associated with the content object, wherein the first metadata is not currently associated with the content object;
• automatically traverse a plurality of hierarchically-arranged nodes within a knowledge structure by looping through a subgraph of the plurality of hierarchically-arranged nodes that corresponds to the first metadata until a leaf node of the plurality of hierarchically-arranged nodes is reached;
• acquire second metadata to be associated with the content object based on at least the leaf node, wherein the second metadata is not currently associated with the content object;
• select both a metadata structure and a markup format for the content object based on at least a subset of the plurality of hierarchically-arranged nodes that were traversed, wherein the metadata structure incorporates both the first metadata and the second metadata;
• wrap the content object with the metadata structure in the markup format;
• and
• output the wrapped content object.