1. A metadata management system comprising: a surveillance application; a plurality of distributed devices, wherein each of the plurality of distributed devices provides surveillance contents and provides metadata associated the surveillance contents through a respective different data communication protocol including a predetermined markup language format, wherein each of the plurality of distributed devices is associated with a first rule specific to that device and a device driver for data communication through the respective different data communication protocol with that device; a plurality of distributed databases that have at least two data storage formats and that each selectively store and manage metadata provided by the plurality of distributed devices; a metadata management proxy, embodied as computer executable instructions on a memory of a computing device, that is remote from the plurality of databases and in data communication with at least one of the plurality of distributed devices; a middleware metadata management mechanism that is embodied as computer executable instructions on a memory of a computing device and that directs data communication between the metadata management proxy and the plurality of databases, wherein the metadata management mechanism is further associated with a second rule and communicates through a metadata management communication protocol, wherein the second rule defines conditions of surveillance concerns and data storage formats both for storing metadata to each of the plurality of databases, wherein the metadata management mechanism has at least two distributed entities that communicate with each other through the metadata management communication protocol; and a configuration server that stores a) the first rule and the device driver associated with each of the plurality of distributed devices and b) the second rule, wherein the configuration server further allows users to dynamically update of the first rules, the device drivers, and second rule; wherein the metadata management proxy a) dynamically loads the first rule and the device driver both associated with the at least one device from the configuration server, b) receives the metadata from each of the at least one device utilizing the device driver and through the associated respective data communication protocol both associated with the at least one device, c) parses the received metadata to generate an event, and d) triggers an action, of the surveillance application, in response to that event in accordance with the first rule specific to that device; wherein the metadata management proxy further selectively sends the metadata, for each of the at least one device, to the metadata management mechanism through the metadata management communication protocol; wherein the metadata management mechanism dynamically loads the second rule from the configuration server and selects at least one from the plurality of distributed databases and at least one of the data storage formats for storing the received metadata based on if the received metadata satisfy the defined conditions of surveillance concerns for at least one of the plurality of databases in the second rule.