Photo Management for old (import) & new pictures

Question

Below is a proposal for organising my photo management system.
I'm a hobbiest photographer with over 30 years of pictures to file. I have read extensively, including this forum and sort best practice to developed a plan to do achieve an organised scalable system.
I would appreciate sharing of experience by providing comments on my suggested plan of action and questions I raise below.
My Objective:
Organise and manage existing legacy photos and provide a system for future photos that is not tied into specific system or vendor. For example where possible Metadata free from vendor specific format or database.
Background:
My collection consists of many photos in over 50 folders, these are:
a) Scanned picture that are now JPGs,
b) Shot JPG,
c) Raw (new and existing).
I files my pictures on my PC & external back up copy.
I file: /my pictures/<YYYY>_<MM>_<Location_Event>  for example: /my pictures/2013_04_Yorkshire_Family_Weekend.
On some of my digital pictures I have included the Metadata using Google Picasa v3. Most of my scanned pictures have no Metadata as yet.
I own and aim to use Lightroom 4 to do Post Production and photo filing and management whilst also continuing to use Google Picasa for viewing &amp; Face Recognition (at least until I feel fully confident in Lr).
Suggested plan of attack:
Stage 1)
Add "My Picture" folder, including sub folders to Lightroom Library, Standard View.
Stage 2)
Continue with /my pictures/<YYYY>_<MM>_<Location_Event> 
For example: /my pictures/2013_04_Yorkshire_Family_Weekend.
Stage 3)
Use Lr to apply to both existing and new photos file name format as follows: <My Initials>_<YYYYMMDD>_<Key_Words Inc_Location_Event_Description>_<sequence xxxx>
For example:RB_20130420_Peru_Cusco_Holiday_Shots_0001
NB: Regarding Version Control for RAW I will use Lr inc use of "Virtual Copies", for Jpeg I will use additional field for Developed JPEGs of <vX>
For example:RB_20130420_Peru_Cusco_Holiday_Shots_0001_v01.jpg
Stage 4)
Manually use Lr to add Metadata &amp; Ratings to all pictures to date.
Metatdata: Include "My Name" to all pictures, "Date" by Windows folder, "Keyword" by folder, "Additional Keyword" to 3* and above.
Rating: 1&amp;2* no action required, 3*+ maybe further editing if time permits.
Stage 5)
Run "Save Metadata to file" in Lr. This will run Metadata to file for JPG and to XMP side car for RAW files.
Stage 6)
Import new shots to new folder using "/my pictures/<year><month number><event>" structure. As they are in sub folder they will be included automatically to Lr library.
Stage 7)
Create JPG in same folders as RAWs for Developed Photos.
Stage 8)
Back up "My Photos" and Lr dbase on regular basis as per Lr best practice.
Questions:
1) Is Lr more powerful than Google Picasa for Renaming File &amp; Adding Metadata? 
2) Once I "Save Meta Data to Photo" in Lr will I be able to access it in Google Picasa?
3) Can I automate the Importing of new shots to Lr and have it maintain / build upon my existing file structure?
4) Any recommendations for Keyword Schema to include in Metadata?
5) Does my approach above seem sensible?

Answer 1

Honestly, if your goal is to have metadata that is not tied into a specific system or vendor, then here's what I would do:
I would not put any effort at all into organizing your folders (or improving the organization of the folders), or renaming files, as I think your time is better spent on keywords. In my opinion, the benefits of keyword organizing are many; in addition, without you putting any effort into reorganizing your folders, you can also search for you photos by date inside Lightroom using Lightroom tools regardless of the folder structure (and you can search this way inside of any other photographic management software I have used as well, regardless of the folder structure).
In Lightroom assign whatever keywords and metadata are appropriate, and then instruct Lightroom to write the metadata to the files. There are two ways to do this, one is Ctrl-S, and the second is to turn on the option in Preferences that does this automatically (Edit->Catalog Settings->Metadata) Once the metadata has been written by Lightroom, you now have metadata that can be read by any photographic software (and even all major operating systems) that I know of.  Having keywords in the file name is redundant, it doesn't help you find photos and faster but it does require extra work; and there is a limit to the number of characters you can have in a path\filename.
Another point ... don't use Lightroom collections or pick flags as part of this "metadata that is system and vendor independent", as Lightroom does not write this information to the files.
You ask for Keyword schema, but without knowing what your photo's subject matter is, there's no way I could give any advice.