A presentation on tagging and folksonomy presented to the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. One thing that came out of discussions and presentation preparation was a need to better monitor and make use of the tagging people are placing in other services.
1. From Tagging to Folksonomy:
Going Beyond “Bookmark This”
Thomas Vander Wal
Presented to: Association of Alternative Newsweeklies
San Francisco, CA, USA :: 31 January 2008
2. What Is A Tag?
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
3. Tagging: Definition
❖ Simple data/metadata externally applied to
an object
❖ Used for sorting
❖ A hook for aggregating
❖ Provides identifier and/or description
❖ Personal markers
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
11. Folksonomy: Definition
❖ Folksonomy is the result of personal free tagging of
pages and objects for one's own retrieval
❖ The tagging is usually done in a social environment
(shared and open to others)
❖ The act of tagging is done by the person consuming
the information
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
12. Folksonomy: Value
The value in this external tagging is derived
from people using their own vocabulary and
adding explicit meaning which may come from
meaning,
inferred understanding of the information/
object.
People are not so much categorizing, as
providing a means to connect items
(placing hooks) to provide their meaning in their
own understanding.
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
13. “The beauty of tagging is that it taps
into an existing cognitive process without
adding much cognitive cost”
Rashmi Sinha
http://www.rashmisinha.com/archives/05_09/tagging-cognitive.html
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
14. Every person is an
expert in their own
vocabulary (tags)
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15. Every Tag is Sacred
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23. 70% of Folksonomy tag
terms not in Taxonomy
J. Trant regarding Steve.museum
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24. Terms Around an Object
Taxonomy Folksonomy
- Ball (89)
- Ball - Circle (63)
- Sphere - Blue (23)
- Blue - Orb (11)
- Sphere (6)
- #A6437
- Gradient (3)
- ToBuy (3)
- Darkblue (2)
- Round (2)
- … 26 more
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. 2008
25. Part #A6473 Terms
Distribution of Terms
Validate A6473
taxonomy 90.0
or add to
taxonomy Value in
Interest
Synonyms &
67.5 & watch
Unique views
45.0
22.5
0
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. 2008
26. Part #A6473 Terms
Distribution of Terms
Azure
Validate A6473
taxonomy 90.0
or add to
taxonomy Interest
67.5 & watch
45.0
22.5
0
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. 2008
28. As much as 28% of
Americans have tagged
Pew Internet Life Project: Report on Tagging
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/201/report_display.asp
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
29. Daily 7% of people on
the Web in the U.S. tag
Pew Internet Life Project: Report on Tagging
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/201/report_display.asp
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
30. Daily 10% of people on
the Web in the U.S. tag
Forrester Research 2007
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
32. Reasons People Tag
❖ Their OWN use/value first
❖ Add Perspective/Context
❖ Missing metadata
❖ Emergent Vocabulary
❖ Personal descriptors
❖ Refindability
❖ Aggregation of information
❖ Task-based aggregation
❖ State Interest
❖ Sociality
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
33. Spheres of Sociality
Mob
Collective
Selective
Personal
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
34. Tools for Tagging Services
❖ Tagging
❖ Retrieval
❖ Search
❖ Identify, assemble, & use a network of similar
taggers
❖ Filter
❖ Follow
❖ Disambiguation
❖ Networking
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
36. Tag Venues
❖ Social Bookmarking del.icio.us, clipmarks, Ma.gnolia
❖ Media Flickr, Dabble, LastFM, Viddler
❖ Shopping Amazon (US), Buzzillion
❖ Geo-Location Platial, Socialite
❖ News New York Times
❖ Intranet ConnectBeam, IBM Dogear, Cogenz
❖ Dating Consumating
❖ OS (files) Mac OSX Tiger & Microsoft Vista
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
37. Tag Venues
Wherever there is a
digital object or marker
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
46. In-house Uses
❖ Annotate research
❖ Ease refindability
❖ Access from various devices
❖ Find other’s research
❖ Eases networking & collaboration
❖ Put contacts in context
❖ Cost effective means of building taxonomy
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
55. Business Gains: Internet
❖ Improved understanding of readers
❖ Current terminology (all of it)
❖ Identify market segmentations
❖ Connect to readers with language & taste
❖ Monitor and analyze existing services
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
56. Considerations
❖ What services do your readers use?
❖ In-service tagging w/ export to services
❖ Monitoring
❖ Use for reader driven aggregation
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57. You Say, We Say
- Moritz Stefaner
http://well-formed-data.net/thesis/