Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Social Software Series: Tagging
Before launching into some specific software, I want to cover a few key concepts. The first is tagging. Here's what the Wikipedia has to say about tags:
Lots of social software makes use of tags to categorize information. Those of you in the library field or used to making use of libraries are used to information being categorized using a controlled vocabulary--Library of Congress keywords and subjects, for example. The thing about tags is that the exact tags are determined by individual users. There are no lists to choose from; there is no central control. Another term often used for this way of organizing information is folksonomy. While it's true that this can lead to miscategorization, making information hard to find, I would argue that it's no harder than finding information in the library.
To the left, you'll see and example of what tagging typically looks like. This particular image comes from Technorati's tagging system, which categorizes blog posts. The larger the tag, the more popular it is. Clicking on a tag will take you to all the posts with that tag. You will also see related tags and can keep following the links at will. Go ahead, try it. Just come back when you're done.
Librarians are not going to like what I'm about to say. And I should preface this by saying that I love libraries. I am a veteran library user, having done all the research for my dissertation using both online and offline sources and becoming very familiar with using databases and library search tools. It still takes a long time to find good information. The interfaces of library search tools are not very intuitive. I have to guess what vocabulary will give me the best results. Doing a keyword search often gives too much information, but if I do a subject search I have to know what words to use. Now, there are plenty of librarians and libraries interested in the idea of tagging and letting regular folk do the tagging.
The great potential of tagging is not only finding information through the use of tags, but organizing information for yourself using tags. How many of your computer files are categorized? If you're like me, not many. And tags don't care whether you're tagging photos, music, blog posts, peer-reviewed articles, web sites, newspaper articles, or videos. If you're doing research in an area, you can collect all different kinds of information under one tag or several related tags. If you want to find out more about tagging and what people think about and how they're using it, start with the Technorati tag, folksonomy.
tags: folksonomy, Tags, tagging
Tags are pieces of information separate from, but related to, an object. In the practice of collaborative categorization using freely chosen keywords, tags are descriptors that individuals assign to objects.
Lots of social software makes use of tags to categorize information. Those of you in the library field or used to making use of libraries are used to information being categorized using a controlled vocabulary--Library of Congress keywords and subjects, for example. The thing about tags is that the exact tags are determined by individual users. There are no lists to choose from; there is no central control. Another term often used for this way of organizing information is folksonomy. While it's true that this can lead to miscategorization, making information hard to find, I would argue that it's no harder than finding information in the library.
To the left, you'll see and example of what tagging typically looks like. This particular image comes from Technorati's tagging system, which categorizes blog posts. The larger the tag, the more popular it is. Clicking on a tag will take you to all the posts with that tag. You will also see related tags and can keep following the links at will. Go ahead, try it. Just come back when you're done.Librarians are not going to like what I'm about to say. And I should preface this by saying that I love libraries. I am a veteran library user, having done all the research for my dissertation using both online and offline sources and becoming very familiar with using databases and library search tools. It still takes a long time to find good information. The interfaces of library search tools are not very intuitive. I have to guess what vocabulary will give me the best results. Doing a keyword search often gives too much information, but if I do a subject search I have to know what words to use. Now, there are plenty of librarians and libraries interested in the idea of tagging and letting regular folk do the tagging.
The great potential of tagging is not only finding information through the use of tags, but organizing information for yourself using tags. How many of your computer files are categorized? If you're like me, not many. And tags don't care whether you're tagging photos, music, blog posts, peer-reviewed articles, web sites, newspaper articles, or videos. If you're doing research in an area, you can collect all different kinds of information under one tag or several related tags. If you want to find out more about tagging and what people think about and how they're using it, start with the Technorati tag, folksonomy.
tags: folksonomy, Tags, tagging
