Tagging 2.0
Tagging, also called folksonomy, provides metadata about a set of information. Good for finding related information. Some examples of experimentation: use asterix to vote ("*", "***"), use "buy" and "sell" for your own eBay system. TagFraud is becoming a bigger problem. There is a better way than TagClouds. Tagging 4.0 would be automatic tagging.
We are beyond the early adopters. Washington Post and NPR allow tagging of their articles and interviews. This is still good for refinding information, rather than first finding. 40 sites explicitly using. 60-70 sites uses tagging to entice users. 200 sites that include tagging including Amazon.
Flickr has removed the identity to social bookmarks because you can't see everything JTones has tagged as "orange."
"Folksonomy" - Object - [interest] - Identity. Identity - [Vocabulary] - Metadate. Metadata - [Definition] - Object. Object - Culture - Community. Metadata - [Terminology] - Community. Community - [Affiliation] - Identiity.
source: Vander Wal
Prentis Riddle, Shadows.com
Dirty Little Secrets
1. It's about the content
2. ordinary peoplel don't get tagging. they type sentences or google search
3. It's the user experience that makes it work.
4. Tags don't play well with other. character sets are different
5. Delimiter wars. commas, spaces, commas or spaces
6. Interoperation ampliifies imprecision: cat vs. cats. mouse (rodent) vs. mouse (pointer)
7. Interoperation for portability. can download del.icio.us bookmarks. Flock wil even move your bookmarks for you.
8. Rich func requires rich meta data
9. Nobody wants real tags. strong heirarchy
What's happening in tagging:
- Username tagging
- Geotagging
- Hierarchical tagging: web.design.css or web/design/css. Who decides the structure?
- Faceted tagging, which is bucket tagging. By location, by event
Levin, Socialtext.org
Flickr games - tag specific airplanes like a card collection game
Tagging for shared research
Konatia (sp?) - nature social tagging on
Problems with tagging:
- consolidate synonyms,
- fix and standardize spelling,
- add heirarchy (Venice, CA vs. Venice, Italy)
Benefits to Tagging:
- Drops the barrier for to analysis - paralysis
- Cognitive diversity
- Independence - it's just me and the object
- Decentralization - we can aggregate data more than just ratings
- social formations are generally insular - people I already know. But tagging promotes ad-hoc groups, lots of weak socialties, conceptualy mediated ties.
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