Taxonomy and Folksonomy Musings
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January 16, 2008
Thomas Vander Wal, group hour
WordMap - Norway
WordMap.com - open source framework
Paul Miller UK - interviewed the guy behind WordMap (see YouTube)
Tallis - nodalities

experts view of terms - how to fit that into a system
terms changing over time

news vines - for newbies

connectbeam - optimized social search http://www.systemone.at/en/
systemone - austria http://www.systemone.at/en/

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January 16, 2008
Thomas Vander Wal STIET Seminar Purposes of Tags

  * Simple metadata
  * Sorting
  * Aggregating information
  * Identifier
  * Personal markers

Folksonomy - result of personal free tagging of pages/objects for
one's own retrieval

Tagging usually occurs in a social environment that is shared and
open.
Act of tagging usually done by consumers of information, not
publishers
Taggers use their own vocabulary, not a predefined one, which every
person is an expert in

People do not necessarily use tags to categorize--they are providing a
means to connect to their understanding.

Carefully thinking out tags does not improve retrievability

Every tag is sacred.

According to Jennifer Trant of steve.museum, 70% of folksonomy tags
were not in the taxonomy (a conservative estimate)

Value of tagging for businesses

  * Intranet
  * B2B
  * Customers
  * External services

Improved understanding of customer
All current terminology market ementation
Target message to language, not taste

Intranet
>-Refindability improvement
>-Context understanding
>-Easy sharing by perspective
>-Cost-effective way of building a taxonomy
>-Term use across silos
>-Eases networking and collaboration

Analysis and Monitoring

  * Monitor
    >-Use
    >-Inbound/outbound
    >-Spam
    >-External tagging systems

  * Analysis
    >-System usage patterns
    >-Term use - synonyms, identifying those near in though,
    order/structure

Understanding Scaling

Cold-Start problem
1) Personal use
2) Serendipity
3) Mature social tagging
4) Complex social system

NEW | Saving and tagging | Refinding | Clicking and pivoting |
Searching
\/ Group interaction
MATURE

7% of people tag daily (10% according to Forrester)

Why Tag

  * Personal Use
    >-Perspective/Context (missing metadata, emergent vocabulary,
    personal descriptors)
  * Refindability
    >-Aggregate info based on similarity of content
    >-Aggregate based on task
  * Indicate interest

Tools
Social Bookmarking - del.icio.us, clipmarks, Ma.gnolia
Media - flickr, dabble, LastFM, Viddler
Shopping - Amazon, Buzzillion
Geo - Platial, Socialite
Museums - Steve.museum, Powerhouse
Intranet - connectBeam, cognenz, dogear, IBM
Dating - Consummating

Raw Sugar - disambiguation