Tagging/Folksonomies Think Tank Session April 8, 2008

What are tags? Keywords/descriptors to describe digital objects Applied by users of the content Keyword or category label. Tags help you find photos which have something in common. (Flickr’s explanation of tags) Del.icio.us ' explanation of tagging

Keywords/descriptors to describe digital objects

Applied by users of the content

Keyword or category label. Tags help you find photos which have something in common. (Flickr’s explanation of tags)

Del.icio.us ' explanation of tagging

What is a folksonomy? Collaboratively creating and managing tags Freely chosen keywords used instead of controlled vocabulary “ Folk”sonomy is most notably contrasted with a taxonomy - done by users, not professionals.

Collaboratively creating and managing tags

Freely chosen keywords used instead of controlled vocabulary

“ Folk”sonomy is most notably contrasted with a taxonomy - done by users, not professionals.

Tagging vs. folksonomy Tags are the descriptors applied to objects Folksonomies are the collections of descriptors (metadata) created by users and applied to objects

Tags are the descriptors applied to objects

Folksonomies are the collections of descriptors (metadata) created by users and applied to objects

This photo was given the tags “house” “building” “colors”, along with others

The tags for that image are part of a folksonomy

The tags for that image are part of a folksonomy

Advantages of tagging/folksonomies Simple to use - no complex structure to learn Lower cost of categorization Open-ended Relevance - user's own terms. Support serendipitious form of browsing. Easy to tag any object - photo, document, bookmark Better than no tags at all. People want to tag.

Simple to use - no complex structure to learn

Lower cost of categorization

Open-ended

Relevance - user's own terms.

Support serendipitious form of browsing.

Easy to tag any object - photo, document, bookmark

Better than no tags at all.

People want to tag.

Disadvantages Quality of the tags Don’t work well for finding No structure or conceptual relationships Issues of scale Personal tags or popularity tags Most people can’t tag very well Errors, misspellings, etc.

Quality of the tags

Don’t work well for finding

No structure or conceptual relationships

Issues of scale

Personal tags or popularity tags

Most people can’t tag very well

Errors, misspellings, etc.

Tags vs. subject headings LibraryThing's explanation of tags and subject headings An academic take on LibraryThing tags

LibraryThing's explanation of tags and subject headings

An academic take on LibraryThing tags

Let’s do some tagging

What tags did you give the photo? Cats Dogs Family Papa Food Gris “Cats” “Together”

Cats

Dogs

Family

Papa

Food

Gris

“Cats”

“Together”

What can we do with tags? Del.icio.us Flickr LibraryThing

Del.icio.us

Flickr

LibraryThing

Other sites using tagging Last.fm Amazon

Last.fm

Amazon

Tag Clouds Find this at Geeksugar

OCLC's TagCloud Builder

Firefox add-on

Steve - Social Tagging of Art Museum Collections

Steve - Social Tagging of Art Museum Collections

Library applications of tagging King County – Aquabrowser Ann Arbor District Library – tagging LibraryThing for Libraries PennTags Teen Web - Nashville Public Library LibMarks del.icio.us libraries WorldCat Identities

King County – Aquabrowser

Ann Arbor District Library – tagging

LibraryThing for Libraries

PennTags

Teen Web - Nashville Public Library

LibMarks

del.icio.us libraries

WorldCat Identities

More Library applications OCLC FictionFinder Connotea lib.rario.us - social media cataloging

OCLC FictionFinder

Connotea

lib.rario.us - social media cataloging

Resources Pew Internet Life Project: Report on Tagging TagsAhoy Tagging Tools Structure and form of folksonomy tags: The road to the public library catalogue When tags work and when they don't: Amazon and LibraryThing

Pew Internet Life Project: Report on Tagging

TagsAhoy

Tagging Tools

Structure and form of folksonomy tags: The road to the public library catalogue

When tags work and when they don't: Amazon and LibraryThing

More resources Google Image Labeler 43Things The Hive Mind: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging Becoming a tagging kung-fu master Tips From Top Taggers Picking Up Where Search Leaves Off The Peloponnesian War and the Future of Reference, Cataloging, and Scholarship in Research Libraries

Google Image Labeler

43Things

The Hive Mind: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging

Becoming a tagging kung-fu master

Tips From Top Taggers

Picking Up Where Search Leaves Off

The Peloponnesian War and the Future of Reference, Cataloging, and Scholarship in Research Libraries

And just a few more… Cataloging and You: Measuring the Efficacy of a Folksonomy for Subject Analysis And related blog post - An academic take on LibraryThing tags

Cataloging and You: Measuring the Efficacy of a Folksonomy for Subject Analysis

And related blog post - An academic take on LibraryThing tags