Folksonomy and Tagging in the Social Web

Slide 1: Folksonomy and Tagging in the Social Web Dr. Harry Chen CMSC 491S/691S February 18, 2008 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Slide 2: Agenda  How did folksonomy and tagging emerge in the Social Web?  You tag – why and how? Can we define an information model for it?  How do we characterize tagging systems?  How do we visualize tags?

Slide 3: Tags Everywhere It’s almost a de facto standard for Web 2.0 sites to support tagging.

Slide 4: Tags are on fire!  Traditional media sites show signs of support for tags…

Slide 5: Tags and Tagging  We need to distinguish between  Web sites that use tags for navigation and  Web sites that support tagging.  Sites provide tag-driven navigation may not support tagging.  Think: CNN vs. Flickr

Slide 6: Why Use Tags  Tags (keywords) seem to be effective in helping people to find and discover information.  The Web is a collection of unstructured links and resources. Using tags can give people a sense of organization in a chaotic information environment. Can better search algorithms replace the need for tags?

Slide 7: Tags are Old School  The use of tags is nothing new if you talk to any librarians or people who study information organization. Melvil Dewey The Dewey Decimal System (DDS) http://www.redhill.dudley.gov.uk/LearningCentre/old_site/LearningCentre/deweysystem.htm

Slide 8: DDS in Action How do you think these categories are created? http://www.db.dk/bh/lifeboat_ko/SPECIFIC%20SYSTEMS/dewey_decimal_classification.htm

Slide 9: Definition: Taxonomy  DDS is a taxonomy in the library world.  Taxonomy also appears in the Web world.  Categories are defined by an authority  Categories are specially designed (i.e., not arbitrarily) to organize information in a specific way.

Slide 10: Taxonomy on the Web  It’s easy to spot taxonomy on the Web Keywords defined by their editors to encourage the readers to stay on their Web sites.

Slide 11: Criticisms Against Taxonomy  The use of taxonomy is not always practical for Web sites that provide user-generated content.  “Content is constantly changing. It’s impractical to have one static taxonomy.”  “No single party should have the authority to enforce any taxonomy on the whole user community.”  “A taxonomy that is good for categorizing information is not necessarily effective for finding and discovering information on the Web” Do you think it’s a good idea to organize your Web site using DDS?

Slide 12: Folksonomy Emerges  Folksonomy appears in Web sites that supports user tagging.  Folksonomy a.k.a.  collective tagging,  social classification,  social indexing,  tagging.

Slide 13: Definition: Folksonomy  Folksonomy is a practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content.  Users are usually free to choose the keywords that they use in tagging  Systems usually provide “tag clouds” for finding and discovering information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy

Slide 14: IMHO  The emergence of folksonomy also has something to do with Web search.  Search engines employ automatic techniques to organize information.  Folksonomy relies on manual labor to category information.  The folksonomy approach compliments what’s provided by the search and index algorithms.

Slide 15: How do we tag?  Traditional subject indexing  Subject indexing with feedback  Tagging from a cognitive perspective

Slide 16: Traditional Subject Indexing  Goal: construct a Conceptual analysis representation of a resource that is being tagged.  A resource maybe a book, an article or a Web link. Translation Source: Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Manual Indexing. Jakob Vob, Submitted to the 10th International Symposium for Information Science, Cologne.

Slide 17: Conceptual Analysis  Decide on what a resource is about Conceptual analysis and what is relevant in particular.  “Is this book about politics or economy?”  “Is this article related Translation to science or religion?”

Slide 18: Translation  A process of finding an appropriate set of Conceptual analysis index terms that represent the substance of conceptual analysis. Translation  Remember our DDS example?

Slide 19: About Traditional Subject Indexing  The indexer (person who does the tagging) is usually a subject expert with special training.  Tags used usually come from a set of controlled vocabulary (i.e., pre-defined, fixed, rigid and authoritarian).  No mention of how the pool of control vocabulary will evolve when the content of resources change

Slide 20: Subject Indexing with feedback  A system can choose to implement “feedback” to Conceptual analysis allow the indexers to influence the pool of controlled vocabulary.  Note: feedback doesn’t eliminate the existing of Translation Feedback controlled vocabulary or authority.

Slide 21: Wikipedia: Subject Indexing with Feedback Wikipedia editors may assign at least 1 category to a page. Editors can reuse the exist category. Editors can suggest new category  “feedback”.

Slide 22: Interesting human behavior in Wikipedia’s Feedback system  Everyone is allowed to change and add categories  Most editors only edit article text  Most editors don’t add tags (i.e. categories). If they do, most editors choose to reuse the existing categories.  Not many editors change or add categories. Source: Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Any thoughts on why people Manual Indexing. Jakob Vob, Submitted to the 10th International Symposium for Information Science, Cologne. may have behaved this way?

Slide 23: A Cognitive Analysis of Tagging  How cognitive psychology and anthropology play a role in tagging.  Why is interesting?  Byunderstanding how we tag can help developers to create more effective computer systems to assist users in tagging and finding tagged information. Adopted from “A cognitive analysis of tagging” by Rashmi Sinha. http://www.rashmisinha.com/archives/05_09/tagging-cognitive.html

Slide 24: A Two-Stage Process  Asking you to tag is asking you to categorize.  Categorization is a 2-stage process  Stage 1: Related Category Activation  Stage 2: The Decision

Slide 25: Stage 1: Relate Category Activation About to tag: “http://cnn.com” Concepts come to you mind: “news”, “video”, “breaking news”, “Atlanta”, “GA”, “cable”, “TV” etc.

Slide 26: Stage 2: The Decision “news”, “video”, “breaking news”, “Atlanta”, “GA”, “cable”, “TV” etc. How do I choose what concepts to use?

Slide 27: Decision making is hard!  You have to choose what tags to use.  How do you decide? What criteria do you use to measure the quality of a tag?  “breaking news” vs. “news”  “TV” vs. “Cable”  Part of your task: optimize its future findability.  Will you find http://cnn.com via “news” or “tv”  Do you have too many bookmarks tagged “tv”?  Should you create a separate category for “cable” for a special group of “tv” bookmarks?  Is your tag schema balanced?

Slide 28: Analysis Paralysis  The hardest part of categorizing a resource is to decide what tags to use.

Slide 29: Other questions will slow you down  If it’s costly to rename a tag, you will likely to think twice about picking “news” over “breaking news” or vice versa.  If you are tagging for sharing information with others, you will consider if your tag “TV” is findable by others via “tv” or “cable” – maybe no one uses “tv”.

Slide 30: Web 2.0 Tagging Comes to Help  Tagging in Web 2.0 in fact is far easy than we think.  We don’t need to worry much about the “Analysis Paralysis” problem.  Just write down all possible tags that come to our mind.  If we got it wrong, we can count on Web 2.0 UI to rename and re-tag.

Slide 31: Exercise  If you are a Web 2.0 entrepreneur and VC gives you the money to build a next- generation tagging system.  What feature or capability would you implement and why?

Slide 32: Tagging Systems  A typical tagging system What kind of User What kind of relationships exist relationships exist between user and between users and resources? tags? Resources Tags What kind of relationships exist between resources and tags?

Slide 33: A Typology of Tagging Systems Resource Representation Automatic Source of Tagging Resources Resource Tagging Connectivity Rights Tagging System Vocabulary Tagging Connectivity Feedback Vocabulary Tagging Control Aggregation Source: Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Manual Indexing. Jakob Vob, Submitted to the 10th International Symposium for Information Science, Cologne.

Slide 34: Tagging Rights  Who is allowed to tag?  Can any user tag any Resource resources? Automatic Representation Source of  Any restrictions based on Tagging Resources resources, tags or users?  Who controls the Resource Tagging restrictions? Connectivity Tagging System Rights  IS there a distinction between tags by different Vocabulary Tagging types of users and Connectivity Feedback resources? Vocabulary Tagging Control Aggregation Source: Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Manual Indexing. Jakob Vob, Submitted to the 10th International Symposium for Information Science, Cologne.

Slide 35: Source of Resources  Do users contribute resources? Resource Representation Automatic Source of  Do users tag Tagging Resources resources already in Resource Tagging the system? Connectivity Tagging Rights System  Who decide which resources are Vocabulary Connectivity Tagging Feedback tagged? Vocabulary Tagging Control Aggregation Source: Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Manual Indexing. Jakob Vob, Submitted to the 10th International Symposium for Information Science, Cologne.

Slide 36: Resource Representation  What kind of resource is tagged? Resource Representation Automatic Source of  How resources are Tagging Resources presented to the user Resource Tagging when they are being Connectivity Tagging Rights System tagged?  Tagging photos maybe Vocabulary Connectivity Tagging Feedback different from tagging bookmarks Vocabulary Control Tagging Aggregation Source: Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Manual Indexing. Jakob Vob, Submitted to the 10th International Symposium for Information Science, Cologne.

Slide 37: Automatic Tagging  Is tagging enriched with automatically Resource Representation Automatic Source of created tags? Tagging Resources  Does the system Resource Tagging provide automatic Connectivity Tagging Rights System tagging without any user interventions? Vocabulary Connectivity Tagging Feedback  Gnizr RSS Robot Vocabulary Tagging Control Aggregation Source: Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Manual Indexing. Jakob Vob, Submitted to the 10th International Symposium for Information Science, Cologne.

Slide 38: Resource Connectivity  How are resources connected to each Resource Representation other? Automatic Tagging Source of Resources  Via links  Grouped in hierarchy Resource Tagging Connectivity Rights  How are connection Tagging System between created?  In flickr and del.icio.us, Vocabulary Connectivity Tagging Feedback how you find related resources? Vocabulary Control Tagging Aggregation Source: Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Manual Indexing. Jakob Vob, Submitted to the 10th International Symposium for Information Science, Cologne.

Slide 39: Vocabulary Connectivity  Are tags connected with relations? Resource Representation Automatic Source of  What kind of Tagging Resources relationships is it? Resource Tagging  Typed? Connectivity Tagging Rights System  Taxonomy?  Thesaurus? Vocabulary Connectivity Tagging Feedback  Can user define tag Vocabulary Tagging relations? Control Aggregation Source: Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Manual Indexing. Jakob Vob, Submitted to the 10th International Symposium for Information Science, Cologne.

Slide 40: Vocabulary Control  Is there a control on tags to be used and Resource Representation Automatic Source of tags not to be used? Tagging Resources  Are tags created Resource Tagging while tagging? Connectivity Tagging Rights System  Is the management of the vocabulary a Vocabulary Connectivity Tagging Feedback separate task? Vocabulary Tagging Control Aggregation Source: Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Manual Indexing. Jakob Vob, Submitted to the 10th International Symposium for Information Science, Cologne.

Slide 41: Tagging Aggregation  Can a tag be assigned only once to Resource Representation Automatic Source of a resource? Tagging Resources  A set model Resource Tagging  Can the same tag be Connectivity Tagging Rights System assigned multiple times? Vocabulary Connectivity Tagging Feedback  A bag model Vocabulary Tagging Control Aggregation Source: Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Manual Indexing. Jakob Vob, Submitted to the 10th International Symposium for Information Science, Cologne.

Slide 42: Tagging Feedback  How does the interface support tag entry? Resource Representation  Do users see other tags Automatic Tagging Source of Resources assigned to the resources by other users or other resources tagged with the Resource Connectivity Tagging Rights same tag? Tagging System  Does the system suggest tags? Vocabulary Connectivity Tagging Feedback  Does the system rejects tags? Vocabulary Control Tagging Aggregation Source: Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Manual Indexing. Jakob Vob, Submitted to the 10th International Symposium for Information Science, Cologne.

Slide 43: Tag Visualization  Here are some examples.  What’s your opinion?  Arethey effective?  What purpose do they serve?  Does it change the way we design Web pages?

Slide 44: Yahoo! Tagline http://www.research.yahoo.com/taglines/

Slide 45: Tag Cloud as Home Page http://83degrees.com

Slide 46: Elastic Tag Maps http://well-formed-data.net/experiments/tag_maps_v5/

Slide 47: Tag Cloud for a Quick Summary http://tinyurl.com/yu5l2r

Slide 48: Summary  Folksonomy and tagging emerged because we need to organize unstructured information on the Web – especially those user-generated content.  Tagging is a natural extension of the traditional subject indexing.  By understanding the cognitive process of tagging we as developers can develop better tagging systems to help users to organize and find information.

Slide 49: Homework for this week!  Post 1 blog on any of the following subject:  Folksonomy and tagging  Tag visualization  Psychology and cognitive process behind tagging  Tagging and the Semantic Web  Tagging in the enterprises  Your encouraged to post 1+

Slide 51: Next Class: Oxford 2.0 style debate  Goal: Help us to better understand the controversial issues that surround the Social Web technologies. Learn to be a better thinker.  We will adopt a simplified version of the debate.  Read about the Oxford Style Debate

Slide 52: Prior to the day of the debate  A resolution will be defined – you suggest or I pick.  Class will be divided into two groups:  Proposition: supports the resolution  Opposition: oppose the resolution  Decide days before the debate who will be in which group.  You do research and find arguments and evidences to support your group.

Slide 53: On the day of the debate  Take polls on the number of students who support or oppose the resolution  Follow by a 20-minutes group discussion  I will moderate the debate  Each group will take turns to present their arguments. During each turn, the group has max. 10 minutes to present their arguments.  The debate ends 10 minutes before the class ends.  Take polls again and see if anyone has switched sides. There is a catch!

Slide 54: After the debate  If the second poll reveals a change in the number of students either support or oppose the resolution,  the team represented the side with the largest poll number increase will be immune from the following week’s blogging assignment.

Slide 55: Now. Decide the next debate groups

Slide 56: Resolution for Feb. 20, 2008  The social networking technology (blog- friendly phones, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) has made us worse off as a society.  Research ideas:  Is MySpace Good for Society? (NYTimes)  The Impact of Social Networking on Society (Slashdot)  Think from different perspectives: e.g., an economic, psychological, sociological, technological or political perspective