Tags and facets, tags and languages. Peter Van Dijck http://petervandijck.net

Challenge: Findability of long tail video An unsolved problem. Video eats attention.

An unsolved problem.

Video eats attention.

A few principles: Always be easy . Entering a tag should stay simple. The work of the few impacts many. Wikipedia is edited mostly by a small group of people. Babysteps : A little semantics goes a long way. Leverage it.

Always be easy . Entering a tag should stay simple.

The work of the few impacts many. Wikipedia is edited mostly by a small group of people.

Babysteps : A little semantics goes a long way. Leverage it.

We plan to let users select facets here.

Refine by: People: Ilse (12) Johnny (3) Peter (3) Jay Dedman (4) Event: Vloggercon (12) Gates (8) Language: English (230) Spanish (8)

What we didn’t do There were a lot of options and possibilities to add structure and semantics. We kept it simple: a tag has only 1 facet – which is the same for all users. Users can’t select facets just yet.

There were a lot of options and possibilities to add structure and semantics.

We kept it simple: a tag has only 1 facet – which is the same for all users.

Users can’t select facets just yet.

What we did: Add minimal structure : tag has a parent-id. Add semantics : Place, Language, Event, People, Topic. You can’t let users create facets and keep their facet-ness.

Add minimal structure : tag has a parent-id.

Add semantics : Place, Language, Event, People, Topic.

You can’t let users create facets and keep their facet-ness.

(Who is cindy sheenan?) Movies with: Cindy and Ilse (12) Cindy and Johnny (3) Cindy and Peter (3) Cindy and Jay Dedman (4) Event: Vloggercon (12)

Even more leverage …

3 levels of leveraging semantics The fact that parents are facets means we can use faceted browsing. (Regardless of the content of those facets.) The content of the facets (people, …) lets us customize the UI and provide additional structure around each. (Events on a timeline, pictures of people, …) We can also infer (guess) more information from the semantics and an algorithm of relatedness (“Gates happened in Central Park”).

The fact that parents are facets means we can use faceted browsing. (Regardless of the content of those facets.)

The content of the facets (people, …) lets us customize the UI and provide additional structure around each. (Events on a timeline, pictures of people, …)

We can also infer (guess) more information from the semantics and an algorithm of relatedness (“Gates happened in Central Park”).

All this from the simplest of structures and a sprinkling of semantics Parent Tag “ People” “Places” “Events”

Some trickyness follows…

Semantic crashes Conclusion: careful with duplicate semantics in the system.

Conclusion: careful with duplicate semantics in the system.

Localizing the folksonomy Should we even translate folksonomies? Tags seem to work better when they’re in limited communities, “tag namespaces”.

Should we even translate folksonomies?

Tags seem to work better when they’re in limited communities, “tag namespaces”.

The plan for Mefeedia: Don’t translate tags. Don’t copy tags – new language = new community. Possible complaints: “ My tags don’t show up in the Spanish version”. I could perhaps use names (“People”) in multiple languages (that have Latin charsets). => Semantics might help with localization.

Don’t translate tags.

Don’t copy tags – new language = new community. Possible complaints:

“ My tags don’t show up in the Spanish version”.

I could perhaps use names (“People”) in multiple languages (that have Latin charsets). => Semantics might help with localization.

Other approaches …

For geography: <a href=&quot;http://www.edgeio.com/tag/zip:94301&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;>94301</a> <a href=&quot;http://www.edgeio.com/tag/city:Palo%20Alto&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;>Palo Alto</a> <a href=&quot;http://www.edgeio.com/tag/country:USA&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;>USA</a>

What people are doing Providing “generic” data structures for users (Del.icio.us). Semantics through algorithms (Flickr). Define certain tags or structure (taxonomy) through clustering algorithms (Edgeio)

Providing “generic” data structures for users (Del.icio.us).

Semantics through algorithms (Flickr).

Define certain tags or structure (taxonomy) through clustering algorithms (Edgeio)

I notice … A hesitance against hardcoding semantics . (“It won’t scale”) A hesitance against manual work (“It won’t scale”)

A hesitance against hardcoding semantics . (“It won’t scale”)

A hesitance against manual work (“It won’t scale”)

What I learnt Mix it up. A small amount of semantics, on top of minimal structure, with a little manual work, can work wonders.

Mix it up. A small amount of semantics, on top of minimal structure, with a little manual work, can work wonders.

References [email_address] http://petervandijck.com http://mefeedia.com http://mefeedia.com/labs-infer/infer.php http://www.everything2.com/ http://bailando.sims.berkeley.edu/flamenco-metadata-guide.html

[email_address]

http://petervandijck.com

http://mefeedia.com

http://mefeedia.com/labs-infer/infer.php

http://www.everything2.com/

http://bailando.sims.berkeley.edu/flamenco-metadata-guide.html