After Noah: Making Sense of the Flood (of Information)

After Noah: Making Sense of the Flood (of Information) Thomas Vander Wal Presented to: Enterprise 2.0 Boston, MA, USA :: 10 June 2008

2 Common Statements

Nobody is using our services

Good Great Utterly fantastic OMG we have way too much information

Encouraging Use

Add or improve guidance for use

Keep in mind: perceived light use can have high value

Number of Tags Per Item Distribution of “x Tagged” A6473 90.0 # People Tagging 67.5 45.0 22.5 0 Median InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. 2008

Focus on values derived

Who is using the service?

What value is gained?

Personal

Collective

Collaborative

Newbie

Service Owner

Quick instructional videos

http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english

Easy tagging - similar to Amazon

Tag Yes/No InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008

Provide many use cases

Continually highlight various success stories

Move to pervasive tag tool integration

Integrate with search

Social search

Collective search

Selective social search: • Groups • Co-worker • Selected interests

Personal contextual search

Too much info

Causes

Single tags

Tools too simple

Lacking structure • Tags are taken as singles terms • Not using co-occurrence

Lacking context • No grouping of taggers • ID does not tie to a persona or proﬁle • Lacking relationship of tagger

Facets needed

Across many applications and services

External incentive encouraged tagging

Taggers are adding tags terms to self-stem (e.g. tag, tags, tagging)

Many misspellings

Tools need improved guidance & in-line help

Solutions

Single tags • Interface encourages diversity of tagging • Use more than one tag • Detect homogeneity

Use a taxonomist who understands folksonomies

Terms Around an Object Taxonomy Folksonomy - Ball (89) - Ball - Circle (63) - Sphere - Blue (23) - Blue - Orb (11) - Sphere (6) - #A6437 - Gradient (3) - ToBuy (3) - Darkblue (2) - Round (2) - … 26 more InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. 2008

Part #A6473 Terms Distribution of Terms Validate A6473 taxonomy 90.0 or add to taxonomy Value in Interest Synonyms & 67.5 & watch Unique views 45.0 22.5 0 InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. 2008

Tool is simple • Simplicity is good, but they need to be smarter • Surface multiple context • Surface co-occurrence of tags • Lacking individual tagging

Embrace structure • Use co-occurrence of terms • Use identity and personal relationships • Tie to a taxonomy • Existing • Generic

- Andy Edmonds @ http://surfmind.com/muzings/?p=107

Show context • Human • Object • Related terms

Facets

Identify facets • Interface • Takes time - neg • More complex interface may deter taggers • Automated • People • Products & type • Geo-location • Temporal

Tools Get Out of the Way

Aggregate tags across tools • Tag in and across applications • Blogs, wikis, Sharepoint, etc. • Retrieve across applications and services to provide breadth and more value

Remove false incentives and focus real value - such as reﬁndability

Auto-stemming • Identify synonyms • Plurals • Spelling variations (incl. mis-spelling) • International terms

Improve application guidance

Pulling it all together

Human needs and support

Support various uses

Improve the tools used

Thank You! InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008

URL: http://infocloudsolutions.com E-mail: thomas@infocloudsolutions.com E-mail: thomas@vanderwal.net AIM: vanderwal Skype: tjvanderwal InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008

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After Noah: Making Sense of the Flood (of Information)

by Thomas Vander Wal

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After Noah: Making Sense of the Flood (of Information) Presentation Transcript