From Tagging to Folksonomy:
Going Beyond “Bookmark This”
Thomas Vander Wal
Presented to: Association of Alternative Newsweeklies
San Francisco, CA, USA :: 31 January 2008

What Is A Tag?
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Tagging: Definition
❖ Simple data/metadata externally applied to
an object
❖ Used for sorting
❖ A hook for aggregating
❖ Provides identifier and/or description
❖ Personal markers
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History of Tagging

The “F” Word
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Folksonomy
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Folksonomy: Definition
❖ Folksonomy is the result of personal free tagging of
pages and objects for one's own retrieval
❖ The tagging is usually done in a social environment
(shared and open to others)
❖ The act of tagging is done by the person consuming
the information
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Folksonomy: Value
The value in this external tagging is derived
from people using their own vocabulary and
adding explicit meaning which may come from
meaning,
inferred understanding of the information/
object.
People are not so much categorizing, as
providing a means to connect items
(placing hooks) to provide their meaning in their
own understanding.
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“The beauty of tagging is that it taps
into an existing cognitive process without
adding much cognitive cost”
Rashmi Sinha
http://www.rashmisinha.com/archives/05_09/tagging-cognitive.html
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Every person is an
expert in their own
vocabulary (tags)
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Every Tag is Sacred
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Folksonomy Triad
Object Identity
Interest
Definition
Vocabulary
Metadata
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Dual Folksonomy Triad
Object Interest Identity
Culture Vocabulary
Definition
Terminology
Community Metadata
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Finding More Objects
Object 1 Identity Object 2
Metadata
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Folksonomy
vs.
Taxonomy
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Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy
Business Reader
Taxonomy Article Folksonomy
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Taxonomy & Folksonomy
Taxonomy Folksonomy
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70% of Folksonomy tag
terms not in Taxonomy
J. Trant regarding Steve.museum
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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
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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

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

So, Who Tags?
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As much as 28% of
Americans have tagged
Pew Internet Life Project: Report on Tagging
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/201/report_display.asp
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Daily 7% of people on
the Web in the U.S. tag
Pew Internet Life Project: Report on Tagging
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/201/report_display.asp
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Daily 10% of people on
the Web in the U.S. tag
Forrester Research 2007
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Why do People Tag?
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Reasons People Tag
❖ Their OWN use/value first
❖ Add Perspective/Context
❖ Missing metadata
❖ Emergent Vocabulary
❖ Personal descriptors
❖ Refindability
❖ Aggregation of information
❖ Task-based aggregation
❖ State Interest
❖ Sociality
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Spheres of Sociality
Mob
Collective
Selective
Personal
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Tools for Tagging Services
❖ Tagging
❖ Retrieval
❖ Search
❖ Identify, assemble, & use a network of similar
taggers
❖ Filter
❖ Follow
❖ Disambiguation
❖ Networking
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Where Do People Tag?
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Tag Venues
❖ Social Bookmarking del.icio.us, clipmarks, Ma.gnolia
❖ Media Flickr, Dabble, LastFM, Viddler
❖ Shopping Amazon (US), Buzzillion
❖ Geo-Location Platial, Socialite
❖ News New York Times
❖ Intranet ConnectBeam, IBM Dogear, Cogenz
❖ Dating Consumating
❖ OS (files) Mac OSX Tiger & Microsoft Vista
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Tag Venues
Wherever there is a
digital object or marker
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Spock - Tagging People
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TagCloud
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TagClouds Best on
Granular Items
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The Value of Tagging
for Business
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In-house
Tagging

In-house Uses
❖ Annotate research
❖ Ease refindability
❖ Access from various devices
❖ Find other’s research
❖ Eases networking & collaboration
❖ Put contacts in context
❖ Cost effective means of building taxonomy
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Reader
Tagging

Ease of Sharing

Monitoring
Reader’s
Annotations

Business Gains: Internet
❖ Improved understanding of readers
❖ Current terminology (all of it)
❖ Identify market segmentations
❖ Connect to readers with language & taste
❖ Monitor and analyze existing services
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Considerations
❖ What services do your readers use?
❖ In-service tagging w/ export to services
❖ Monitoring
❖ Use for reader driven aggregation
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You Say, We Say
- Moritz Stefaner
http://well-formed-data.net/thesis/

Thank You!
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URL: http://infocloudsolutions.com
E-mail: thomas@infocloudsolutions.com
E-mail: thomas@vanderwal.net
AIM: vanderwal
Skype: tjvanderwal
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