This is a presentation I'd initially put together back in 2005, and for some reason, never shared publicly (for no good reason). It's not the most beautiful of presentations, but my purposes in presenting this in 2005 was to introduce a rising meme around folksonomy, in the midst of intense 2-2.5 day taxonomy training I was doing at the time. There's much more awareness now than then, but it's still relatively early days. Happy to discuss in far more detail.

1. Note:
This presentation was first created in 2005, as an alternative point of view to training sessions I did with
Delphi Group in our Proving Ground on Taxonomy and Information Architecture.
In the first 18 months or so of introducing this 30-45 minute section of our 2.5 days of content, I had many
hostile or at the least, skeptical responses to this.
Even the most diehard of “traditional” librarians in the crowd however, started to turn a corner in late 2006,
and this is much more commonplace from a library services standpoint.
Now, if we can only get business MANAGERS to understand why social bookmarking or tagging services
might add value in their organizations... a nut that may be harder to crack.
Folksonomies
Chaotic Mess? Controlled Vocabulary Replacement?
Temporary Blip?
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 1

2. What are Folksonomies?
• Relatively recently coined term (2003+),
marrying the idea of having a collected
vocabulary, but personalized, and emerging
from the users rather than by “experts”
• Taken to the extreme, there are some
people who believe Folksonomies
completely obliterate the need/desire for
any controlled vocabulary efforts
➡ Extremes are for extremists. Let’s not go crazy here...
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2

3. Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 3

4. The issue is “should users have their own
tagging capabilities, or should we just do
the research to determine what the
official single tag should be for content?”
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 4

5. Best Understood
via Examples
http://del.icio.us
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 5

6. My del.icio.us homepage
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 6

7. my del.icio.us - all tags exposed
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 7

8. All my tags as a “tag cloud” - size and
color denotes frequency of use
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 8

9. Relatively new feature-set:
Bundles (2 layer taxonomies)
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 9

10. Ways multiple OTHER people
tag a URL (the social aspect)
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 10

11. Emergent Vocab gets REALLY
interesting with larger numbers
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 11

12. And even larger numbers
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 12

13. Gmail - free-form tagging isn’t
just for del.icio.us
• Gmail is Google’s free, web-based e-
mail using AJAX, and basic precepts of:
• In-context Ads alongside your mail
window (creepy privacy invasion?)
• Free-form tagging ala del.icio.us
(without social sharing)
• Never delete e-mail because you’re
running out of space - keep it all and
search or “flip” your mail around Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
tags dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 13

14. Bundles via “Tag Clouds”
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 14

15. Looks like webmail...
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 15

16. Gmail “labels”
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 16

17. Google, so Search is available
(searching on “keyword” here)
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 17

18. Some labels are implied, rather
than explicitly applied
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 18

19. Faceted Navigation
Visual, and “Traditional”
The “magic” is in the facet [database] structure
Chose tags/fields/facets that mean something to your
communit(y/ies)
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 19

20. Facetmap.com
• Very simple interfaces, a proof of concept
site, but useful to prototype with no
software of your own around faceted
navigation
• Wine demo follows, but you can create
your own, assuming you want to dive into
XML or structured file creation
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 20

21. Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 21

22. Interactive
sliders,
manipulates
the facets
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 22

23. Interactive sliders,
manipulating facets
Have to hit the button to see
the result list
Later example is “live” and
dynamic
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 23

24. Faceted Navigation is
database filtering, but
many interfaces exist
COLUMNAR shown
here
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 24

25. Drop-Down style
VARIETAL= Red Wines,
White Wines, etc.
REGION = French,
Italian, etc.
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 25

26. Facets don’t have
to be “raw values”
can be higher-level
categories/values
Taxonomy
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 26

27. Selected “German” as the Region
Facets are primarily used to stack
filters, without having to teach
users in advance about the
lexicon
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 27

28. Continuing to Filter,
Added “White Wines” as a
Filter, just by clicking on the
facet
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 28

29. Demo:
Iokio
CameraFinder
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 29

30. Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 30

31. Demo:
Iokio
Omniscope Viewer
w/Van Gogh dataset
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 31

32. Facets are very
powerful, but time-
consuming to identify,
create and maintain
Make sure a recognizable cost savings or
revenue/improvement metric
demonstrates that facets are worth the
effort Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 32

33. Folksonomies and
Facets
Two great tastes that... well, you get the idea.
Dan Keldsen
Director, Market Intelligence at aiim.org
dan (dot) keldsen (at) aiim (dot) org
www.linkedin.com/in/dankeldsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 33