Understanding Folksonomy

(Tagging that Works)

Thomas Vander Wal
Presented to: d.construct
Brighton, England :: 8 September 2006

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 Wutzatag?

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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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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 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 inferred understanding of the
information/object.

People are not so much categorizing, as

providing a means to connect items
(placing hooks) and provide their meaning
in their own understanding.

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 Folksonomy Triad
Object Identity
Interest

Definition
Vocabulary

Metadata

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Looking for Others
Object Identity

Definition

Metadata

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Dual Folksonomy Triad
Object Interest Identity

Culture Vocabulary

Definition

Terminology
Community Metadata

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Folksonomy
vs.
Taxonomy

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Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy
Business Customer

Taxonomy Product Folksonomy

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Taxonomy & Folksonomy

Taxonomy Folksonomy
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The Value of Tagging
for Business

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 Business Tensions

Naming control People’s vocabulary

In-house Outside service

£££ w/ value £ w/ unknown value

Consistent Emergent

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 Business Gains

❖ Improved understanding of customers

❖ Current terminology (all of it)

❖ Market segmentations

❖ Ability to easily follow the customer

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So, Who Tags?

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About 0.5% of people
on the Web tag

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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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Every Tag is Sacred

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Every person is an
expert in their own
vocabulary (tags)

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Shape of Tags

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Where Do People Tag?

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 Tag Venues
❖ Social Bookmarking del.icio.us, RawSugar
❖ Media Flickr, Dabble, LastFM
❖ Shopping Amazon
❖ Geo-Location Platial
❖ Mobile Socialite
❖ Intranet IBM’s Dogear, Scuttle
❖ OS (files) Apple Mac OSX Tiger

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 Tag Venues

Wherever there is a
digital object or marker

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Using Tag Services

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 Tag Services Offer
❖ Tagging
❖ Descriptions
❖ Feeds
❖ Interface
❖ Additional offerings
❖ Groups
❖ Favorites
❖ Rating
❖ Search
❖ Save page

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 Interaction
❖ Tags
❖ Delimited combinations
❖ Space
❖ Comma
❖ Quotes for compound words
❖ Suggested tags
❖ From own tags
❖ From other’s tags
❖ Automated from object content
❖ Tag Combinations

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 Interaction
❖ Rating
❖ Stars
❖ Positive/negative
❖ Favorite
❖ Feeds
❖ RSS/ATOM
❖ API
❖ How much access to data/metadata?

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Art of the Pivot

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RawSugar Pivots

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 Scanning

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Spheres of Sociality
Mass
Collective
Selective
Personal

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 Collective

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MyWeb - Interesting
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 Selective

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Del.icio.us My Network
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 Personal

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 Filtering

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 Clustering

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Tag Combinations

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 TagCloud

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Show Flat List
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 Shopping

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Improvements

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Value of Tagging
for Non-taggers

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 Volatility of
Tagged Object

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 Tethering Needed
❖ When object is updated
❖ Corrected/Edited
❖ New Content
❖ Removed
❖ Similar items
❖ Archive access

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Granular Social
Network

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URL: http://infocloudsolutions.com
E-mail: thomas@infocloudsolutions.com
E-mail: thomas@vanderwal.net
AIM: vanderwal
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