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Folksonomies are flat

Tag bundles: allows you to combine several related tags into a logical grouping for instance, you might combine the tags "hitter", "pitcher", and "fielder" into a bundle and call it "Baseball"

A facet is a certain classifiable characteristic of the resource -- a way to classify something. http://www.facetmap.com Formal categories within which tags can exist – adding a heirarchical aspect and some structure to free-form tagging Meant to be a middle ground between free tagging and formal hierarchies/top-down controlled vocabularies A heading is set ahead of time, and tags are filed under the heading

Specialized Searches

Common language

What is PennTags? PennTags is a social bookmarking tool for locating, organizing, and sharing your favorite online resources. Members of the Penn Community can collect and maintain URLs, links to journal articles, and records in Franklin, our online catalog and VCat, our online video catalog. Once these resources are compiled, you can organize them by assigning tags (free-text keywords) and/or by grouping them into projects, according to your specific preferences. PennTags can also be used collaboratively, because it acts as a repository of the varied interests and academic pursuits of the Penn community, and can help you find topics and users related to your own favorite online resources. PennTags was developed by librarians at the University of Pennsylvania. We welcome your feedback! Please contact us at penntags@pobox.upenn.edu. How is PennTags different from my bookmarks? Think of PennTags as an enhanced version of your bookmarks but with the following differences: PennTags is available to you from any computer, unlike personal bookmarks on your computer. PennTags allows you to add tags to your posts, helping you organize and find posts later. PennTags is a social discovery system; you can see what others are posting and what tags they are using. You can sort items of interest by tag, project or user, unlike bookmarks which can only be found by folder name. You can create an RSS feed for tags in PennTags, so anytime that tag is used, you will be notified in your RSS feed reader. Why should I use PennTags? Have you ever bookmarked a web page and then cant find it again in your mass of bookmarks? The beauty of PennTags is that it allows you to organize your bookmarks/resources exactly the way you want and it lets you share them with others. It's both personal and portable. Why would I want to do this? When you add tags to a post using PennTags, you gain a lot of flexibility in how you can organize and use your favorites. You decide what word or phrase is meaningful and should be used as a tag. You can search for a specific tag or tags and see the posts that have been described by that tag. You can also find tags and posts related to your favorites. Think of PennTags as a discovery tool!

The University of Michigan Library just released our very own home-grown tagging tools. Now users can tag library web pages, catalog records, image collections, and some of the Scholarly Publishing Office’s electronic journals. More access systems will add tagging eventually. Any tag or user can be subscribed to using RSS. The University of Michigan Library just released our very own home-grown tagging tools. Now users can tag library web pages, catalog records, image collections, and some of the Scholarly Publishing Office’s electronic journals. More access systems will add tagging eventually. Any tag or user can be subscribed to using RSS. Most MLibrary web pages. There is a new MTagger menu item in the standard navigation bar and a tag cloud in the footer of all library web pages that use the MLibrary template, including this one -- look in the upper right for the MTagger menu and the lower left for the tag cloud. Digital image collections hosted by the U-M Library (DLPS). A tag cloud appears on all image description pages. Example. Mirlyn (on item display pages). A tag cloud appears at the bottom of item display pages. Example. Selected electronic journals published by the Scholarly Publishing Office. Example. Any page on the web with the MTagger Browser Bookmark, once you have added it to your browser's bookmarks/favorites toolbar.

Gene Smith is a consultant specializing in information architecture strategy, social classification like tagging and folksonomies, emergent information architecture and interaction design.

Browse through Flickr photos in 3D with this flash application.

Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites, or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. These data usually consist of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, accuracy data, and place names. Geotagging can help users find a wide variety of location-specific information. For instance, one can find images taken near a given location by entering latitude and longitude coordinates into a Geotagging-enabled image search engine. Geotagging-enabled information services can also potentially be used to find location-based news, websites, or other resources.[1]

Semapedia is a project which uses QR Code nodes to connect Wikipedia articles with their relevant place in physical space. Placing physical semapedia tags on real-world objects allows people with mobile phones to use their built-in cameras to decode the Wikipedia-URL from the semacode. The phone can then use its internal browser to display the Wikipedia article of the physical object to the user. (from Wikipedia)

Looking Beyond the Clouds Enhancing Library Services through Social Tagging Emily Clasper Suffolk Cooperative Library System Long Island Library Conference 2009 Sponsored by the Computer and Technical Services (CATS) Division of SCLA

Who is familiar with tags? Pop Quiz! http://www.flickr.com/photos/33138717@N00/2678466527/ Who has tagged something? Who has used tags to find something? Who is a tag skeptic?

What Are Tags? Short, free text labels assigned to a piece of information. http://www.flickr.com/photos/15843813@N00/3432635506/ Used to label digital objects for future retrieval or findability. Used to categorize and describe online content. Non-hierarchical No structure No vocabulary limits Typically applied by the creator or consumer of the item being tagged.

Tag Cloud A visual depiction of user-generated tags. May be weighted by a tag’s popularity. Popularity indicated by differences of size or color. Often arranged alphabetically. Clicking on Tags in a cloud will navigate the user to other search results bearing that tag.

Tag Cloud: An Experiment What digital object was tagged to produce this cloud? http://www.wordle.net/

Tag Cloud: An Experiment

Tag Cloud: An Experiment

Tag Cloud: An Experiment

Tag Cloud: An Experiment

Formal system for systematically applying meaningful labels to organize information. Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy: Taxonomy Authoritative Top-down development Controlled Vocabulary Hierarchical Precise Unambiguous Highly structured Potentially complex

Taxonomies in Libraries

User-generated classification systems developed through the application of tags. Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy: Folksonomy Evolves out of consensus No formal structure No pre-determined vocabulary Real language Bottom-up development Collaborative Inclusive Simple to construct Everyone’s tags combine to form a folksonomy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zanzo/374076098/ Folksonomy

“If taxonomies are trees… http://www.flickr.com/photos/larsvandegoor/3027031975/

…tags are a pile of leaves.” – David Weinberger “Now autumn has come to the forest of knowledge, thanks to the digital revolution. The leaves are falling and the trees are looking bare. We are discovering that traditional knowledge hierarchies that have served us so well are unnecessarily restricted when it comes to organizing information in the digital world.” – David Weinberger

Tagging on the Web: Delicious

Tagging on the Web: flickr

Tagging on the Web: YouTube

Tagging on the Web: Amazon

Tagging on the Web: LibraryThing

Tagging on the Web: Shelfari

Tagging on the Web: Shopping Sites

Tagging on the Web: New York Times

Tagging on the Web: Popular Science

Tagging on the Web: Online Communities

Tagging on the Web: Facebook

Tagging on the Web: Blogs

Tagging on the Web: Technorati Tag Searching

Tagging on the Web: Twitter Hashtags

Why Do People Tag? Tagging is easy. Encounter something interesting. Turtle giant Sea huge aquarium water brown spotted tank shell flippers aquarium brown flippers giant huge sea shell spotted tank turtle water 2. Think of some related concepts. 3. Write them down. (Tag it!)

Tagging is cheap. Astronomical rate of production for online content: Technorati indexes approximately 1.5 million blog posts every week. http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/ Every minute, more than ten hours of video is uploaded to YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/t/fact_sheet On November 3rd, 2008, Flickr’s Three Billionth photo was uploaded. http://blog.flickr.net/en/2008/11/03/3-billion/c Tagging provides a low cost and efficient way to organize all of this information. Why Do People Tag? http://www.flickr.com/photos/24223801

Tagging is fun. Why Do People Tag?

Tagging is fun. Why Do People Tag?

Tagging uses “regular” language. Why Do People Tag?

Tagging is personal. Why Do People Tag?

Tagging Allows Personal Expression Why Do People Tag?

Why Do People Tag? Tagging allows people to participate in a community.

Tagging adds more options for searching and browsing for information. Why Do People Tag?

Compliments traditional classification. Why Do People Tag?

Tagging remains current. Why Do People Tag?

Gives us insight into user behavior. Why Do People Tag?

Gives us insight into user behavior. Why Do People Tag?

Tagging allows for inclusiveness in labeling. http://www.flickr.com/photos/foster1013/3157373568/ Soda Pop Soda Pop Cola Coke Coca Cola Pepsi Carbonated Beverage Soft Drink Fountain Drink Why Do People Tag?

Anyone can do it! http://www.flickr.com/photos/msc72/1442890597/ Why Do People Tag?

Disadvantages of Tagging: Search Results Lack Precision Lack of hierarchy and subcategories Tags are all weighted equally – 1 “vote” per tag Most tagging systems do not handle operators well Inconsistency between tagging systems Tagging and Searching: Search Retrieval Effectiveness of Folksonomies on the Web, by P. Jason Morrison (May 2007) http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/send-pdf.cgi/Morrison,%20Patrick%20Jason.pdf?acc_num=kent1177305096 http://www.flickr.com/photos/kidproquo/2295608086/

Disadvantages of Tagging: Language and Vocabulary Issues Polysemy: Words with different possible meanings APPLE

Disadvantages of Tagging: Language and Vocabulary Issues Synonyms: Different tags with the same meaning. Plurals and other variants: classic, classics childrens, children’s Misspellings

Disadvantages of Tagging: Language and Vocabulary Issues Picking an “Incorrect” Tag http://www.wordle.net/

What Do We Do About It? Tag Bundles Delicious Group your tags within general categories you define yourself.

What Do We Do About It? Faceted Tags http://www.facetmap.com Easier to understand meanings of tags Large Tag Clouds more browseable More support for exploration, discovery and iterative query refinement http://www.facetag.com Group your tags within pre-determined general categories.

What Do We Do About It? Tag Clusters

Spam Tags Personal Tags Abuse Too Few Tags Disadvantages of Tagging: Other Issues http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabrizia/2960393189/ "The information you get [through tags] is always going to be somewhat imperfect and fuzzy. But a bunch of people doing 'okay' tagging may actually have a higher net value than an authoritative organization telling you how information should be organized." - Joshua Schachter, Creator of Delicious (June 2005)

Tagging in Libraries: Library Blogs

Tagging in Libraries: Building Communities

“We invite your tags and comments! Also, more identification information. (The current titles come from the agency's original documentation, which was sometimes incomplete.)” Tagging in Libraries: Encouraging Community Participation

Tagging in Libraries: Encouraging Community Participation

Mastics Moriches Shirley Community Library Children's & Parents' Services Department LibraryThing Group Tagging in Libraries: Creating Reading Lists

Tagging in Libraries: Connecting Professionals Houston Area Library System Professional Collection on LibraryThing

Tagging in Libraries: Aiding in Browsing for Materials

Tagging in Libraries: Aiding in Browsing for Materials

Tagging in Libraries: Aiding in Browsing for Materials

Tagging in Libraries: Aiding in Searching for Materials suffolkweb.org - Encore

Tagging in Libraries: Aiding in Searching for Materials

Tagging in Libraries: Aiding in Searching for Materials

Tagging in Libraries: Aiding in Searching for Materials

Tagging in Libraries: Finding Materials on a Web Site Penn Tags – University of Pennsylvania

MTagger – University of Michigan As of 4/29/2009, MTagger had 3254 tags Tagging in Libraries: Finding Materials on a Web Site

Tagging in Libraries: Finding Materials on a Web Site

Tagging in Libraries: Creating Subject Guides

Tagging in Libraries: Creating Subject Guides

Tagging in Libraries: Course Materials

Tagging in Libraries: Conference Materials Hint: try lilc09 tomorrow!

Emerging Trends in Tagging More structure. Uncontrolled vocabularies are being replaced by tagging systems that understand the difference between Polish and polish. Automanual folksonomies. Some tagging systems combine algorithmic and manual approaches, closing the gap between what we might call traditional information structures and the emergent structure of Flickr and Del.icio.us. Leveraging communities. Some systems have their users help reduce the noise and eliminate meaningless duplication in their tags.  User-generated innovation. Tags have developed into a cheap and easy way for people to innovate on top of a web application. http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-08/AugSep08_Smith.html Gene Smith, September 2008

Emerging Trends in Tagging: New Ways to Represent Information http://taggalaxy.de/

http://taggalaxy.de/ Emerging Trends in Tagging: New Ways to Represent Information

http://infosthetics.com/ Emerging Trends in Tagging: New Ways to Represent Information

Emerging Trends in Tagging: Automated Tagging

Emerging Trends in Tagging: Automated Tagging

Emerging Trends in Tagging: GeoTagging

Emerging Trends in Tagging: Mobile Tagging http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mt_process_english.jpg Applying tags to physical objects to provide quick, precise and customer-driven access to information via mobile devices. Download a Reader: http://mskynet.com/static/app

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Semapedia.jpg Emerging Trends in Tagging: Mobile Tagging

Emerging Trends in Tagging: Mobile Tagging

Emerging Trends in Tagging: Tags in the Mobile World http://mskynet.com/ http://Semapedia.org/

Emerging Trends in Tagging: Where do Libraries Fit in? Finding new strategies for discovering information and providing access. Developing new ways of organizing and representing information. Engaging users and empowering them participate in our information community. Connecting separate pieces of information and resources. Reaching out to provide mobile access to digital information.

Questions?

Emily Clasper Suffolk Cooperative Library System eclasper@suffolk.lib.ny.us http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/63356/Looking-Beyond-the-Clouds Presentation available: