OPAL Conference, August 20081 Social Tagging, Folksonomies & Controlled Vocabularies Inviting New...
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Transcript of OPAL Conference, August 20081 Social Tagging, Folksonomies & Controlled Vocabularies Inviting New...
OPAL Conference, August 2008 1
Social Tagging, Folksonomies &
Controlled Vocabularies
Inviting New Access Systems
to our Academic Table
Margaret MaurerAssociate ProfessorHead, Catalog & MetadataKent State University Libraries and Media Services
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What are tags?
Keywords or terms associated with or assigned to a piece of information
They enable keyword-based classification and search of information
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Basic Model for Tagging Systems
USER
TAGS
RESOURCES
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Don’t confuse tags with keywords or full-text searching
Keywords are behind the scenes, tags are often visibly aggregated for use and browsing
Keywords can not be hyper-linked Keywords imply searching, tags imply linking Full-text searching is passive, tagging is active It’s more about connecting items rather than
categorizing them.
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Tags can be…
Descriptions of the subject matter Where the item is located The intended use of the item Individual (gift from mom)
Different people have different tagging patterns
Tagging systems encourage differences
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Tags are
Non-hierarchical A way to create links between items by the
creation of sets of objects A means of connecting with others interested
in the same things
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Tagging Systems Define
Who can tag What can be tagged What kinds of tags can be used
Tagging systems may result in the creation of a “folksonomy”
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Types of Tagging Systems
Managing personal information Social bookmarking Collecting and sharing digital objects Improving the e-commerce experience
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Why is tagging so popular?
It is easy and enjoyable It has a low cognitive cost It is quick to do It provides self and social feedback
immediately
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Putting the social in tagging
Tags allow for social interaction because when we navigate by tags we are directly connecting with others
People tag for their own benefit
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Tags, and therefore social tags are
Dynamic categorization systems Often created on-the-fly Chosen as relevant to the user – not to the
creator, cataloger or researcher A social activity (more on this later) Hopefully one small step toward a more
interactive and responsive library system
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What is a folksonomy?
Folksonomy refers to an “emergent, grassroots taxonomy” An aggregate collections of tags A bottom-up categorical structure development An emergent thesaurus
A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
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Why do folksonomies work?
The searcher defines the access, but The aggregation of the terms has public
value It’s a typically messy democratic approach
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What makes folksonomies popular?
Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
They’re personal They lower barriers to cooperation
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Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
It’s easy to do It’s not commercial in nature Taggers have ownership Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff
than they are your stuff It has been shown to work
well on the Web
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The unexpected development: terminological consensus
Collective action yields common terms Stabilization may be caused by imitation and
shared knowledge The wisdom of the crowd
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Is your tagging influenced by my tagging?
Of course it is! People are beginning tag in ways that make it
easier for others to fine like stuff Shared meaning consequently evolves for
tags Most used tags become most visible
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Strengths of folksonomies
Cost-effective way to organize Internet Social benefits It’s inclusive For many environments, they work well
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Collocation issues
They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
Term ambiguity – words with multiple meanings No synonym control
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Issues with specificity
Variable specificity for related terms Broadness of terms impacts precision – terms are
often imprecise Mixed perspectives
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Issues with structure
Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
No guidelines for the use of compound headings, punctuation, word order
No scope notes No cross references
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Issues with accuracy
Collective ‘wisdom’ of the tagging community How does wrong information impact retrieval Conflicting cultural norms Sometimes authority counts
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“Spagging” and other problems
Opening doors to opinion tags Tagging wars “Spagging” Spam tagging
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Tidying up the tags…?
Lists of tagging norms have been developed Are there programmatic solutions? Users know they are looking at tags By tidying, do we destroy the essence of why
this works? Do we realistically have the resources?
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Recommendations
Don’t assume that one size fits all Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalog Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to help
organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
Explore ways to combine the two systems
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Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog, do so strategically, and carefully
Don’t put terms in the same index as controlled vocabularies Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of works Need for mediation, or at least observation The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
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Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
People tag things because they want to find them, not because they want others to find them
Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms, and their frequency
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Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS Controlled vocabularies that exist are not
being exported to the Web Well-connected terms foster discovery – let’s
connect them. Index those cross references where available