Tag… You’re It!
October 17, 2006
Some quick and mostly unrelated thoughts on a few of this week’s readings…
Though this week’s Wikipedia article identifies the lack of controlled vocabulary as a disadvantage of tag-based systems, I think that it must also be identified as a potential advantage. The ability to find the info you seek even if you don’t know the “proper” identifier is certainly helpful to most of us. Though you may not find all the information on a given topic, you will certainly find some of it. Controlled vocabulary, on the other hand, tends to be an all or nothing proposition. If you know the controlled term then you will find all the relevant data, if you are unable to identify the control vocab – and let’s face it they’re not always intuitive – then you’re out of luck.
According to Hollenback’s article, nutr.itio.us may be providing users with a method of creating a DIY controlled vocabulary – okay maybe not controlled but at least somewhat consistent. Unfortunately, when I follow the provided link I get only a “suspended for the moment” note, so I have not had a chance to play with it. Thanks to his description, I think I know have a firmer understanding of pasta, though I haven’t yet found a reason to make use of it. del.icio.us, nutr.itio.us, pasta - are you noticing a theme? No wonder I’m hungry.
Though somewhat confused by Udell’s Cornucopia of the Commons, I was intrigued by his discussion of the relationships formed through del.icio.us. Oddly, it struck me as a combination of a citation index and Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Weird, but true
Phew, it’s okay to be a little selfish. According to Porter’s del.icio.us lesson, and I agree, this is the whole reason for the success of del.icio.us. We tag for our own benefit, not for others, the ultimate benefit to others is simply a side effect of our own need to organize.
October 18, 2006 at 4:17 pm
I agree that uncontrolled vocabulary has some definite advantages. Controlled vocabularly can indeed be very non-intuitive…if you don’t know the exact phrase it can be hard to find what you are looking for. Tagging allows people to use language that is intuitive to them (and hopefully to other people as well).
October 19, 2006 at 12:57 pm
I was going to make a comment along the same lines as the one Kelly has made above. Although structured taxonomy can be helpful for keeping information in order, tagging is definitely more natural and doens’t require the user to have an extensive knowlege of subject terms and keywords. Perhaps a combination of tagging and structured taxonomy is the answer. Using tags and other familiar words to delve into a topic where these tags are connected to pre-existing, structured keywords and subjects would be useful
October 30, 2006 at 5:55 pm
I pretty much echo the other two posts. There are advantages and disadvantages to both folsonomies and controlled vocabularies, however I must agree with you in that if a controlled vocabulary is being used it seems to be all or nothing in terms of locating what your looking for. Atleast with folksonomies you have a good chance of getting a few bites, which will often lead you to more of what you are looking for!