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Folksonomies and Social Tagging. What Are Tags?. Keywords or terms associated with or assigned to a piece of information They enable keyword-based classification and search of information. Basic Model for Tagging Systems. USER. RESOURCES. TAGS. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Folksonomies and Social Tagging
What Are Tags
bull Keywords or terms associated with or assigned to a piece of information
bull They enable keyword-based classification and search of information
Basic Model for Tagging Systems
USER
RESOURCES
TAGS
Donrsquot confuse tags with keywords or full-text searching
bull Keywords are behind the scenes tags are often visibly aggregated for use and browsing
bull Keywords can not be hyper-linkedbull Keywords imply searching tags imply linkingbull Full-text searching is passive tagging is activebull Itrsquos more about connecting items rather than
categorizing them
Tags can be hellip
bull Descriptions of the subject matterbull Where the item is locatedbull The intended use of the itembull Individual (gift from mom)
bull Different people have different tagging patterns
bull Tagging systems encourage differences
Tags are
bull Non-hierarchical
bull A way to create links between items by the creation of sets of objects
bull A means of connecting with others interested in the same things
Tagging Systems Define
bull Who can tag
bull What can be tagged
bull What kinds of tags can be used
bull Tagging systems may result in the creation of a ldquofolksonomyrdquo
Types of Tagging Systems
bull Managing personal information
bull Social bookmarking
bull Collecting and sharing digital objects
bull Improving the e-commerce experience
Why is tagging so popular
bull It is easy and enjoyable
bull It has a low cognitive cost
bull It is quick to do
bull It provides self and social feedback immediately
Putting the social in tagging
bull Tags allow for social interaction because when we navigate by tags we are directly connecting with others
bull People tag for their own benefit
Tags and therefore social tags are
bull Dynamic categorization systems
bull Often created on-the-fly
bull Chosen as relevant to the user ndash not to the creator cataloger or researcher
bull A social activity (more on this later)
bull Hopefully one small step toward a more interactive and responsive library system
What is a folksonomy
bull Folksonomy refers to an ldquoemergent grassroots taxonomyrdquondash An aggregate collections of tagsndash A bottom-up categorical structure
developmentndash An emergent thesaurus
bull A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
What Are Tags
bull Keywords or terms associated with or assigned to a piece of information
bull They enable keyword-based classification and search of information
Basic Model for Tagging Systems
USER
RESOURCES
TAGS
Donrsquot confuse tags with keywords or full-text searching
bull Keywords are behind the scenes tags are often visibly aggregated for use and browsing
bull Keywords can not be hyper-linkedbull Keywords imply searching tags imply linkingbull Full-text searching is passive tagging is activebull Itrsquos more about connecting items rather than
categorizing them
Tags can be hellip
bull Descriptions of the subject matterbull Where the item is locatedbull The intended use of the itembull Individual (gift from mom)
bull Different people have different tagging patterns
bull Tagging systems encourage differences
Tags are
bull Non-hierarchical
bull A way to create links between items by the creation of sets of objects
bull A means of connecting with others interested in the same things
Tagging Systems Define
bull Who can tag
bull What can be tagged
bull What kinds of tags can be used
bull Tagging systems may result in the creation of a ldquofolksonomyrdquo
Types of Tagging Systems
bull Managing personal information
bull Social bookmarking
bull Collecting and sharing digital objects
bull Improving the e-commerce experience
Why is tagging so popular
bull It is easy and enjoyable
bull It has a low cognitive cost
bull It is quick to do
bull It provides self and social feedback immediately
Putting the social in tagging
bull Tags allow for social interaction because when we navigate by tags we are directly connecting with others
bull People tag for their own benefit
Tags and therefore social tags are
bull Dynamic categorization systems
bull Often created on-the-fly
bull Chosen as relevant to the user ndash not to the creator cataloger or researcher
bull A social activity (more on this later)
bull Hopefully one small step toward a more interactive and responsive library system
What is a folksonomy
bull Folksonomy refers to an ldquoemergent grassroots taxonomyrdquondash An aggregate collections of tagsndash A bottom-up categorical structure
developmentndash An emergent thesaurus
bull A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Basic Model for Tagging Systems
USER
RESOURCES
TAGS
Donrsquot confuse tags with keywords or full-text searching
bull Keywords are behind the scenes tags are often visibly aggregated for use and browsing
bull Keywords can not be hyper-linkedbull Keywords imply searching tags imply linkingbull Full-text searching is passive tagging is activebull Itrsquos more about connecting items rather than
categorizing them
Tags can be hellip
bull Descriptions of the subject matterbull Where the item is locatedbull The intended use of the itembull Individual (gift from mom)
bull Different people have different tagging patterns
bull Tagging systems encourage differences
Tags are
bull Non-hierarchical
bull A way to create links between items by the creation of sets of objects
bull A means of connecting with others interested in the same things
Tagging Systems Define
bull Who can tag
bull What can be tagged
bull What kinds of tags can be used
bull Tagging systems may result in the creation of a ldquofolksonomyrdquo
Types of Tagging Systems
bull Managing personal information
bull Social bookmarking
bull Collecting and sharing digital objects
bull Improving the e-commerce experience
Why is tagging so popular
bull It is easy and enjoyable
bull It has a low cognitive cost
bull It is quick to do
bull It provides self and social feedback immediately
Putting the social in tagging
bull Tags allow for social interaction because when we navigate by tags we are directly connecting with others
bull People tag for their own benefit
Tags and therefore social tags are
bull Dynamic categorization systems
bull Often created on-the-fly
bull Chosen as relevant to the user ndash not to the creator cataloger or researcher
bull A social activity (more on this later)
bull Hopefully one small step toward a more interactive and responsive library system
What is a folksonomy
bull Folksonomy refers to an ldquoemergent grassroots taxonomyrdquondash An aggregate collections of tagsndash A bottom-up categorical structure
developmentndash An emergent thesaurus
bull A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Donrsquot confuse tags with keywords or full-text searching
bull Keywords are behind the scenes tags are often visibly aggregated for use and browsing
bull Keywords can not be hyper-linkedbull Keywords imply searching tags imply linkingbull Full-text searching is passive tagging is activebull Itrsquos more about connecting items rather than
categorizing them
Tags can be hellip
bull Descriptions of the subject matterbull Where the item is locatedbull The intended use of the itembull Individual (gift from mom)
bull Different people have different tagging patterns
bull Tagging systems encourage differences
Tags are
bull Non-hierarchical
bull A way to create links between items by the creation of sets of objects
bull A means of connecting with others interested in the same things
Tagging Systems Define
bull Who can tag
bull What can be tagged
bull What kinds of tags can be used
bull Tagging systems may result in the creation of a ldquofolksonomyrdquo
Types of Tagging Systems
bull Managing personal information
bull Social bookmarking
bull Collecting and sharing digital objects
bull Improving the e-commerce experience
Why is tagging so popular
bull It is easy and enjoyable
bull It has a low cognitive cost
bull It is quick to do
bull It provides self and social feedback immediately
Putting the social in tagging
bull Tags allow for social interaction because when we navigate by tags we are directly connecting with others
bull People tag for their own benefit
Tags and therefore social tags are
bull Dynamic categorization systems
bull Often created on-the-fly
bull Chosen as relevant to the user ndash not to the creator cataloger or researcher
bull A social activity (more on this later)
bull Hopefully one small step toward a more interactive and responsive library system
What is a folksonomy
bull Folksonomy refers to an ldquoemergent grassroots taxonomyrdquondash An aggregate collections of tagsndash A bottom-up categorical structure
developmentndash An emergent thesaurus
bull A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tags can be hellip
bull Descriptions of the subject matterbull Where the item is locatedbull The intended use of the itembull Individual (gift from mom)
bull Different people have different tagging patterns
bull Tagging systems encourage differences
Tags are
bull Non-hierarchical
bull A way to create links between items by the creation of sets of objects
bull A means of connecting with others interested in the same things
Tagging Systems Define
bull Who can tag
bull What can be tagged
bull What kinds of tags can be used
bull Tagging systems may result in the creation of a ldquofolksonomyrdquo
Types of Tagging Systems
bull Managing personal information
bull Social bookmarking
bull Collecting and sharing digital objects
bull Improving the e-commerce experience
Why is tagging so popular
bull It is easy and enjoyable
bull It has a low cognitive cost
bull It is quick to do
bull It provides self and social feedback immediately
Putting the social in tagging
bull Tags allow for social interaction because when we navigate by tags we are directly connecting with others
bull People tag for their own benefit
Tags and therefore social tags are
bull Dynamic categorization systems
bull Often created on-the-fly
bull Chosen as relevant to the user ndash not to the creator cataloger or researcher
bull A social activity (more on this later)
bull Hopefully one small step toward a more interactive and responsive library system
What is a folksonomy
bull Folksonomy refers to an ldquoemergent grassroots taxonomyrdquondash An aggregate collections of tagsndash A bottom-up categorical structure
developmentndash An emergent thesaurus
bull A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tags are
bull Non-hierarchical
bull A way to create links between items by the creation of sets of objects
bull A means of connecting with others interested in the same things
Tagging Systems Define
bull Who can tag
bull What can be tagged
bull What kinds of tags can be used
bull Tagging systems may result in the creation of a ldquofolksonomyrdquo
Types of Tagging Systems
bull Managing personal information
bull Social bookmarking
bull Collecting and sharing digital objects
bull Improving the e-commerce experience
Why is tagging so popular
bull It is easy and enjoyable
bull It has a low cognitive cost
bull It is quick to do
bull It provides self and social feedback immediately
Putting the social in tagging
bull Tags allow for social interaction because when we navigate by tags we are directly connecting with others
bull People tag for their own benefit
Tags and therefore social tags are
bull Dynamic categorization systems
bull Often created on-the-fly
bull Chosen as relevant to the user ndash not to the creator cataloger or researcher
bull A social activity (more on this later)
bull Hopefully one small step toward a more interactive and responsive library system
What is a folksonomy
bull Folksonomy refers to an ldquoemergent grassroots taxonomyrdquondash An aggregate collections of tagsndash A bottom-up categorical structure
developmentndash An emergent thesaurus
bull A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tagging Systems Define
bull Who can tag
bull What can be tagged
bull What kinds of tags can be used
bull Tagging systems may result in the creation of a ldquofolksonomyrdquo
Types of Tagging Systems
bull Managing personal information
bull Social bookmarking
bull Collecting and sharing digital objects
bull Improving the e-commerce experience
Why is tagging so popular
bull It is easy and enjoyable
bull It has a low cognitive cost
bull It is quick to do
bull It provides self and social feedback immediately
Putting the social in tagging
bull Tags allow for social interaction because when we navigate by tags we are directly connecting with others
bull People tag for their own benefit
Tags and therefore social tags are
bull Dynamic categorization systems
bull Often created on-the-fly
bull Chosen as relevant to the user ndash not to the creator cataloger or researcher
bull A social activity (more on this later)
bull Hopefully one small step toward a more interactive and responsive library system
What is a folksonomy
bull Folksonomy refers to an ldquoemergent grassroots taxonomyrdquondash An aggregate collections of tagsndash A bottom-up categorical structure
developmentndash An emergent thesaurus
bull A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Types of Tagging Systems
bull Managing personal information
bull Social bookmarking
bull Collecting and sharing digital objects
bull Improving the e-commerce experience
Why is tagging so popular
bull It is easy and enjoyable
bull It has a low cognitive cost
bull It is quick to do
bull It provides self and social feedback immediately
Putting the social in tagging
bull Tags allow for social interaction because when we navigate by tags we are directly connecting with others
bull People tag for their own benefit
Tags and therefore social tags are
bull Dynamic categorization systems
bull Often created on-the-fly
bull Chosen as relevant to the user ndash not to the creator cataloger or researcher
bull A social activity (more on this later)
bull Hopefully one small step toward a more interactive and responsive library system
What is a folksonomy
bull Folksonomy refers to an ldquoemergent grassroots taxonomyrdquondash An aggregate collections of tagsndash A bottom-up categorical structure
developmentndash An emergent thesaurus
bull A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Why is tagging so popular
bull It is easy and enjoyable
bull It has a low cognitive cost
bull It is quick to do
bull It provides self and social feedback immediately
Putting the social in tagging
bull Tags allow for social interaction because when we navigate by tags we are directly connecting with others
bull People tag for their own benefit
Tags and therefore social tags are
bull Dynamic categorization systems
bull Often created on-the-fly
bull Chosen as relevant to the user ndash not to the creator cataloger or researcher
bull A social activity (more on this later)
bull Hopefully one small step toward a more interactive and responsive library system
What is a folksonomy
bull Folksonomy refers to an ldquoemergent grassroots taxonomyrdquondash An aggregate collections of tagsndash A bottom-up categorical structure
developmentndash An emergent thesaurus
bull A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Putting the social in tagging
bull Tags allow for social interaction because when we navigate by tags we are directly connecting with others
bull People tag for their own benefit
Tags and therefore social tags are
bull Dynamic categorization systems
bull Often created on-the-fly
bull Chosen as relevant to the user ndash not to the creator cataloger or researcher
bull A social activity (more on this later)
bull Hopefully one small step toward a more interactive and responsive library system
What is a folksonomy
bull Folksonomy refers to an ldquoemergent grassroots taxonomyrdquondash An aggregate collections of tagsndash A bottom-up categorical structure
developmentndash An emergent thesaurus
bull A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tags and therefore social tags are
bull Dynamic categorization systems
bull Often created on-the-fly
bull Chosen as relevant to the user ndash not to the creator cataloger or researcher
bull A social activity (more on this later)
bull Hopefully one small step toward a more interactive and responsive library system
What is a folksonomy
bull Folksonomy refers to an ldquoemergent grassroots taxonomyrdquondash An aggregate collections of tagsndash A bottom-up categorical structure
developmentndash An emergent thesaurus
bull A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
What is a folksonomy
bull Folksonomy refers to an ldquoemergent grassroots taxonomyrdquondash An aggregate collections of tagsndash A bottom-up categorical structure
developmentndash An emergent thesaurus
bull A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Why do folksonomies work
bull The searcher defines the access but
bull The aggregation of the terms has public value
bull Itrsquos a typically messy democratic approach
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
What makes folksonomies popular
bull Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources
bull Theyrsquore personal
bull They lower barriers to cooperation
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when
bull Itrsquos easy to do
bull Itrsquos not commercial in nature
bull Taggers have ownership
bull Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff than they are your stuff
bull It has been shown to work well on the Web
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
The unexpected development terminological consensus
bull Collective action yields common terms
bull Stabilization may be caused by imitation and shared knowledge
bull The wisdom of the crowd
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Is your tagging influenced by my tagging
bull Of course it is
bull People are beginning tag in ways that make it easier for others to find like stuff
bull Shared meaning consequently evolves for tags
bull Most used tags become most visible
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Strengths of folksonomies
bull Cost-effective way to organize Internet
bull Social benefits
bull Itrsquos inclusive
bull For many environments they work well
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Collocation issues
bull They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do
bull Term ambiguity ndash words with multiple meanings
bull No synonym control
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Issues with specificity
bull Variable specificity for related terms
bull Broadness of terms impacts precision ndash terms are often imprecise
bull Mixed perspectives
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Issues with structure
bull Singular and plural forms create redundant headings
bull No guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order
bull No scope notes
bull No cross references
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Issues with accuracy
bull Collective lsquowisdomrsquo of the tagging community
bull How does wrong information impact retrieval
bull Conflicting cultural norms
bull Sometimes authority counts
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
ldquoSpaggingrdquo and other problems
bull Opening doors to opinion tags
bull Tagging wars
bull ldquoSpaggingrdquo Spam tagging
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tidying up the tagshellip
bull Lists of tagging norms have been developed
bull Are there programmatic solutions
bull Users know they are looking at tags
bull By tidying do we destroy the essence of why this works
bull Do we realistically have the resources
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Recommendations
Donrsquot assume that one size fits all bull Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalogbull Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to
help organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist
bull Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits
bull Explore ways to combine the two systems
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Recommendations
When you invite folksonomies into the catalog do so strategically and carefully
bull Donrsquot put terms in the same
index as controlled vocabulariesbull Find ways to associate terms applied across
editions of worksbull Need for mediation or at least observationbull The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of
specific terminology
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Recommendations
Always remember why people tag
bull People tag things because they want to find them not because they want others to find them
bull Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms and their frequency
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Recommendations
Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are
bull Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS
bull Controlled vocabularies that exist are not being exported to the Web
bull Well-connected terms foster discovery ndash letrsquos connect them Index those cross references where available
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Where are folksonomies found
bull Folksonomies are found in social bookmarks managers such as Delicious (httpdelicious) and Furl (httpwwwfurlnet) which allow users tondash Add bookmarks of sites they like to their personal
collections of linksndash Organize and categorize these sites by adding their own
terms or tagsndash Share this collection with other people with the same
interestsbull The tags are used to collocate bookmarks (a) within
a userrsquos collection and (b) across the entire system eg the page httpdelicioustagblogging will show all bookmarks that are tagged with ldquobloggingrdquo by any user
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Social Bookmarking and Social Tagging
bull what is social bookmarkingndash public sharing of links
bull association of tags (keywords) with links
ndash network of related links created by usersbull network of related tags created by users
bull what is taggingndash act of associating a term with a link or articlendash labelling or classifying for personal use
bull Tagging creates an association between user item and set of tags
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Inter-term relationships
bull There are no clearly defined relations between and among the terms in the vocabulary unlike formal taxonomies and classification schemes where there are multiple kinds of explicit relationships (eg broader narrower and related terms) between and among terms
bull Folksonomies are simply the set of terms that a group of users tagged content with they are not a predetermined set of classification terms or labels
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Popular folksonomy sites
bull Delicious (httpdelicious)
bull Flickr (httpwwwflickrcom)
bull Frassle (httpwwwfrassleorg)
bull Furl (httpwwwfurlnet)
bull Simpy (httpwwwsimpycom)
bull Spurl (httpwwwspurlcom)
bull Technorati (httpwwwtechnoraticom)
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
The popularity of folksonomies
bull The growing popularity of folksonomies can be attributed to two principal factorsndash An increasing need to exert control over the mass
of digital information that we accumulate on a daily basis
ndash A desire to ldquodemocratizerdquo the way in which digital information is described and organized by using categories and terminology that reflect the views and needs of the actual end-users rather than those of an external organization or body
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
What is Social Bookmarking
bull Social bookmarking is a server side web based service which allows users to create manage and share their personal bookmarks in a social community
bull Social bookmarking systems have three major axes users tags and URLs
bull Social bookmarking systems are a type of folksonomy
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
hellipthen what is folksonomy
bull Folksonomy is a collaboratively generated open-ended labeling system that enables users to categorize content by freely chosen labels
bull Thomas Vander Wal coined the phrase by combining ldquofolkrdquo + ldquotaxonomyrdquo 10487081048708
bull While folksonomy appears to be the most popular other names for the same phenomena have been proposed which included folk classification folk taxonomy ethnoclassification distributed classification social classification open tagging free tagging faceted hierarchy etc
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Social Bookmarking as aClassification System
bull A classification system is a structured scheme for categorizing knowledge entities or objects to improve access or study created according to alphabetical associative hierarchical numerical ideological spatial chronological or other criteria
bull Traditional methods for organizing information include controlled vocabularies taxonomies thesauri and ontologies
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Function of Social Bookmarking
bull Method for organize and storing informationndash Social bookmarking as a type of sense makingndash Allows users to organize personal information their way
bull Connects users to other related topics and ideasndash Gives the users the ability to sort the wheat from the chaffldquondash More narrowed focus vetted by humans as opposed to
computersndash Collective Wisdom - tags are ranked by popularity
bull Connects users to other usersndash Allows users to interact with other users methodsndash ldquoEavesdropping on someone elsersquos thought patternrdquo
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systems
bull Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object (URL)
bull Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by assigning a label or ldquotagrdquo
bull Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or ldquosuper tagrdquo
bull Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Example of a Tag Cloud
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tagging Issues
bull Tagging is Goodbull dynamic distributed
classificationbull related tag networksbull tag cloud shows
extent of collectionbull user terminologybull diversity
bull Tagging is Badbull mob indexingbull no controlled
vocabulary bull poor browsing
experiencebull no thesaurusbull consensus by a mob
or no consensus
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tagging Issues
bull spelling variationsbull spelling mistakesbull potentially mistaken term usagebull acronyms homonyms synonymsbull sesquipedalians (terms made by sticking
many smaller terms together eg information_seeking_behaviour)
bull non subject tags (eg affective tags time and task tags)
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Patterns in Tagging (3 studies of tags)
bull Are categories emerging in social tagging that will complement those developed through professional methods
bull What does tag convergence and co-word usage suggest about the utility of tagging
bull What implications do the use of affective or time and task related tags have for the organisation of information
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Convergence and Divergence in Tags
bull When enough people tag a site a set of more frequently applied tags will emerge that start to look like a reasonable description of the item
bull tag trends do not follow standard power laws for term usage (8020 rule)ndash the drop off tends to be much slower at first
before suddenly returning to the normal power law
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tag Frequency 1o
nto
log
y
tag
gin
g
folk
so
no
my
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
tag
s
we
b2
0
sh
irk
y
de
lic
iou
s
art
icle
tax
on
om
y
me
tad
ata
folk
so
no
mie
s
se
ma
ntic
we
b
tag
tore
ad
Ca
teg
ori
za
tion
ca
teg
ori
es
refe
ren
ce
Blo
g
we
b
info
rma
tion
on
tolo
gie
s
se
ma
ntic
Inte
rne
t
libra
ry
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Tag Frequency Graph for httpshirkycomwritingson-tology_overratedhtml
Fre
quen
cy
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tag Frequency 2ta
gg
ing
so
cia
l
co
llab
ora
tion
folk
so
no
my
tag
s
art
icle
folk
so
no
mie
s
de
lic
iou
s
so
cia
lne
two
rkin
g
res
ea
rch
We
b2
0
bo
ok
ma
rkin
g
cla
ss
ific
atio
n
kc
b2
01
ca
talo
gin
g
ac
ad
em
ic
art
icle
s
ind
ex
ing
so
cia
ltag
gin
g
tax
on
om
y
Info
rma
tion
libra
ry
ne
two
rk
So
cia
l_n
etw
ork
ing
so
cia
lbo
ok
ma
rkin
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tag Frequency Graph for httpwwwariadneacukissue54tonkin-et-al
Fre
qu
en
cy
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tagging Patterns
bull Consensus forms after a certain number of users have tagged an itemndash first item by 2250 people second only tagged by 49
bull frequency graphs suggest a relative consensus on terms but tag lists and co-word graphs do notndash high frequency tags used frequently but not
necessarily with other high frequency termsndash tagging patterns may show group consensus and
trends in user communities
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tag Lists
bull Shirky 2005 (httpdeliciousurl97c30ea798555e7b8380bc1f4925233d)
bull by nayma to folksonomy tags web20 ontology bull by zeft to ontology bull by chrysoberyl to 20 libraries thinky bull by peleke12 to ontology shirky tagging bull by alisaepstein to folksonomy folksonomies
tagging web20 653
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Co-word Graph of Tags
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Comparison of Tags with Controlled Vocabulary
bull 1 study tag use and types of tags on articles compared to subject headings on CiteULike (like delicious but indexes journal articles which have more metadata)ndash most common relationship between the terms was
related but not in the thesaurusndash next most common RT and then equivalence
bull 2 study comparing tags and LCSH on LibraryThing without further context it is extremely difficult to tell whether an apparently anomalous tag in a tag cloud is a mistake
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Non Subject Tags
bull some time and task or affective tags are very popularndash cool fun funny toread appeared in main delicious
tag cloud
bull ToRead and fun are popular tags on all three sites
bull affective terms appear more frequent on Citeulike and Connotea than expectedndash biology articles more often listed as toread math and
physics as fun
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Utility of Tagging
bull tagging can be useful for providing a good picture of how users see the materialndash Steve Museum project found that users used
very different terminology and tagged specific items seen in the picture which had been absent from professional cataloguing
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Tagging Discussion
bull tagging has all the problems of free text searchautomatic indexing
bull but tag groups tend to converge on a useful set of terms after a threshold number of users
bull users use some terminology which is rare or completely absent from subject heading lists (eg time and task tags)
bull user terms often not part of formal thesaurus
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Social Bookmarking Characteristics
bull Common elemental characteristics of social bookmarking (folksonomic) systemsndash Tag ndash a single word label that is applied to an object
(URL)ndash Tagging ndash the process of organizing an object by
assigning a label or ldquotagrdquondash Tag bundle ndasha group of tags linked by another tag or
ldquosuper tagrdquo Bundles are a way to group together common tags For instance if you have the tags design painting and moma you may want to group these together into a bundle called art
ndash Tag cloud - a visual weighted list of a set or subset of tags
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Folksonomies and user vocabulary
bull In information retrieval systems (IRS) the vocabulary used to organize content may be based upon the choices of the authors of the materials the designer of the IRS or the designer of the controlled vocabulary in place
bull Folksonomies reflect usersrsquo choices in diction terminology and precision
bull Folksonomies can adapt very quickly to changes in user needs and vocabulary and adding new terms to a folksonomy incurs virtually no cost for either the user or the system
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Folksonomies and online communities
bull Folksonomies create a sense of community amongst their users Most social bookmark managers will recommend new links and other membersrsquo folders or sites that are strongly related to an individual member by analyzing his or her linking pattern
bull As soon as users assign a tag to an item they can see the cluster of items carrying the same tag This feedback loop leads to a form of asymmetrical communication between users through metadata
bull The users of a system negotiate the meaning of the terms in the folksonomy
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Ambiguity
bull The terms in a folksonomy may have inherent ambiguity as different users apply terms to documents in different waysndash Eg the tag ldquoANTrdquo has been used to refer
to ldquoActor Network Theoryrdquo a sociological term as well as Apache Ant a Java programming tool
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Polysemy
bull The polysemous tag ldquoportrdquo could refer to a sweet fortified wine a porthole a place for loading and unloading ships the left-hand side of a ship or aircraft or a channel endpoint in a communications system
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Synonyms
bull Folksonomies provide for no synonym control the terms ldquomacrdquo ldquomacintoshrdquo and ldquoapplerdquo for example are used to describe Apple Macintosh computers
bull Both singular and plural forms of terms appear (eg flower and flowers) thus creating a number of redundant headings
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Specificity
bull Related terms that describe an item vary along a continuum of specificity ranging from very general to very specific so for example documents tagged ldquoperlrdquo and ldquojavascriptrdquo may be too specific for some users while a document tagged ldquoprogrammingrdquo may be too general for others
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Syntax
bull Folksonomies provide no guidelines for the use of compound headings punctuation word order and so forth for example should one use the tag ldquovegan cookingrdquo or ldquocooking veganrdquo
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Incorrect Usage
bull Tags could be applied incorrectly the term ldquoarcheologyrdquo for example is used to tag items pertaining to both dinosaurs and primitive microbes
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Consensus
bull Users strive to achieve a degree of consensus over the general meaning of tags
bull As a URL receives more and more bookmarks the set of tags used in those bookmarks becomes stable across different users
bull This stabilization is facilitated through imitation and shared knowledge Delicious shows users the tags most commonly used by others who bookmarked the same URL already users can easily select those tags for use in their own bookmarks thus imitating the choices of previous users
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Folksonomies and controlled vocabularies
bull Folksonomies are not necessarily antithetical to controlled vocabularies
bull Once you have a preliminary system in place you can use the most common tags to develop a controlled vocabulary that truly speaks the usersrsquo languagendash Eg you can link related tags such as ldquonycrdquo
ldquonewyorkrdquo and ldquonewyorkcityrdquo it may be possible to align these terms with established controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names in order to provide a greater range of related terms
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Other uses for folksonomies
bull Could be used to organize resources for an intranet course collection etc
bull Could be used to enhance the customizable features of library catalogues Clients could organize and tag items of interest from the catalogue as well as external sources (if allowable)ndash Could share these tags and sources with other clients with
similar interests This could lead to a user-directed reader advisory service
ndash Could use folksonomies to supplement existing LCSH vocabulary in the catalogue eg LCSH does not contain terms for the popular film genres ldquocultrdquo ldquodramardquo or ldquoactionrdquo
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Advantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low ldquocognitiverdquo cost ndash large grassroots community users vs expert metadata specialists or catalogers
bull Self moderating and democratic
bull Flexible inclusive adaptive and current
bull Immediate Feedback
bull Usability ndash easy to use
bull Great at serendipitous discovery
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Disadvantages of Social Bookmarking
bull Low PrecisionRecall due to synonymous and polysemous tags
bull Basic Level problem ndash Granularity of tags (too specific too general)
bull Lack of hierarchy ndash no parent-child broad-narrow relationship
bull Highly susceptible to malicious usersndash Meta Noise - incorrectly malicious tagsndash Gaming - cheating the systemndash Spamming - a universal plague of all social systems
bull Fails as a search system bad at finding specific items
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Conclusions
bull Folksonomies are undoubtedly fraught with the problems typical of uncontrolled vocabularies but their growing popularity suggests that people are interested and motivated in assigning their own metatags to items of interest
bull One cannot help but wonder whether such enthusiasm for metadata would be the same if people were asked to use only prescribed and standardized vocabularies
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Other Areas to Explore
bull The cognitive and behavioural aspects of folksonomy usendash What is the tagging behaviour of people who use
folksonomiesndash Why do people choose the tags they use what
motivates them to modify these tags how often do they modify them
ndash How are folksonomies used communallyndash How do folksonomies foster consensus in the use
of tagsndash How does the community affect which tags are
used and how
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
Folksonomies in Libraries
bull Libraries canrsquot continue to rely exclusively on in-house cataloging
bull We can achieve our overall goals while allowing new mechanisms along the way
bull Users are one additional source of metadata we must tap
bull We must match appropriate metadata needs to the tasks users are best equipped to perform
bull Good interfaces for metadata collection will be keybull We must use the best ideas for user participation and
adapt them for the library environment
