THE FUTURE OF INFORMATION ORGANISATION

Michael Feeney

1

Social Tagging Behaviour and the Changing Role of Expertise

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Overview2

1. Background on tagging and Twitter2. Selected guide to some (useful)

literature3. Anecdotes

#YesAllWomen #QANZAC Tagging and Your Database

4. What's next?

What is meant by social tagging?

3

Social Tagging

Also known as: Collaborative tagging; user tagging; social indexing.

User-generated metadata

Assigning labels to organise, store, contextualise, and group content online

Collectively-sourced; controlled by the community

Twitter #Hashtags4

Most prevalent and well-recognised use of social tagging can be seen in hashtags (#)

Popularised through rise of microblogging services #tags began on Twitter as a community initiative

in 2007 to establish informal groupings or channels

Stowe Boyd and Chris Messina proposed using the leading (#) character to add context and act as beacons for anchoring conversations

Twitter is just a data stream. But community-driven tags empowered Twitter users

Research Overview5

Towards an understanding Systematically review research into tagging, social

tagging, and folksonomies between ~2004 and 2014 Describing and analysing theoretical perspectives Look for any consensus or shared interpretation

Methodology Reading until saturation point Evaluating the legitimacy and constructiveness of

articles Questioning conclusions and making sense of results Comparing, contrasting; searching for patterns or

gaps

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Project ‘The Wisdom of Clouds’

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Themes in social tagging literature Folksonomies and controlled

vocabularies Tagging behavior and Twitter Harnessing collective intelligence and

crowd-sourcing wisdom

Research into tagging:

What is the nature of social tagging behaviours, and how do they function to organise, filter, and curate information in complex, networked information environments such as Twitter?

Selected Review7

Some major early studies around tagging, folksonomy, and social tagging systems

Significant contributions and precedents Establishing provenance of certain

theoretical positions Selection of interesting, illuminating, or

oppositional texts Also recent studies highlighting

interesting trends

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Understanding social tagging has evolved over time

Selected review of evolving thought:

1. Mathes – 2004

2. Shirky - 2005

3. Golder & Huberman - 2006

4. Macgregor & McCulloch – 2006

5. Vander Wal – 2007

6. Weinberger – 2007

7. Huang et. al – 2010

8. Yang et. al – 2012

9. Liu et. al – 2014

Mathes: 20049

Folksonomies—Cooperative Classification and Communication through Shared Metadata

First review of social tagging / folksonomy systems

Describes functionality, compares tagging behaviour on Flickr and del.ico.us

Explores strengths and weaknesses of tags: Limitations: ambiguity, inconsistency, synonym

control Strengths: serendipitous discovery, low barrier to

entry, feedback loop, shareableFocuses on tagging and role of language in indexing, classification, and retrieval

Shirky: 200510

Ontology is Overrated: Categories, Links, and Tags Argues that the large, undefined nature of the

web is inappropriate for vocabularies dictated by small groups of cataloguers and authoritative experts

States ‘the only group that can categorise everything is everybody’

Argues that tags are organic, evolving, and expressions of community sentiment Does not see controlled vocabularies as practically

useful moving forwardFocuses on collective intelligence in tagging and roles of aggregation, messiness, and emergence of multi-dimensional tags.

Golder & Huberman: 2006

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Usage Patterns of Collaborative Tagging Systems Widely cited, landmark publication Use of tagging dynamics based on del.ico.us “tagging is fundamentally about sensemaking” Investigated tagging for discovery (and re-discovery) Explored convergence around commonly used tags

Began mapping categories for tags functions including:Identifying who and what a thing is; Identifying qualities or characteristics of a thing; Tagging for Self-reference and retrieval; and Tagging for Organisation.

Focuses primarily on user tagging behaviours, motivations, and decision-making processes

Macgregor & McCulloch: 200612

Collaborative Tagging as a Knowledge Organisation and Resource Discovery Tool

Contrast folksonomies and controlled vocabularies Cite the need for ‘lexical control’ and structure Assesses the efficacy of collaborative tagging

Defines lack of precision versus controlled vocabularies Distinguishes formal and informal contexts for

information storage, organisation, and retrieval Advocates for librarians and researchers to better

assess and influence the value of collaborative tagging

Focuses on tagging and controlled vocabularies. Conducts first literature review summarising collaborative tagging research and finds it lacking.

Vander Wal: 200713

Details how the widespread term Folksonomy= ‘Folk’ & ‘Taxonomy’ was coined by Vander Wal in 2004

Provides the tenets of a generally accepted definition: “Folksonomy is the result of personal free tagging of

information and objects for one’s own retrieval. The tagging is done in a social environment (usually shared and open to others). ..The value in this external tagging is derived from people using their own vocabulary and adding explicit meaning, which may come from inferred understanding of the information/object. People are no so much categorising, as providing a means to connect items (placing hooks) to provide their meaning in their own understanding.”

Folksonomy had become a ubiquitous term in academic community – origins and formal definition useful.

Definition focuses on user behaviour and intent. Notes the ease with which informal tagging and classification systems function.

Weinberger: 2006 & 200714

Taxonomies and Tags – From Trees to Piles of Leaves; &Everything is Miscellaneous Weinberger—like Shirky—argues for the value of

messiness and inclusiveness in knowledge representation systems such as tags

Sees tagging positively for its ability to accommodate inaccuracy and inconsistency and incorporate multiple perspectives

Tags, he argues, reflect emerging concepts and build diverse social groups. Knowledge is a social act His book also collects ideas from many of his articles across

2005-2006 generally addressing metadata, folksonomy, and why tagging matters

Focuses on participatory user behaviour and tagging efficacy.

Huang: 201015

Conversational Tagging in Twitter Distinct tagging patterns on microblogging

Twitter Argues for difference in Twitter’s ‘conversational’

approach to tagging, rather than organisational Twitter tags are more for filtering and promoting

content and anchoring participation in discussions. Tagging for filtering and directing content streams Temporary, real-time tags that cause ephemeral,

emergent micro-memes of trending topicsFocuses on user behaviour and tag trends, memes, and participatory networks

Yang: 201216

We Know What @You #Tag: Does the Dual Role Affect Hashtag Adoption?

Posits a dual role of hashtags as labels or bookmarks of content and as community ‘bridges’

Applies quantitative, statistical analysis to large Twitter data-set to map popularity and attempts at predicting tag-adoption behaviour

Characterises specific factors of Relevance, Preference, Influence, and Prestige as informing tag choices Surprisingly robust—and often cited—findings that claim a

high degree of accuracy in correlating and measuring tagging behaviourFocuses on empirical mapping of user behaviour and posits

that tags are both signatures on content and beacons for community membership.

Liu: 201417

The Tweets They are a-Changin’: Evolution of Twitter Users and Behaviour

Analysis of over 37 billion tweets from seven years Tracks the evolution of trends in Twitter user population Better understanding of how users socialise on Twitter

by focusing on tweet contents and retweet dynamics Entities such as a hashtag or URL only appear in ~12% of

Tweets and retweets. Multiple hashtags typically only appeared maliciously or to appear to boost popularity

Overwhelmingly the metadata of choice for Twitter users is @mentioning other users (~50%) suggesting a shift towards conversational—rather than organisational—use of taggingFocuses on statistical study of tag trends and tweet content.

As Twitter develops assumptions about @users and #tags appear to need revisiting.

Issues & Debates18

General Consensus User control of metadata is liberating, but at odds with

expertise of trained professionals Vast, largely untapped potential for self-organising

structures Tagging motivations are informed by self reference, shared

organisation, and by a desire for community participation

Noteworthy Criticisms Ongoing debate whether social tagging systems are

supporting or supplanting traditional classification schemes and subverting information organisation principles

Concerns Twitter ‘hive-mind’ submerges independent thinking in favour of conforming to popular structures – fine line between the wisdom of crowds and the ignorance of mobs

Twitter is constantly evolving, and research must keep pace

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Results? Conclusions?19

The simplest of tags are still informed by a wealth of complicated, nuanced systems

Twitter currently provides the best perceptual lens for observing the practical applications of tagging mechanisms

Existing body of literature is relatively new and unformed—the landscape is still being mappedSocial tagging enables opportunities. It encourages

experimentation and participation. It provides a wealth of low-cost indexing that moves us closer to semantic structures. I’d even argue that tags have an abstract—even poetic—quality. Everyday language is transformed in tags; it is imbued with interlocking meaning that can convey a wealth of information and illuminate context.

#YesAllWomen – Observations20

Complicated topic Demonstrated the best and worst

attributes of Twitter tag-anchoring Lightning rod for solidarity, advocacy,

and empowerment; but also used maliciously for misogyny, ridicule, and intolerance

Tag drew together thought-provoking, challenging, raw discussion around a single focal point

There’s a wealth of research and discussion going into Twitter and collective activism. I suggest reading about it second hand instead of the conversations on Twitter—it’s a minefield.

Project #QANZAC21

Project #QANZAC22

Project #QANZAC23

Keyword analysis to identify trends Settled on three hashtags: #QANZAC100

#WW1 #ONTHISDAY (losing 20+ characters per Tweet)

Bibliographic Databases & Tags24

Precedent for bolting on social catalogues to existing services (see platforms like Librarything, Goodreads)

Wildly inconsistent approaches, but great for ease-of-use, and accessibility. Expanding discoverability. Browsing and serendipity in mind.

ContentDM platform. Allows for commenting, rating, and—you guessed it—tagging items. One way to work in ongoing evaluation of your database might be through observing any user tagging that takes place and comparing these to what you’ve designed.

There’s nothing wrong with giving people what they want. Their suggestions can inform and supplement experts work. Existing controlled vocabularies and designed systems can

incorporate data from user-contributed tags to help fill in gaps or oversights, and help better align with user needs.One way to think of tags is like ‘desire lines’; the foot-worn paths that demonstrate where people choose to walk, rather than where they’re told to walk.

The future? 25

For individuals, it’s an exciting new era. Everyone gets to participate.

For professionals, there are new opportunities to harness, new competitions to face. Tags are full of potential and peril.

Nobody controls them. Everybody can use them. Anybody can improve them. Groundswell of informed, engaged users is

the best and worst thing that could have possibly happened to us.

Summer Reading Recommendations

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The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell (2002)Best book about the internet that isn’t about the internet. Trends, epidemics, and social networks.

The Long Tail – Chris Anderson (2006)The problems (and potential) of the internet’s infinite shelf-space and how knowledge is disseminated online.

The Cult of the Amateur – Andrew Keen (2007)

Compelling arguments for preserving genuine expertise and authority

I am morally required as a library student to recommend books wherever I can.

Questions27

?@mjjfeeney

References28

Boyd, S. (2007). Hash Tags = Twitter Groupings. Retrieved from http://stoweboyd.com/post/39877198249/hash-tags-twitter-groupings

Bruns, A. (2012) Ad hoc innovation by users of social networks: the case of Twitter. ZSI Discussion Paper. Retrieved from: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/49824/1/DP16_Bruns.pdf

Golder, S. and Huberman, B. (2006). Usage patterns of collaborative tagging systems. Journal of Information Science 32(2), p.198–208.

Huang, J.; Thornton, K. M.; and Efthimiadis, E. N. (2010). Conversational Tagging in Twitter. HT.Liu, Y; Kilman-Silver, C; Mislove, A. (2014). The Tweets They Are a-Changin’:Evolution of Twitter Users and

Behaviour. International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media. Retreived from: https://aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM14/paper/view/8043/8131

Macgregor, G and McCulloch, E. (2006). Collaborative tagging as a knowledge organisation and resource discovery tool. Library Review 55(5), p. 291–300.

Mathes, A. (2004). Folksonomies: Cooperative classification and communication through shared metadata. Retrieved from http://www.adammathes.com/aca demic/computer-mediated-communication/folksonomies.html

Messina, C. (2007). Groups for Twitter; or a Proposal for Twitter Tag Channels. Retrieved from http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/08/25/groups-for-twitter-or-a-proposal-for-twitter-tag-channels/

Shirky, C. (2005). Ontology is overrated: Categories, links, and tags. Retrieved from http://www.shirky.com/writings/ontology_overrated.html

Tufekci, Z. (2011). New Media and the People-Powered Uprisings. Retrieved from http://www.technologyreview.com/view/425280/new-media-and-the-people-powered-uprisings/?p1=A3

Vander Wal, T. (2007). Folksonomy Coinage and Definition. Retrieved from http://vanderwal.net/folksonomy.htmlWeinberger, D. (2006). Taxonomies and Tags: From trees to Piles of Leaves. Retrieved from

http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/misc/taxonomies_and_tags.htmlWeinberger, D. ( 2007). Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder. New York: HoltYang, L.; Sun, T.; Zhang, M.; and Mei, Q. (2012). We Know What@You #Tag: Does the Dual Role Affect Hashtag

Adoption? WWW.