OPAL Conference, August 20081 Social Tagging, Folksonomies & Controlled Vocabularies Inviting New Access Systems to our Academic Table Margaret Maurer.

OPAL Conference, August 2008 1

Social Tagging, Folksonomies &

Controlled Vocabularies

Inviting New Access Systems

to our Academic Table

Margaret MaurerAssociate ProfessorHead, Catalog & MetadataKent State University Libraries and Media Services


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

TAGS

RESOURCES






Don’t confuse tags with keywords or full-text searching

Keywords are behind the scenes, tags are often visibly aggregated for use and browsing

Keywords can not be hyper-linked Keywords imply searching, tags imply linking Full-text searching is passive, tagging is active It’s more about connecting items rather than

categorizing them.


Tags can be…

Descriptions of the subject matter Where the item is located The intended use of the item Individual (gift from mom)

Different people have different tagging patterns

Tagging systems encourage differences


Tags are

Non-hierarchical A way to create links between items by the

creation of sets of objects A means of connecting with others interested

in the same things


Tagging Systems Define

Who can tag What can be tagged What kinds of tags can be used

Tagging systems may result in the creation of a “folksonomy”


Types of Tagging Systems

Managing personal information Social bookmarking Collecting and sharing digital objects Improving the e-commerce experience


Why is tagging so popular?

It is easy and enjoyable It has a low cognitive cost It is quick to do It provides self and social feedback

immediately


Putting the social in tagging

Tags allow for social interaction because when we navigate by tags we are directly connecting with others

People tag for their own benefit


Tags, and therefore social tags are

Dynamic categorization systems Often created on-the-fly Chosen as relevant to the user – not to the

creator, cataloger or researcher A social activity (more on this later) Hopefully one small step toward a more

interactive and responsive library system


What is a folksonomy?

Folksonomy refers to an “emergent, grassroots taxonomy” An aggregate collections of tags A bottom-up categorical structure development An emergent thesaurus

A term coined by Thomas Vander Wal


Why do folksonomies work?

The searcher defines the access, but The aggregation of the terms has public

value It’s a typically messy democratic approach


What makes folksonomies popular?

Their dynamic nature works well with dynamic resources

They’re personal They lower barriers to cooperation


Tagging and the consequent folksonomies work best when

It’s easy to do It’s not commercial in nature Taggers have ownership Taggers are more likely to tag their own stuff

than they are your stuff It has been shown to work

well on the Web


The unexpected development: terminological consensus

Collective action yields common terms Stabilization may be caused by imitation and

shared knowledge The wisdom of the crowd


Is your tagging influenced by my tagging?

Of course it is! People are beginning tag in ways that make it

easier for others to fine like stuff Shared meaning consequently evolves for

tags Most used tags become most visible


Strengths of folksonomies

Cost-effective way to organize Internet Social benefits It’s inclusive For many environments, they work well


Collocation issues

They do not yield the level of clarity that controlled vocabularies do

Term ambiguity – words with multiple meanings No synonym control


Issues with specificity

Variable specificity for related terms Broadness of terms impacts precision – terms are

often imprecise Mixed perspectives


Issues with structure

Singular and plural forms create redundant headings

No guidelines for the use of compound headings, punctuation, word order

No scope notes No cross references


Issues with accuracy

Collective ‘wisdom’ of the tagging community How does wrong information impact retrieval Conflicting cultural norms Sometimes authority counts


“Spagging” and other problems

Opening doors to opinion tags Tagging wars “Spagging” Spam tagging


Tidying up the tags…?

Lists of tagging norms have been developed Are there programmatic solutions? Users know they are looking at tags By tidying, do we destroy the essence of why

this works? Do we realistically have the resources?


Recommendations

Don’t assume that one size fits all Retain controlled vocabularies in the catalog Explore ways to use controlled vocabularies to help

organize the internet by re-purposing controlled vocabularies that already exist

Invite Folksonomies to the party in the catalog to gain their benefits

Explore ways to combine the two systems


Recommendations

When you invite folksonomies into the catalog, do so strategically, and carefully

Don’t put terms in the same index as controlled vocabularies Find ways to associate terms applied across

editions of works Need for mediation, or at least observation The crowd is not necessarily the best arbiter of

specific terminology


Recommendations

Always remember why people tag

People tag things because they want to find them, not because they want others to find them

Be aware that this will impact the quality of the terms, and their frequency


Recommendations

Controlled vocabularies could be better utilized than they currently are

Subject structures are underutilized in the ILS Controlled vocabularies that exist are not

being exported to the Web Well-connected terms foster discovery – let’s

connect them. Index those cross references where available


Questions?

Margaret Maurer

[email protected]

OPAL Conference, August 20081 Social Tagging, Folksonomies & Controlled Vocabularies Inviting New Access Systems to our Academic Table Margaret Maurer.

Documents

opal conference

tagging tags

folksonomy slide

social tags

cooperation slide

benefit slide

social tagging

search of information