Tags and Folksonomies 2152022 1 Contents Taxonomies Folksonomies

Tags and Folksonomies 2/15/2022 1

Contents • Taxonomies • Folksonomies • Delicious. com – Individual Users – Community • Principles • Other Applications using Folksonomies 2/15/2022 2

Taxonomy • Before the Internet, the most common way to classify objects was using a taxonomy: 2/15/2022 3

Taxonomy, ctd • Your bookmarks, in your browser, also form a taxonomy. • In a taxonomy, each item has a unique set of descriptors. • For example, a human was a mammal, a type of animal, living, a part of the earth. • But what if you also wanted to classify humans as homo sapiens? • Before the visualizations provided by computers, this was difficult to manage. 2/15/2022 4

Folksonomies • In a folksonomy, each item can be given several tags. • A human can be tagged as a mammal, a homo sapien, etc. • The term folksonomy refers to the tagging being collaborative, done by anyone in a community. • Folksonomy became popular around 2004 in several web applications. • Let's look at an application that can transform your bookmarks from a taxonomy to a folksonomy. 2/15/2022 5

Delicious. com – individual user • • Notice the tag icon on my tool bar. I can use it to bookmark, tag and comment on any site. Go to a new site and try it. Click Delicious/Bookmarks on Delicious – I can browse my bookmarks in chronological order – Or type in a tag • To install this, go to www. delicious. com and register. • Then install add-ons to your browsers on each machine you use. When you do, use the same login name. – You can always get to your bookmarks via www. delicious. com 2/15/2022 6

Delicious - community • You can add delicious users to a network – To make it easier to share – Click People/My Network • When you bookmark a page, you can share it with delicious users, twitter users, or email it to anyone • You can also mark a bookmark as private. • You can Search Delicious (on the right) – Your, your network's, or Everyone's bookmarks • Unless they have been marked private – This is a way to find others to put in your network 2/15/2022 7

Which Principles does Delicious embody? • Data Rules: The value of an application is increased by the scale and dynamism of the data it manages • The long tail: Small products/ideas make up the great majority of all products/ideas. • Use your Users: Enable users to contribute content to the application • The Power of Groups: Apply the wisdom of users to solve problems • Enable Community: Enable users to share their experiences in your application • Folksonomy, not Taxonomy: Utilize user-generated tags to classify items, instead of expertly generated categories 2/15/2022 8

Other applications using tags • • www. photobucket. com – notice the tag cloud You. Tube Meta tags on web pages Others? 2/15/2022 9